sh404SEF



It is also a security component and manages title and meta tags : automatic tags, or manual for every page. It works with or without .htaccess file. Joomfish compatible. Caching system for high speed and very small DB queries overhead.
Support many components natively but uses also sef_ext from OpenSEF/SEF Advanced. VirtueMart, Fireboard, Community Builder, mosetsTree, HotProperty, Sobi2, Docman, myBlog, iJoomla Magazine,News Portal, Remository and more supported natively. SSL switch, automatic 301 redirection from non-sef to sef and from Joomla SEF to sh404SEF, insert Google news style numerical ID,.. Many backend parameters to control URL construction behavior.
- This extension has additional addons listed in an extension specific category.
- This extension requires registration to download.
I paid $35 USD to download this component and was disappointed by its lack of documentation. At least on my site, it wasn't ready to go upon installation.
I had to make changes to my security levels via the FTP site so it would view properly in the Joomla admin area. I had to rename the htaccess file ".htaccess" and save it to the Joomla root directory. I followed what few instructions were available to me as best I could, and finally I gave up on this component after 5 or 6 hours of frustration and little progress.
I found ARTIO JoomSEF to be much easier to use right out of the box. That component configured and renamed my .htaccess file automatically, and I'm able to make custom SEF URLS. In literally minutes, I was up and running.
The research I did said I was to htaccess file and rename it to .htaccess and save it in the Joomla root directory. Easy enough, but
... the core of sh404sef will break your pagination in azrul.com MyBlog component. I have found work around for all other issues using these two otherwise great components together, but for whatever reason the sh404sef people refuse to acknowledge and fix this problem.
The really frustrating thing is that the sh404sef component comes with built in "support" for MyBlog, so is very misleading. Now that the product is commercial, it should come with a disclaimer that it will break your site if you want to use MyBlog along with it.
You would think that the MyBlog and sh404sef people would get together and figure this out, but the problem has been known for months.
It comes down to this... if you don't use MyBlog, then sh404sef is a great component and does exactly what it says. If you do use MyBlog or think you might ever want to, then stay far away from sh404sef unless and until the company acknowledges and fixes the problem.
A word of advice to azrul... it would be very helpful if you would offer the sh404sef team a copy of MyBlog, because the sh404sef people seem to have used the lack of access to MyBlog as a reason not to support it.
THIS USED TO BE A GREAT EXTENSION WITH SUPERIOR SUPPORT BEFORE IT WAS SOLD TO ANYTHING-DIGITAL.COM.
This type of vendor is what gives Joomla a bad name.
Seems people have been asking for and complaining about it for over a year now. Funny thing is it use to work just fine. I have read through their forums, with no luck except basically pointing the figner at the MyBlog developer. Funny thing is it works without sh404sef installed... go figure.
Next is a major problem with CB installed, seems that there is a problem that cause registration to become restricted....
I would say stay clear of this product until they get it working the way it is suppose to.
For me, I am going to request a refund, since I can not get an answer to the forum and they have no real support on the site for these issues...
Here is what the site says when you go to download it:
Support: Anything Digital offers these product ‘as is’, with no implied meaning that they will function exactly as you wish or with all 3rd party components and modules. Further, we offer no support via email or otherwise for installation, customization, administration of Joomla etc. A forum is available to subscribers for community-based support. Anything Digital does not commit to monitor these forums, but we reserve the right to respond and answer questions.
So why even bother............
FOR SHAME
Hi jake46a
Sorry you've had a bad experience with sh404sef, especially with the latest versions of MyBlog. Indeed, "funny thing is it used to work fine", that should have been a warning to you. You'll be happy to hear that after putting my hands on one of such a recent version, I was able to dig further, identify the bug and communicate both the bug and the solution to MyBlog developers. Oh, yes, by the way, the problem is in MyBlog. So this question should be solved by upgrading to an even more recent version of MyBlog.
I am not aware of any problem with CB registration. As you may now, most such issues are related to Itemid management.
Finally, one word on the support terms : they basically come from the GPL license. The forum is a good way of supporting our extensions, and I believe even though we had a difficult start last year, when sh404sef transitioned to a commercial scheme, I think it's been running pretty well for the last couple of month at least.
And I don't have to remind you also that there was absolutely no support at all (from me) during most of 2009, when sh404sef was still free (as in beer - it is still free as in GPL)
Rgds
The only reason I did not give it a 5 is the plugin management is sort of a pain. They seem to know this and hopefully a new version soon will fix this.
I thought this was going to be a hard install, but ended up being a breeeeeeeze.
This is a must have, and will now be an instant install on any of my new Joomla! websites.
Just read the installation instructions carefully and you will be fine.
A+
Dallas
if ( isset( $_SERVER[ 'HTTP_X_REWRITE_URL' ] ) )
{
$_SERVER[ 'REQUEST_URI' ] = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_REWRITE_URL' ];
}
to the beginning of your index.php file for it to work. This detail had me tripped up for a while. I would have given an excellent rating but sometimes I do have strange things happen, for instance, out of the blue on occasion my homepage will return a 404 error. Purging the 404 logs always fixes it and it may be something I have setup wrong???
Anyway, besides that, as I've already said an excellent component and not a bad price for the yearly subscription so I would say it's still worth paying for. Combined with the VirtueMart plugin there's nothing better out there that I have found.
And ok, it's not a component for newbies, it's not always working out-of-the-box, it needs tuning and plugins etc.
I'm using sh404SEF not only for rewritting url but olso for security. It's very usefull to track attacks and to block IP adresses.
The component is still supported and maintained, please have a look at the hosting website.
Yannick is still at work ! Thanks to you Yannick and to anything-digital !








