How can I delete the category from Virtuemart urls?

[Maxim Pishnyak]

So I should create a manual menu with all the categories in stead of using the default VM category module you think?

Manual menu will control the look of category links.
Default Vm category module hasn't freedom to control such things.
BTW there's a plugin in 3d party forum sections. This free plugin could create menu links for each categories in this manual menu for you.

[bokaboka]

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VM2's SEO is much better than it ever was in VM1. I wonder why you insist on deteriorating your SEO (Maybe you prefer to end up on page 250 of the search engine results). And sh404sef will not help to make the standard Joomla/VM2 SEF urls better. Instead it will slow down your shop considerably as your number of products grows.
That's because products in a shop like VirtueMart are accessible in various ways and extensions like sh404sef store each possible url in their database table. So when you have i.e. 1000 products, sh404sef might have 5000 different urls in it's database which you have to maintain (numbers not measured - just a possible example).

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Ironman Games

[rainman2000]

So what about organic search results? If we have hundreds of pages already indexed by Google as http://domainname.com/product1 and now they are all going to be http://domainname.com/category/product1 is there an easy way to deal with this when we bring our new VM2 site online?

[AH]

use this and do some pattern matching

http://www.sistemistica.it/redj.html

I use it whenever I change categories or remove products etc

[rainman2000]

Thanks for the tip. This will be a big help.

[FidelGonzales]

So I should create a manual menu with all the categories in stead of using the default VM category module you think?

Manual menu will control the look of category links.
Default Vm category module hasn't freedom to control such things.
BTW there's a plugin in 3d party forum sections. This free plugin could create menu links for each categories in this manual menu for you.

I was unable to find the automatic menu creation plugin you referenced. Do you have a link?

I doubt, though, that this would solve the duplicate URLs issue, which arises when a single product is published within multiple categories. It would seem that the addition of a menu item for each category, when you have have over 500 of them, would cause a significant impact upon server resources and load time. Additionally, manually creating these links is extremely time consuming.

As for the SEF component method, there are two concerns. The first is the additional load on resources and site speed an SEF component tends to cause. The second, when the stability of the component declines or component support dies, your SEO work and all its historical inbound links dies. SEF components that have supported Virtuemart have suffered this fate throughout the years. Each time, the Virtuemart site owner who made use of the component suffers. Therefore, Virtuemart suffers.

It is not a wise practice for Virtuemart to delegate a portion of its stability and reputation to another component for handling an issue that should be solved internally.

[AH]

VM does not need a thrid party plugin for SEO

Neither does it require a third party plugin for display of categories

Duplicate Urls for items in differing categories is a feature, NOT a problem

Find the time to manually create menu items for categories if you are choosing to do such a thing, if not use the standard category component available in VM or use the default shop page

[FidelGonzales]

I'm not interested in a third party plugin and not interested in manually creating menu items.

The duplicate URL feature, while not a problem for most, would be best deployed as a configuration option, which would enable it to be switched off.

Thank you once again for your response. The other thread seems to address the issue best.

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=116324

[AH]

Unfortunately for you, at this moment in time, the VM team appear to be even less interested in spending their time trying to solve your particular issue.

The feature of including a category in the url  is clearly an issue for you and not for others.

It may be that you could use their paid for development service, in order to achieve what your require.

[FidelGonzales]

A paid inclusion of the option is definitely a possibility. Thanks again.

[AH]

I hope the VM team go for it!

Thanks for your patience.

[RedJohn]

I comment in file: com_virtuemart/router.php
               
//$categoryRoute = $helper->getCategoryRoute($query['virtuemart_category_id']);

and... it works for me.

[FidelGonzales]

Red John: Thanks for your reply. Your suggestion worked.

I found there are two references of that code, one at line 84 and the other at line 149. Removing or commenting out line 84 will eliminate your ability to navigate through category links, as they will all be directed to Virtuemart root. Therefore, comment out line 149 and received the following favorable result.

ORIGINAL URL - http://dirtarmory.com/parts/18/509/automotive/4x4-truck-suv/jeep/jeep-wrangler-tj/smittybilt-xrc-rock-crawler-winch-bumper-grill-guard-d-ring-mounts-wrangler-tj-rubicon-unlimited-1997-2006-product

MODIFIED URL - http://dirtarmory.com/parts/18/smittybilt-xrc-rock-crawler-winch-bumper-grill-guard-d-ring-mounts-wrangler-tj-rubicon-unlimited-1997-2006-product
ACTION - Navigate to components/com_virtuemart/ directory. Within the router.php at approximately line 149, comment out (wrapping the code within /**/) or remove the following code.

Code Select Expand

$categoryRoute = $helper->getCategoryRoute($query['virtuemart_category_id']);

[RedJohn]

Try... Go to virtuemart seo setting and uncheck product id in category.