problem with error 404 when product is not found

[Studio 42]

Currently when you change the product URL you have a 404 error displayed but header is not  set. BUt it's a little problem for SEO and for Google.
Google get this link and index it.
This mean you have product not found pages referenced in Google.

1st solution, redirect to category but change the header to set error 404,
2nd solution, redirect to real 404 page with a message, You can try to visit the category ....

This mean at end 404 page are not added in indexed google page.

Why the header does not set 404 with header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); when the product is not found ?

[Milbo]

There is no problem with google. Soft 404 are completly valid for searchengines. But you can also use the joomla handler with the vmconfig handle_404 "Enable VirtueMart 404 error handling".

[Studio 42]

I report it, because google report each 404 page on my account as a standard page.
If you need a can make a screenshot.
But the main question is:
Why the header does not set 404 with header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); when the product is not found ?

[PRO]

what version are you using?

vm3 sets 404

[Studio 42]

Hi banquet,
I use 2.6 (updated last month), i wait for a stable vm 3.0 to upgrade, because i have to rewrite many codes(plugins, javascript, template...)

[franzpeter]

@Studio 42: You mean you wait for a stable update for Joomla 3! From my personal impression the situation is the following: Joomla 3 at the moment is a study of progress but not a reliable CMS for an ecommerce shopping cart. They did implement a few things, especially in case of url creation and routing, which is on half way. It works somehow in most cases for Joomla but not for other components. For a shopping cart, where the shop owner needs a stable environment to not loose crawler ranking and by that way customers I would not recommend to use it for the moment. What is the most important thing for a shop owner, Joomla or Virtuemart. You do not earn your money with Joomla, you earn the money by selling products with virtuemart. If you would like to risk customers you may try J 3, for all the others the best recommendation at the moment is: Stay with Joomla 2.5 with VM 3 instead of using a study in progress product. Sometimes it is better to NOT HAVE the newest thing if the older thing is working reliable and stable, while the newer thing - even it is now already 3.4.x - seems to still make problems.

[Studio 42]

franzpeter,
What i mean, is a release that i can reimplement my custom javascript. For eg. complety removing fancy and facebox, that zooming script can worok, that the +/- minus script use a better logic. That the backend always save all. That upgrading from vm 2.6 does not break vm tables. that my cusomfields do not loose some datas. I stop the list to not have conflict with max.

If i update Virtuemart is to update Joomla, i only wait for the ultimate release and it's not a complain.