sh404SEF 
NEW: built in caching database layer, can speed up sh404SEF and Joomla database operation. Backed by memcache, APC, etc
NEW: Pinterest support. Including tracking in Google Analytics of Pinterest actions!
NEW: full support for Google rel="prev" and rel="next" header tags, to improve SEO of paginated content
New: sh404SEF goes social!
- Create and insert Open Graph data
- Insert Facebook, Tweeter, Pintrest, G+ and G+ pages icons
- track all likes, shares, tweets, pinnings, pluses clicks in Analytics dashboard in your site backend.
And still with:
- Built-in Google Analytics support, including reporting right in your site backend
- your own tiny urls: shUrls
- Full urls and meta data management
- QR codes
- canonical headers for pdf, etc
Multi-lingual support
Easily redirect 404s to suggested SEF URLS
Use Joomsef or AceSEF extensions for increased compatibility
sh404SEF rewrites Joomla URL to user-friendly format (SEF URL or URL rewriting): mysite.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=69&id=34... becomes mysite.com/en/sh404SEF-and-url-rewriting/list-of-available-plugins.html).
It is also a security component. Page title and meta tags manager for every page. With or without .htaccess file. Joomfish compatible. Caching system for high speed and very small DB queries overhead.
Support many components natively: VirtueMart, K2, FlexiContent, Kunena, Jomsocial, Community Builder, mosetsTree, Sobi2, myBlog and more. SSL switch, automatic 301 redirection from non-sef to sef, insert Google news style numerical ID,.. Many backend parameters to control URL construction behavior.
Since 2.1: mobile visitor detection and template switcher
Hi
We have a sub-forum dedicated to Virtuemart just because sh404sef is used by very many Virtuemart users, and has a long record of performing very well with it, to the point where I even made a dedicated meta data plugin for it. We also handle quite well some of the peculirities of Virtuemart. That you run into difficulties when using Vituemart and sh404sef I won't deny, however setting up a full shop is not an easy task, and may involve many different things. For your information, we do not have a single bug report filed related to Virtuemart and it has been so for several weeks.
Rgds
Hi,
I am sorry you could not get to grips with sh404sef, but I also feel quite extreme to call "junk' an extension just because a small piece of it (meta data entry) does not suit you. Also, as a reminder, changing meta data for an article (or any page of your site, whether Joomla content, Virtuemar product, or anything else) is:
1 - lookup the SEF url of the page from the SEF url list
2 - click on "New Meta" from the toolbar
3 - enter page title, description, keywords, robots, language as you see fit on this page, then press Save
I have a hard time thinking about those 3 steps as a "nightmare", but your mileage obviously vary
Rgds
I'm writing this, as it might "speed up" somebody else finding the cause of the slowness of his/her site.
Hi
Sorry about all the time you lost on this. Dues to this very nature (storing url pairs in the database), sh404sef and all other sef extensions that use the same process do add some overhead to a web site, just like Joomla sef add some overhead to sites compared to having no sef at all. Forums are actually the worst extensions to work with because users creates posts all the time. With database-backed sef extensions, it is the creation of a url that takes time. When it is created, it is easy and fast to retrieve from the DB.
All that said, I'd like to point out :
- support for Kunena has only been added to sh404sef a couple of weeks ago, meaning you have been using either a 3rd-party Kunena plugin or even Joomla router.php files. This is really a worst case scenario for speed
- to put things in perspective, my own tests on Kunena shows that sh404sef add about 20% to 25% overhead over Joomla SEF. That is usually something that can be handled by hosting, but may require indeed additional resources in case such as yours, with failry heavy load.
Rgds
It does what it says, and I'm happy with my purchase. Its a bit weird that they sell it by subscription though. I would rather just purchase it outright, and not have to worry about the payment auto-renewing.
Any https page is automatically redirect to a http page rendering vituemart shops useless.
Support provides no answers:
Hi
Sorry you had problem with this particular question. However, there is no repoted issue within sh404sef regarding https. Setting up the joomla, virtuemart and the web server to operate may however be quite complex, especially on shared host, and thi smay be the reason of your issues. There are many Virtuemart shops running https for the checkout parts as we speak.
I can only encourage you to go back to our forum to try get this setup properly
Thanks and regards
On my website articles and pages are added and deleted frequently and in combination with more then 2000 visitors a day it sometimes give white pages when you click on a link.
You have to purge all SEF urls to fix the problem.
Next to that sh404SEF does not work that good with Virtuemart and give depending on which server specs you use error.
But for the normal website its worth the 25 euro
Hi geertje
Thanks for your review. You're indeed in a situation where you need to be careful about what urls are stored in the database. I am however very concerned about your comment regarding Virtuemart. In depth Virtuemart support has been a very strong feature for sh404sef from the start,and still is today. We are not aware of any outstanding issue with Virtuemart, so please contact me at shumisha at gmail dot com for details.
Rgds
Hi
Yes, we try have updates very often. And you can get them for one year after subscribing, so something is not normal here. Please make contact with us so that can be fixed!
Rgds
I can see why a novice may have trouble with it since you have to make and modify the .htaccess file, but if you have a good ftp program, you can figure it out. Or go to a forum and ask for assistance.
I had the hardest time initially getting the Joomla provided SEF URLs to work correctly, but once I had that figured out, I was determined to make this sh404SEF work -- after all, it always made it in the top 10 list of extensions!
It is well worth the small fee to purchase the license and follow the instructions you will see on the successful installation page. Clue: print that page!
I love the smaller URLs, much better for search engine optimization, and the ease of use. And now this extension is in my top 10 list too!
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.
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.
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 !
