URL international characters problem

[Ricardo]

There is a problem with esyndicat that has not been resolved for a long time about international characters. (I'm doing it in Portuguese)

Take a look here:
A category, or the link details with the words anúncios grátis will make an URL like this: an-ncios-gr-tis-

The right thing was to create an URL in this manner: anuncios-gratis

It is good to have the whole words showing up for Google and search engine purposes. The broken words won't be of any help for searches on Google.

I know this problem can be fixed because I use many other scripts that work properly.

Is this an easy thing to fix? If it is, just send me the code that I need to change.

Thanks,

Ricardo

[Dave Baker]

Hello Ricardo,
The opportunity of use international characters in names of categories was realized a long time ago.
Open Admin Panel » Configuration » General Configuration » Enable path field for categories » enabled » "Save Changes" button
Admin Panel » Browse » Create Category:
Path: Have to consist of latin symbols and it will use in urls of categories.
Title: Can include international characters which will use in names of categories.

[Ricardo]

Dave,

Thanks for the information, I remember that my previous version had the path option for categories. The new 2.0 came disabled and I didn't notice. That's working now.

The main issue is actually how to make the link title work properly in the "Link Details."

Example:

http://www.sitename.com/category/an-ncios-gr-tis-|1.html

Is there any automatic way to make the link title work properly? For categories I can edit the path manually, that's fine, but for links it would be annoying to edit each and every new link... if there was that option, I couldn't find it though.

Thanks,

Ricardo

[John Turner]

Hi Ricardo,

Here the solution:

1. Create new field for listings via Admin Panel » Manage Listing Fields
with following information:
Name: link_path
Title: Link Path
Show On Pages: all are empty
Required Field: No
Visible for admin only: Yes
Field Type: Text
Field Length: 200
Field Default Value: need to be empty

2. Open your '../templates/{YOUR TEMPLATE}/link-display.tpl'
***find following code

<a href="{$config.base}{$config.dir}{$link.path}/{convert_str string=$link_title}-l{$link.id}.html">{$lang.link_details}</a>


***replace with following code

<a href="{$config.base}{$config.dir}{$link.path}/{if $link.link_path eq ''}{convert_str string=$link_title}{else}{$link.link_path}{/if}-l{$link.id}.html">{$lang.link_details}</a>


*** save and close it.

3. You need to edit all your links which title you want to change.



It might helps.

[Ricardo]

That works really good!

Those keywords are very important for searches, so it's really nice to have the whole words showing up.

Thanks for your help!

Ricardo

[John Turner]

You are welcome.
Always at your services.

[Ricardo]

Since this is related to the topic above, let me ask here.

How can I make the Google sitemap work accordingly?

Right now the google-sitemap.php will show the URL like this:

<loc>http://www.diretorio.net/compras/an-ncios-gr-tis-l9.html</loc>

It should be:

<loc>http://www.diretorio.net/compras/anuncios-gratis-l9.html</loc>

On google-sitemap.php look for this line:

<loc>'.$gDirConfig['base'].$gDirConfig['dir'].dir_form_path($one['path'],$one['title']).'-l'.$one['id'].'.html</loc>

The problem is that it's calling the ['title'] of the link, and the title is Anúncios Grátis.

How can I call the recently created link_path instead? (the link_path is anuncios-gratis)

What do you suggest?

Thanks,

Ricardo

[John Turner]

Hi Ricardo,

In compliance with my previous post.
You should make some changes with code.

1. open "../classes/Dir.php"
***find following code

function getSitemapLinks()
{
$sql = "SELECT cat.`path` , lcat.`id_link` id, link.`title` ";
$sql .= "FROM `{$this->mPrefix}categories` AS cat ";


***replace it with following code

function getSitemapLinks()
{
$sql = "SELECT cat.`path` , lcat.`id_link` id, link.`title`, link.`link_path` ";
$sql .= "FROM `{$this->mPrefix}categories` AS cat ";


*** Save and close it.

2. open "../google-sitemap.php"
***find following code

$feed .= '<url>';
if ($gDirConfig['mod_rewrite'])
{
$feed .= '<loc>'.$gDirConfig['base'].$gDirConfig['dir'].dir_form_path($one['path'],$one['title']).'-l'.$one['id'].'.html</loc>';
}


***replace it with following code

$feed .= '<url>';
if ($gDirConfig['mod_rewrite'])
{
$one['title'] = $one['link_path'] ? $one['link_path'] : $one['title'];
$feed .= '<loc>'.$gDirConfig['base'].$gDirConfig['dir'].dir_form_path($one['path'],$one['title']).'-l'.$one['id'].'.html</loc>';
}


*** Save and close it.

It might helps.
If you'll have any question please feel free to contact me.

[Ricardo]

Changed evertyhing and it's working great.

I think there are no more issues with international characters.

Thanks one more time for the great support!

Ricardo

[John Turner]

You are welcome Ricardo.

Please feel free to contact us any time.