JoomSEF Free 
Version
4.2.3, 3.9.3, 2.3.4 (last update on Jan 13, 2012)
Rating
Compatibility
Votes
Favoured
323
License
GPLv2 or later
Non-Commercial
Type
Views
581395
Date Added
28 August 2006
Uses 1.6 Updater?
- Yes
Editor's Note
- This extension has additional addons listed in an extension specific category.
- This extension contains back links to authors. Such links appear in page footers or meta tag fields of pages, where it is used.
Now also with new security functions to prevent URL code injection!
Brand new features:
* Google Analytics integration with Flash Charts
* Beginner and Advanced user interface
* 3rd level domain support
* Full featured sitemaps
Main features:
* generate SEF URLs
* advanced SEF URL management
* generate and manage metadata (component - based)
* can override default metadada generated by component or Joomla (title, meta tags)
* sitemap generation
* keywords management
* duplicates management
* support for other components through extension modules; each component extenstion has own configurable parameters
* multilinguality support (JoomFish) and URL localization
* UTF-8 URLs support
* URL caching
* URL variables filtering option - prevent URL code injections! with custom filter defintions
* URL source tracing to help allocate problematic code
* 301 Redirections management
* 404 Page Not Found customization
* online upgrades and extension installations
Support for many Joomla components: AdsManager, AlphaContent, Contacts XTD, Community Builder, Datso Gallery, DocMan, EZ Realty, Fireboard forum, Glossary, iJoomla Components, JE Comparison Charts, JEvents, Jomres, Joomlaboard, JoomFish, Joomla Tags, Jomres (Joomla Residents), Portfol, Seyret Video Component, SMF Bridge, SOBI2, Marketplace, Mosets Hot Property, Mosets Tree, ReMOSitory, RSGallery2, VirtueMart, Zoom Media Gallery. ...
at the moment, there is more than 90 extensions available directly from ARTIO - see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-extensions for complete list, plus many more from 3rd party developers.
For changelog details, see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-for-joomla-1-5-version-history
Get support and download this from http://www.artio.net.
Images
I have use Joomsef for a long while so i want to share my comment about it. This is not true that Joomsef cant handle large site. I have large site with +250 articles and 80k+ (yes 80000+) of products in catalogue (Virtuemart) and JoomSEF handle it with no problem in a normal non dedicated server. My friends other sites runs with commercial JoomSEF too without any problems with kunena, joomfish, jcomments. Support might be better but joomla community can help too if any problem exist. Is a great value product and really do his job!
Free version embed seller's URL all around the website. I tried paid versions of this extension for two of my websites but none of them worked because of many ????? in the URLs. The seller offered me to change my server settings which sounds strange to me - who will change whole dedicated server settings for one small extension to work? Besides, this extension works from the database so if you intend to use it on high load website it will surely crash it.
Owner's reply
Hello, well, the extension cannot work correctly if you refuse to adjust the settings as recommended. Especially if you want to use non-latin characters that requite some extra configuration. We have spent quite a lot of time trying to help. Well, these are the thanks.
We've used JomSEF for two years now without any major problems. Recently we encountered a problem with JomSocial Profile URL and they suggested we contact Artio. We posted to the forum and waited for a response. A week later we received a response "Thanks for reporting issue, we will look on this shortly." We've received no help since. We do have a paid version of JomSEF and offered to pay extra for quicker response. Still no contact from Artio. Product is good, when working, but very slow support.
Owner's reply
Hello, I admit our support is kind of slow sometimes. However, we are trying to improve that continously as much as we can. You need to understand that SEO extensions are quite complex and often tighly server-settings related. Also they need to cooperate with many 3rd party software which make it even more complex. Therefore is quite a lot of support inquiries and we only have limited team. It is simply not always out-of-box solution. Plus, there is paid support option with guaranteed reply time.
Excellent, works well and makes all the right noises when your looking for a good FREE sef solution, but almost every component i needed to support and was listed in the description were paid for extensions, which inevitably rendered a half day of work completely useless and i ended up uninstalling the component. A real shame really. I may use this component again in the future if clients have budgetted for SEF solution although a bit let down and annoyed that Commercial aspects werent outlined more clearly in the desciption.
We were very happy with how much better our links worked with the FREE version of JoomSEF and it gave us an opportunity to see how it worked and how it compared to the other solutions available... after much searching and testing we decided to buy from ARTIO and found a nice bundle for our specific needs:
VirtueMart SEO Bundle: JoomSEF 3 + VirtueMart Extension
We are very happy with our choice - this small investment will do so much to help our marketing efforts as our links are now exactly as we need them and it does a good job of creating SEO meta tags automatically for the content without affecting the speed of our site... truly awesome!
Effortless install, upgrade to paid version, and adding the VirtueMart extension. The backend configuration is amazing as it gives us full control of how the links and SEO and everything else is created for each Joomla component and each link... plus the default settings are smart so beginners can get this working without much too effort or assistance.
WE HIGHLY RECOMMED BUYING THIS PRODUCT - without it your website will not be anywhere as effective with search engines, especially if you are using VirtueMart.
VirtueMart SEO Bundle: JoomSEF 3 + VirtueMart Extension
We are very happy with our choice - this small investment will do so much to help our marketing efforts as our links are now exactly as we need them and it does a good job of creating SEO meta tags automatically for the content without affecting the speed of our site... truly awesome!
Effortless install, upgrade to paid version, and adding the VirtueMart extension. The backend configuration is amazing as it gives us full control of how the links and SEO and everything else is created for each Joomla component and each link... plus the default settings are smart so beginners can get this working without much too effort or assistance.
WE HIGHLY RECOMMED BUYING THIS PRODUCT - without it your website will not be anywhere as effective with search engines, especially if you are using VirtueMart.
Joomsef has gone down in my book.
I have been using version 4 with 1.6.
First off it seems to clash with JCE, so if you use this editor you cannot get into the configuration of Joomsef. Even though the development team know about this they have not fixed the issue.
Everything worked fine until i tried the print icon which doesn't work at all, Joomsef screws up the link up.
People have made this point on their forum and there has been no support what so ever.
http://goo.gl/czEUJ
Not happy, I was a paying customer, moved to another SEF plugin until they can fix the bugs.
I have been using version 4 with 1.6.
First off it seems to clash with JCE, so if you use this editor you cannot get into the configuration of Joomsef. Even though the development team know about this they have not fixed the issue.
Everything worked fine until i tried the print icon which doesn't work at all, Joomsef screws up the link up.
People have made this point on their forum and there has been no support what so ever.
http://goo.gl/czEUJ
Not happy, I was a paying customer, moved to another SEF plugin until they can fix the bugs.
Owner's reply
Hello,
maybe you could take into consideration it is not JoomSEF bug but a JCE bug. As it works fine with other editors as weel as other JCE versions.
As regards the print link, it is working fine in our testing instance - so maybe you are using different link types in your template?
I am using Joomla, K2 and JomSocial on my site. Component works good with Joomla. The JomSocial re-write engine is excellent so i have not used the component on JomSocial. There are many problems with K2, such as Pagination, tags, search etc. It does not work well at all. There is no customer support, so i highly do not recommend purchasing this component. Go for the free version, Pro does not give any benefits at all.
I know some people will disagree, but I honestly think this extension does just what it says it will do. I've installed Joomsef on about 5 different sites and never had any issue until a week or so ago. I paid for support and true to their word, they delivered a complete solution on SUNDAY NIGHT!!! I don't care what anyone says, you cannot get champagne results with lemonade efforts and any issues with an extension as good as this will either cost you money or time. Other than just being truthful about not knowing what the problem was (to start with) I was also very impressed that for the sake of meeting a deadline, they sorted out the website issues during the weekend.
This extension is not for lazy people. Put in the effort and you'll get the reward of a site with decent SEF URLs.
This extension is not for lazy people. Put in the effort and you'll get the reward of a site with decent SEF URLs.
unfortunately of my 3 posts i didn´t receive any kind of replys - i understand that because it´s a free version but anyway gives a bad taste.....
there are numerous issues and after finaly my site crashed and didn´t recover after cache cleaning, purging and many more efforts i unfortunately give up on it....
there are numerous issues and after finaly my site crashed and didn´t recover after cache cleaning, purging and many more efforts i unfortunately give up on it....
I bought the commercial version and at first it look very promising. but all of a sudden the component switched my category blog-layout to categoy-view without having changed anything. had to manually adapt all the sef-urls to have the correct view again and after 3 weeks the same happened again! artio offers only paid support, which is very poor for a commercial software, that you paid already! you only can post to the forum (where many people have the same problem) and don't get any answers.
for another site I am not gonna buy this component again.
for another site I am not gonna buy this component again.
Owner's reply
Hello the problems you have described might be caused by settings in combination with defined menu links .
I am sorry for your support experience. We try to answer as fast as we can, but it is true our capacity is limited and there is a lot of support queries so sometimes, the reply times are somewhat longer.
That is why you can get paid support with guaranteed reply times.
Install was quite easy but now my home link in main menu is acting erraticaly. Every now and then, the usual site home link is replaced with aliases, other sites name from the server, home link with the mail. prefix , or, even worse, site links with https instead of http. To stop that, I have to put the Joomsef off for a while then flush the caches then put Joomsef back on. It's then normal for a few hours and it starts all over again until I redo the flushing procedure. The worst now is the fact that all search engines have indexed the bad home page link and tonnes of wrong url of my site and I've got more and more 404 :(
I must say that I spend hours changing all configuration setting that could impact on that to no avail. I deeply frustrated with the product and if I don't find a solution urgently I will give it up.
I must say that I spend hours changing all configuration setting that could impact on that to no avail. I deeply frustrated with the product and if I don't find a solution urgently I will give it up.
Owner's reply
Hello,
I think that the problem in your case will be most likely neither in configuration or JoomSEF, but in incorectly created links within your site.
JoomSEF will translate the links it detects. If you have wrong link created within site, it will result in wrong (or duplicate) SEF URL.
Ok to install, a bit complicated to manage but works good… but no answer at all when you get a problem and ask for support… what a shame…
Owner's reply
Hello,
well, everything cannot be free. You either need to rely on community support or buy a paid version or paid support.
We are generally busy enough with customers that are paing for support, so capacity for supporting users using free version is rather limited. That is a fact.
I'm using Artio JoomSEF and the Virtuemart extension on my site. This software does what it says it will do. It will generate SEF URLs from Virtuemart content and will also automatically populate MetaTags for the products. Installation was very easy. At first the software didn't work for me. Every URL on my site would produce the default web server 404 page. However, after a call to their Support staff, they helped me identify the problem. Just make sure you have "AllowOverride" set to "All" in your httpd.conf. This solved my problems. SEF URLs and MetaTags are being generated. Glad I made the purchase.
I brought this because of a recommendation.... Sadly this was a poor recommendation and at best a costly experience.
JoomSef on the whole does a very good job of handling Joomla, it pretty much runs side by side and gives you full control over your meta date, manages your url's great.
However, its a completely different story when you introduce another 3rd party component. Which lets face is now in every joomla site!!
The support is lame and can be very costly, the search function in the forum, always returns no results, making it impossible to find anything. The lack of forum users, leaving comments or feed back is just a small part of the unpleasant experiences. For the cost I would expect a lot more help or advice but all I get is delayed responses recommending I spend more money on support services which really don't justify the initial cost of the component.
I would imagine the owner will rely with the comment blaming the other installed components for the lack of it versatility. But if it can't handle other table data from other published fields then this was clearly not for my site.
The owner is offering support at a further cost to allow this component to be used in conjunction with another component I also found here (Joomsport).
My recommendation is check with the owner before trying, to see if you would have issues with other components already installed on your site. This would save you countless hours and hard earned cash in the long term.
JoomSef on the whole does a very good job of handling Joomla, it pretty much runs side by side and gives you full control over your meta date, manages your url's great.
However, its a completely different story when you introduce another 3rd party component. Which lets face is now in every joomla site!!
The support is lame and can be very costly, the search function in the forum, always returns no results, making it impossible to find anything. The lack of forum users, leaving comments or feed back is just a small part of the unpleasant experiences. For the cost I would expect a lot more help or advice but all I get is delayed responses recommending I spend more money on support services which really don't justify the initial cost of the component.
I would imagine the owner will rely with the comment blaming the other installed components for the lack of it versatility. But if it can't handle other table data from other published fields then this was clearly not for my site.
The owner is offering support at a further cost to allow this component to be used in conjunction with another component I also found here (Joomsport).
My recommendation is check with the owner before trying, to see if you would have issues with other components already installed on your site. This would save you countless hours and hard earned cash in the long term.
Well I tried this free version out JoomSEF, and after installation and enabling my Global Configuration setting SEF, it seemed to work at first.... I clicked my "Guides" link.... and the URL was looking as i had hoped /guides
However, upon clicking around the site a bit more and being logged in on the front end, I encounter more errors of Page content not rendering at all other then a default 404 or a redirecting loop of sorts. I would love to get my site to have user friendly URL's but apparently I'm either missing something critical when it comes to my configuration or I'm just using to many ext's that aren't compatible with this component.
I'll be testing this out more trying to get to the bottom of it but I'm not holding my breath since all the other SEF components tend to have similar issues like this. :(
However, upon clicking around the site a bit more and being logged in on the front end, I encounter more errors of Page content not rendering at all other then a default 404 or a redirecting loop of sorts. I would love to get my site to have user friendly URL's but apparently I'm either missing something critical when it comes to my configuration or I'm just using to many ext's that aren't compatible with this component.
I'll be testing this out more trying to get to the bottom of it but I'm not holding my breath since all the other SEF components tend to have similar issues like this. :(
Let's face it, SEF plugins are difficult to handle. You practically have to be an expert in server redirects to understand what is going on. If you have a complex site with many plugins then it is pretty much a big mess waiting to fail.
However, this one is not a buggy one like the others. I have tried SEF404 and AceSef and both of those are either way too complicated to manage, or do not adhere to rules properly. Yet here with this one by Artio, things are working properly and there is no more confusion about what is going on. Locked urls stay locked unlike others that do not. Also we use JotCache and it works in sync. I am using a free version which is not great because they have to put their links all over the place, they should give us a choice about where these are going to be put. I see that others rate it low, but believe me, they will also rate the others low because of the learning curve. This one looks a lot like a knockoff that came lately, but it manages links much more smoothly and consistently.
However, this one is not a buggy one like the others. I have tried SEF404 and AceSef and both of those are either way too complicated to manage, or do not adhere to rules properly. Yet here with this one by Artio, things are working properly and there is no more confusion about what is going on. Locked urls stay locked unlike others that do not. Also we use JotCache and it works in sync. I am using a free version which is not great because they have to put their links all over the place, they should give us a choice about where these are going to be put. I see that others rate it low, but believe me, they will also rate the others low because of the learning curve. This one looks a lot like a knockoff that came lately, but it manages links much more smoothly and consistently.
This software has a good idea on the basis, but it keep some problem that goes beyond documentation and support:
it's the "angry point" of your configuration.
it seems that there is NO way to configure the SEF system without unexpected behaviour happening all over your site.
I bet the problem also rely on the complexity of joomla itself ( plugins order, caching system, wathever ) , and on the fact that there are no comparison product really available against JoomSef itself...
The low score, to me, depends on this fact: you cannot even hope to find a suitable configuration without testing every possible option, and after you've end with it, it still won't work the way the documentation explain it to you.
That's enough to make me desire to get rid of this product as soon as possible.
it's the "angry point" of your configuration.
it seems that there is NO way to configure the SEF system without unexpected behaviour happening all over your site.
I bet the problem also rely on the complexity of joomla itself ( plugins order, caching system, wathever ) , and on the fact that there are no comparison product really available against JoomSef itself...
The low score, to me, depends on this fact: you cannot even hope to find a suitable configuration without testing every possible option, and after you've end with it, it still won't work the way the documentation explain it to you.
That's enough to make me desire to get rid of this product as soon as possible.
Owner's reply
Hello, thanks for your feedback.
Well, you are right that this SEF URLs related stuff in Joomla is not easy. But it is not primarily JoomSEF fault. Most of the problems come from the add-on extensions, that are not written correcly according to Joomla API. Such components are kind of unpredictable and problems with them need to be solved case by case.
As regards settings, you are right there is many configuration options in JoomSEF. Maybe far too many and we plan to reduce the ammount. Still, we set them so, that with standard Joomla installation, you should have no need to adjust them, except to a minor tune-ups such as if you want the URLs to have .html suffix or not.
In terms of control over URLs and meta, it is probably the best extension out there. The link it puts on every page will hurt more your SEO than the URLs will help.
Of course it is GPL and you can remove it.
I would like to try the paid version, if it was GPL and I can use it on several projects, but that's not the fact.
I don't mind paying for the sub-plugins, but it is very unclear whether these work with the free version or not.
If you are unexperienced user, you better play with it first, before installing on a live site.
I would give 5 stars, if the extension was coming without the link at the bottom.
Of course it is GPL and you can remove it.
I would like to try the paid version, if it was GPL and I can use it on several projects, but that's not the fact.
I don't mind paying for the sub-plugins, but it is very unclear whether these work with the free version or not.
If you are unexperienced user, you better play with it first, before installing on a live site.
I would give 5 stars, if the extension was coming without the link at the bottom.
Owner's reply
Thank you for your review. Let me respond briefly:
- I do not see a single reason, why the signature link should hurt your SEO in any way; most of the websites do have a signature of some kind
- as regards the licensing, it is up to you if you decide for the free version or upgrade to paid; as regards the paid version, I think the conditions are fair enough, but thank you for opinion
- sorry if the situation around plugins is not clear, so let me explain: you can use all of the plugins in the same way both for free and paid version
I just installed and uninstalled the component.
Which is quite a shame because it looks like it's doing what I need.
I say looks like because :
-melting free version with commercial version in the JED & in the website does not allow us to see clearly what is provided or not, therefor you have to install the component to see what is provided or not.
This is something the JED should also work on, as it's not the first time it happens and it already misinformed me very badly.
-as there is not documentation available so far, you have to install it, whatever it takes for your website.
And this is why I uninstalled it : it just decided, that by installing it it had to rewrite all my urls, even though I did not click on anything.
Usually when you a install a component you then need to activate it. Joomsef is activated by default and rewrites all your urls the way it decided to.
And even after being deactivated, my urls were still changed ! I had to remove it completely.
For people not having any SEF already activated or with a bad ranking, this is great. Just install it, it does the rest.
For people with already a good ranking who just wish to change some parameters, wait until there is some documentation.
Otherwise you'll find yourself with a lot of 404 ; and as this component offers a lot of parameters, unless your already familiar with it, there is probably no chance for you to fix them. Bye Bye good ranking.
I got lucky, because first thing I do when installing something is check my website and look for changes.
Which is quite a shame because it looks like it's doing what I need.
I say looks like because :
-melting free version with commercial version in the JED & in the website does not allow us to see clearly what is provided or not, therefor you have to install the component to see what is provided or not.
This is something the JED should also work on, as it's not the first time it happens and it already misinformed me very badly.
-as there is not documentation available so far, you have to install it, whatever it takes for your website.
And this is why I uninstalled it : it just decided, that by installing it it had to rewrite all my urls, even though I did not click on anything.
Usually when you a install a component you then need to activate it. Joomsef is activated by default and rewrites all your urls the way it decided to.
And even after being deactivated, my urls were still changed ! I had to remove it completely.
For people not having any SEF already activated or with a bad ranking, this is great. Just install it, it does the rest.
For people with already a good ranking who just wish to change some parameters, wait until there is some documentation.
Otherwise you'll find yourself with a lot of 404 ; and as this component offers a lot of parameters, unless your already familiar with it, there is probably no chance for you to fix them. Bye Bye good ranking.
I got lucky, because first thing I do when installing something is check my website and look for changes.
Owner's reply
Hello,
you say there is no documentation? Did you visit our site at all?
Check http://www.artio.net/joomsef/documentation
Btw. there is link from the component homepage as well as here from JED.
Also it might be good idea to check http://www.artio.net/faqs/artio-joomsef
As regards immediate activation after install, that is right. This is to make the setup as easy as possible for inexperienced users. The other can switch it off after install, update configuration and then activate again.
Finally, there is no way how the URLs would remain when deactivated. (if you used the SEO options in Joomla Global configuration)
Sorry to say that, but it seems to me, you took more effort to write this review than to really try to learn more about component and read the documentation.
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