Unable To Get Cleaned Up URLs
Sean Carney
I wrote the following up because I was sure this was working last night. But, I just now set up all the menu and completed them and not the articles are displaying the extra strings in the URLs.
So, I am heading back to the drawing board....
I am using SP Page Builder to create pages and am having problems with my URLs because I don't seem to be able to stop URLs from appearing that are not desired. I am getting a string from one of my menus that I had thought I woud not get the URL from.
I created extra menus in order to stop getting Joomla Component URLs and was happy that seemed to work. But... now I am getting the undesireable URLs. I am assuming that maybe there is something I am not understanding about "Hidden" menus and maybe that is where my answer is. If you could tell me what I am doing wrong, I would be most grateful.
Here is the documentation I wrote about the menus:
Menus to Establish Category Relationships The following Menus are created with EVERY item selected as a Category Blog:
Jewish Life Menu
L’Chaim Menu
Israel Menu
Torah Menu
Stories Menu
God's World Menu
Video Menu
Russian Menu
Spanish Menu
The purpose of these menus is to establish that each Menu item is properly associated with a category. For each of these menus I used an alias of jewish-life, lchaim, israel, etc.
Menus to Change Page Layouts The following Menus are where we change the Menu Item Type from Category Blog to SP Page Builder.
Main Menu (Mobile Menu, to the left of logo)
Languages Menu
This is where we are changing the menu types.
The Main Menu is used to change the layout of the Main Menu items.
The Languages Menu is used to change the layout of the Spanish or the Russian Menu Items.
Menu Aliases to Create Megamenu The following Menu is used to generate the Megamenu or what looks like the main menu on a computer.
Secondary Menu
Every item in this Menu is simply a Menu Item Alias and they all point to either the Main Menu or they point to the Language menu. But, they do NOT point to any of the other menus. This is how we are trying to keep all Search Engine Friendly URLs in agreement with each other.
Our Problem Described
The issue we are having is that I am able to get nice URLs for the category pages and the subcategory pages, but as soon as I click on an article, a new unwanted urls appears.
Here is how I can get the URLs that we are happy with:
Click on Home: https://test1.theraliv.org/
Click on Jewish Life: https://test1.theraliv.org/jewish-life
Click on Jewish Life -> Heritage: https://test1.theraliv.org/jewish-life/heritage
Here is how we are getting URLs that we are NOT happy with:
From the homepage click on any article to get a URL like the following: https://test1.theraliv.org/jewish-life-menu/holy-days-articles/new-year-of-the-trees
This also happens if we click on an article from the Jewish Life or the Heritage pages as well. The problem is that the we are getting "jewish-life-menu" in the url instead of just 'jewish-life"
So, this is the URL we are seeing: https://test1.theraliv.org/jewish-life-menu/holy-days-articles/new-year-of-the-trees
We are wanting to get the following URL: https://test1.theraliv.org/jewish-life/holy-days-articles/new-year-of-the-trees
NOTE: Both of these URLs actually work. But, one of them we do not want to use.
I am thinking that there must be something basic that I am missing. Can you please help me to know what I am doing wrong.
I have changed the aliases for Jewish Life Menu and in the Jewish Life menu item in the Main menu. When I do that then the urls reverse themselves. ie. I then get all of the URLs with the '-menu' string in them for the navigation URLs and then when I click on an article, I get the nice URLs.
Sean Carney
Sean Carney
Accepted AnswerPaul,
I am pretty sure I should be investing in 4SEF. I see you have an article on your site about SP Page Builder V3.8.9 working with 4SEF so it seems my timing is good. It will be great to stop fighting these menu driven duplicate URLs.
After I wrote this, I purchased 4SEF and installed it. With a little configuration for the Content and SP Page Builder extensions options, I got beautiful Seach Engine Friendly URLs with total control. I highly recommend this solution. Thanks for pointing me to it.
Sean
Paul Frankowski
Accepted AnswerHi Sean,
Don't get me wrong, but all URLs and short aliases are typical Joomla thing. Template, like Helix, just add "design" to it - but it doesn't control menu links structure.
And as you know, we are NOT Joomla support, to correct your menu structure etc.
Tips! In some cases you have to use external components like 4SEF to manage URLs easier.
Or talk with Joomla community for free tips or hire Expert.
I hope you understand our Support Policy rules.
Sean Carney
Accepted AnswerThank you Paul,
I would agree with you except for one thing: I can easily fix this problem. All I have to do is stop using the SP Page Builder and then I will no longer have the need for creating duplicate menus. Problem solved.
But, I am not wanting that as a solution to this problem. In this case I would just load all my modules into Joomla positions instead of the pagebuilder. Basically that is the reason that I figured you must have run into this problem before. Surely people using SP Page Builder Pro must also want to not have duplicate out of control URLs?
This is also related to another ticket that I opened originally which is what pushed me into the duplicate menus.
This is the ticket that I originally started because I was getting Joomla component URLs as soon as I assigned a menu to display content from the Page Builder. Rashida explained that I needed to create a menu and then assign the category to the menu. So, that is what I did. But, then... voila, duplicate urls and out of control URLs. I have looked at the Quickstarter and it looks like you have not been able to solve this problem either.
But, it sure would be great if this problem could be resolved. Thanks for considering this.
Sean
Sean Carney
Accepted AnswerBTW, Here is a copy of your Quickstart where you also have the duplicate URLs going on and the URLS with '-page' added to the category string:
http://test3.theraliv.org/index.php/en/tech-page
http://test3.theraliv.org/index.php/en/tech
These are both the same page. Same problem.
Paul Frankowski
Accepted AnswerDo not duplicate links, use Joomla Menu features.
You can use Menu Item Type:
- System Links > URL
- System Links > Menu item alias
check what better works for you.
Sean Carney
Accepted AnswerThanks. Yes. You are correct. I have atually solved this problem and came here to let you know so that nobody will spend any more time on it. I will be documenting how I fixed the URLs for my team once I am done fixing all the menus. I will then paste in the solution here as well. I believe it might be useful for you and your colleages as well as anybody else who might run into this issue.
Sean
Sean Carney
Accepted AnswerPaul,
I tried the following, thought I was succeeding but then still had problems. Below is a LOT of effort on my part but it still did not succeed. Oh well...
Menus to Create SEO URLs and Change Page Layouts
Category page SEO URLs are determined by the aliases for these Menu Items. These Menus are where we change the Menu Item Type from Category Blog to SP Page Builder. These are the only places for us to change the Menu Item Type:
Jewish Life Menu (alias: jewish-life) L’Chaim Menu (alias: lchaim) Israel Menu (alias: israel) Torah Menu (alias: torah) Stories Menu (alias: stories) God's World Menu: (alias: gods-world) Video Menu (alias: video) Russian Menu (alias: ru) Spanish Menu (alias: es)
Menus to Establish Category Relationships
English Categories Menu: Using unique aliases for Category pages that will not actually affect URLs. Since they have to be unique, we are using this naming convention for the top level categories: Jewish Life Menu (alias: jewish-life-menu) L’Chaim Menu (alias: lchaim-menu) Israel Menu (alias: israel-menu) Torah Menu (alias: torah-menu) Stories Menu (alias: stories-menu) God's World Menu: (alias: gods-world-menu) Video Menu (alias: video-menu) Associates Menu Items as Articles >> Category Blogs Other Languages Menu: Using unique aliases for Category pages that will not actually affect URLs. Since they have to be unique, we are using this naming convention for the top level categories: Russian Menu (alias: ru-menu) Spanish Menu (alias: es-menu) Associates Menu Items as Articles >> Category Blogs
The purpose of these menus is to establish that each Menu item is properly associated with a category. Do not tweak these Menu items in order to change page layouts. We just want to leave these menu items alone as Category Blogs:
Menus to Create Site Navigation
The following Menu are completely composed of Menu Item Aliases. Every item in these Menu is simply a Menu Item Alias which points to the “Menus to Create SEO URLS and Change Page Layouts” described above. It is essential that these Menu Item Aliases do NOT point to the “Menus to Establish Category Relationships” also described above, otherwise duplicate URLs will be created. Keeping these Menu Item Aliases pointing correctly keeps all of our Search Engine Friendly URLs in agreement with each other.
Main Menu (Mobile Menu, logo-left) Using unique aliases for Menu Item Aliases that will not actually affect URLs. Since they have to be unique, we are using this naming convention for the top level categories: Jewish Life Menu (alias: jewish-life-main) L’Chaim Menu (alias: lchaim-main) Israel Menu (alias: israel-main) Torah Menu (alias: torah-main) Stories Menu (alias: stories-main) God's World Menu: (alias: gods-world-main) Video Menu (alias: video-main)
Secondary Menu (Computers Menu, menu) Using unique aliases for Menu Item Aliases that will not actually affect URLs. Since they have to be unique, we are using this naming convention for the top level categories: Jewish Life Menu (alias: jewish-life-second) L’Chaim Menu (alias: lchaim-second) Israel Menu (alias: israel-second) Torah Menu (alias: torah-second) Stories Menu (alias: stories-second) God's World Menu: (alias: gods-world-second) Video Menu (alias: video-second)