/forums appended to domain name across the site

[myandy99]

vBSEO 3.6
vBulletin 3.6.8
vBET 2.3.x
vBSEO sitemap

I installed the free version for a test and I have found out the translation works great!

However, there is a major issue on URLs:

My site is a social networking site (URL xxx.com) integrated with a vBulletin v3.6.8 forum (URL xxx.com/forums).

After installing vBET and made changes to forum root .htaccess, I encountered a problem - once I choose a translation, I cannot go back to xxx.com as all the xxx.com URLs now becomes xxx.com/forums.

For example URL xxx.com/index.php?page=music now becomes xxx.com/forums/index.php?page=music and therefore the social networking part of the site is completely broken as all URLs are redirected to vBulletin forums.

And, the forum URL, which was xxx.com/forums, not becomes xxx.com/forums/forums.

If I turned off URL tracking, above problem would be gone but the automatic translation also stops, which is not what I want.

I put /forums as Forum directory parameter in vBET settings, and I followed the instruction to change .htaccess for vBSEO users.

What am I missing?

[vBET]

This can be caused by wrong configuration. Please note that Forum directory parameter should be used ONLY when your forum uses subdirectory in URL when it is real subdirectory (not virtual - like for example made by vBSEO). This is clearly described in parameter description.

So make sure that you have this right. Please clean your Forum directory parameter and check did it help.

[myandy99]

My forum URL is xxx.com/forums and that's why I added /forums in vBET settings Forum directory.

Removing this didn't help. After removing this, the URL for forum, when translation is selected, becomes xxx.com/cs/forums (cs is a language), resulting a broken link.

Here's my .htaccess in /forums root directory:

# Comment the following line (add '#' at the beginning)
# to disable mod_rewrite functions.
# Please note: you still need to disable the hack in
# the vBSEO control panel to stop url rewrites.
RewriteEngine On

# Some servers require the Rewritebase directive to be
# enabled (remove '#' at the beginning to activate)
# Please note: when enabled, you must include the path
# to your root vB folder (i.e. RewriteBase /forums/)
#RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^/?(af|sq|ar|be|bg|ca|zh-CN|hr|cs|da|nl|en|et|tl|fi|fr|gl|de|el|iw|hi|hu|is|id|ga|it|ja|ko|lv|lt|mk|ms|mt|no|fa|pl|pt|ro|ru|sr|sk|sl|es|sw|sv|zh-TW|th|tr|uk|vi|cy|yi)/$ vbenterprisetranslator_seo.php?vbet_lang=$1&redirected=/forums/ [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^/?(af|sq|ar|be|bg|ca|zh-CN|hr|cs|da|nl|en|et|tl|fi|fr|gl|de|el|iw|hi|hu|is|id|ga|it|ja|ko|lv|lt|mk|ms|mt|no|fa|pl|pt|ro|ru|sr|sk|sl|es|sw|sv|zh-TW|th|tr|uk|vi|cy|yi)/(.*)?$ vbenterprisetranslator_seo.php?vbet_lang=$1&redirected=/forums/$2 [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|vbseo_sitemap/|cron)
RewriteRule ^((archive/)?(.*\.php(/.*)?))$ vbenterprisetranslator_seo.php [L,QSA]

# RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.xxx\.com
# RewriteRule (.*) http://www.xxx.com/forums/$1 [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.xxx\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://xxx.com/forums/$1 [L,R=301]

RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap_).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|cron)
RewriteRule ^((archive/)?(.*\.php(/.*)?)?)$ vbseo.php [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^(admincp|modcp|clientscript|cpstyles|images)/
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php [L,QSA]

[vBET]

I misunderstood you before because of this description:

For example URL xxx.com/index.php?page=music now becomes xxx.com/forums/index.php?page=music and therefore the social networking part of the site is completely broken as all URLs are redirected to vBulletin forums.

NOw I understand. It is all OK - just vBET free version do not support translation of external content - translates only forum. URL: xxx.com/index.php?page=music is outside forum so it breaks. vBET free version translates only forum content. Nothing more.

Full vBET version translates content outside forum generated with vBulletin - you can see it on our forum. See content here:
http://www.vbenterprisetranslator.com/
or here
http://www.vbenterprisetranslator.com/downloads.php
and play with translation.

If I still do not understand the issue - please send me exact URL of page which makes issue.
If I understand it right - then the answer is: free vBET do not support translation of content outside forum, paid one supports pages outside forum generated with vBulletin engine.

PS.
In your .htaccess rules for vBET are in wrong place – those should be JUST BEFORE vbseo rules – no other rules should be between vBET and vbseo rules.

[myandy99]

Yes my rules are before vBSEO rules.

I will buy a commercial version. Do I need to uninstall free version and install commercial version?

[vBET]

Yes - if you want to install commercial version then first you have to uninstall free version - it is enough to uninstall it by Admin CP.

Also please note that .htaccess rules will change.

[vBET]

To have sitemap running move vBET rules to appropriate place. You simply didn't fallow instructions - in instruction you have clearly described to put vBET rules JUST BEFORE vbseo.php rules and you set it before sitemap rules instead. Also please be sure that you have rules for paid version - free one has different rules. Remove old rules and put new ones in appropriate place + add forum directory to first 2 rules (just as described in instructions). If it will still not work – please send whole changed .htaccess file content.

About /forums/forums - what do you have set for Admin CP -> vBET -> Main -> Forum directory?

[myandy99]

Ok thanks. I solved the sitemap broken link problem. But the ../forums/forums problem still exist. And, yes I set /forums at Admin CP -> vBET -> Main -> Forum directory. Without setting forums in that field the translation wouldn't even work - it would lead to a non-existing page.

[myandy99]

Here's my current .htaccess file under xxx.com/forums root:

# Comment the following line (add '#' at the beginning)
# to disable mod_rewrite functions.
# Please note: you still need to disable the hack in
# the vBSEO control panel to stop url rewrites.
RewriteEngine On

# Some servers require the Rewritebase directive to be
# enabled (remove '#' at the beginning to activate)
# Please note: when enabled, you must include the path
# to your root vB folder (i.e. RewriteBase /forums/)
#RewriteBase /

RewriteBase /forums/

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.xxx\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://xxx.com/forums/$1 [L,R=301]

RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap_).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

RewriteRule ^/?(af|sq|ar|be|bg|ca|zh-CN|hr|cs|da|nl|en|et|tl|fi|fr|gl|de|el|iw|hi|hu|is|id|ga|it|ja|ko|lv|lt|mk|ms|mt|no|fa|pl|pt|ro|ru|sr|sk|sl|es|sw|sv|zh-TW|th|tr|uk|vi|cy|yi)/$ vbenterprisetranslator_seo.php?vbet_lang=$1&redirected=/forum/index.php [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^/?(af|sq|ar|be|bg|ca|zh-CN|hr|cs|da|nl|en|et|tl|fi|fr|gl|de|el|iw|hi|hu|is|id|ga|it|ja|ko|lv|lt|mk|ms|mt|no|fa|pl|pt|ro|ru|sr|sk|sl|es|sw|sv|zh-TW|th|tr|uk|vi|cy|yi)/(.*)?$ vbenterprisetranslator_seo.php?vbet_lang=$1&redirected=/forum/$2 [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|vbseo_sitemap/|cron)
RewriteRule ^((archive/)?(.*\.php(/.*)?))$ vbenterprisetranslator_seo.php [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^(admincp|modcp|clientscript|cpstyles|images)/
RewriteRule $ vbenterprisetranslator_seo.php [L,QSA]

As you can see, I had to remove

RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php [L,QSA]

from .htaccess to make sitemap URL work. Is that what I am supposed to do? I don't remember I read anywhere your instruction that I have to delete vBSEO rules in .htacess file to make sitemap URL continue to work. Would this screw up my vBSEO?

[vBET]

Hi. You do not remember to delete vbseo rules in our instructions, because it is not in our instructions and you was never asked to do it. You was instructed to remove old vBET rules (from free version) and to put new vBET rules (from full version) in appropriate place. You do not have to remove vbseo.php rules. Sorry if my previous instructions wasn't clear.
Also removing vbseo rules will not harm your forum, because vBET rules are before vbseo rules and those are same rules (just to different file) so vbseo rules are not active anyway.

About /forums/forums issue:
1. You have wrong first 2 vBET rules - you set there /forum instead of /forums - please correct this
2. If still not working please comment this line in your .htaccess file:

RewriteBase /forums/

3. If still not work - please PM me access details to your Admin CP, vbseo CP, FTP - I will check it on place.