Manufacturer Sef Alias changes itself

[chrlar]

I don't know why, but the Manufacturer Sef Alias keeps changing to a date-like number... And I don't know how to fix it.

We would like for the alias to be the manufacturers name, like just michelin or michelin-produsent, something simple.
But after some time, a day or so, it changes to 2013-03-14-06-15-2810968296 and similar numbers/dates...

Why??

We have a module with some of the manufacturers logos, an with links to the manufacturer page. And when this change happens to the alias, our links stop working, an we have to rename the aliases manually over and over again...

It looks better with a link like
http://www.kollevold.no/component/virtuemart/produsenter/omp-produsent?Itemid=0
than
http://www.kollevold.no/component/virtuemart/produsenter/2013-03-14-06-15-281987059388?Itemid=0
which should have been
http://www.kollevold.no/component/virtuemart/produsenter/michelin-produsent?Itemid=0

And I'm getting fed up... Why do they change themselves??

(Joomla 2.5.9 and VM 2.0.18a)

Please help!!!

[jjk]

As far as I can see, your problem with the manufacturer links is that you are using image links instead of text links. I don't see a manufacturer menu with text links. The Joomla/VirtueMart routers which build SEF urls are using text menu items. It doesn't work with images. So you need a menu with all manufacturers. You may hide this menu later if you don't need to display it. A normal SEF url looks like this: "...kollevold.no/personlig-utstyr/hjelmer/omp-star-detail". If you see 'component/virtuemart' i.e. in the SEF url for a category, you usually have a category for which you forgot to add a menu item.

Another problem on your site is that you are loading three different versions of jQuery. One is loaded by VirtueMart (set in VM configuration), one is loaded from Google and another one is loaded by your template. This will probably cause javascript conflicts. You should load jQuery only once!

If you are using the Firefox browser, I would recommend to use the 'Firebug' plugin. This helps a lot if you want to locate problems. See here: http://getfirebug.com/

[chrlar]

Thank you for looking into this. 

I see what you mean regarding the menu links.
But... is that why the manufacturers sef aliases changes daily?
I added a manufacturer menu link:
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer

As you can see on that page, the links today are like this:
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer/produsenter/2013-03-18-03-50-05890900622
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer/produsenter/2013-03-18-03-51-011989193798

and three manufacturers keep having the alias I set:
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer/produsenter/avon-produsent
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer/produsenter/pro-bolt-produsent
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer/produsenter/wilwood-produsent

Tomorrow the date links will change.... and the next day.... and the next day...

So a few days ago the Michelin link was:
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer/produsenter/2013-03-14-06-15-281987059388
and today it is:
http://www.kollevold.no/leverandorer/produsenter/2013-03-18-03-51-011298042255

Even the blank (id=1) manufacturer has a strange sef alias: 2013-03-18-03-51-01207232691

Why?

I don't make changes, the database changes that table all by itself... 

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

And when it comes to the jQuery, I thought we only had it loaded once.
We had a Facebook module, but disabled it. When it comes to the template, I'll ask the designer.

And I have the Firebug plugin. Only I'm a beginner, and don't know how to find all errors there jet... 

[jjk]

Got a hint from the chief developer which I can forward to you. In 'developer's speak' (short & precise) the answer is "duplicate alias => date added" 
...so you should check your shop for duplicate aliases.

[chrlar]

Yes I figured that much....

But we did not have duplicate aliases when I renamed all manufacturer aliases to "manufacturername-produsent".
And why rename each other day to "todays-date-numbers-numbers". I thought when the system resets the alias, it would be to something long lasting.... and not something already existing(?)

[jjk]

Something in your shop setup apparently creates duplicate aliases. Without that, all SEF urls are permanent. (I've  never had dates in my shop urls since I started to use VM2 more than 1½ years ago)

[chrlar]

Any tip as to how to clean up this mess?

[jjk]

At first I would look at the 'alias' column in database table for the Joomla menu and also at the VirtueMart tables for categories, manufacturers and products with phpMyadmin or a similar database tool and sort them by the 'alias' or 'slug' column. This way it should be pretty easy to detect duplicate aliases (slugs).

[chrlar]

Thanks, I'll try that..

[chrlar]

But isn't it so, that joomla tells you if there is already a alias by the same you are about to add?
So that in the menu, as long as the aliases all have different paths (different sub menus) it would be ok, since joomla did not tell me otherwise...?

So this is a image of the manufacturers table. there are no duplicates, and still the ones with dates keep changing every other day or so... :/


[attachment cleanup by admin]

[ex3mist]

Hello,

I see this post is old but I wanted to ask if there is any sollution to this issue?

I've always had this problem with my site but I didn't payed much attention at it. Until now, cause I want to create a menu with a links to all the products by the manufacturers. And cause there is no such option in the menu item types settings, but there is a button in the manufacturer's page to show all the products, I was thinking about using the External URL option when creating a menu item and place the link that this button opens. The problem is that because the aliases are changing, the menu links won't work. And I can't check it every day to see if there are any changes.

In the screenshot attached you can see that there are no duplicates in the "Slug" column of the manufacturers table, but still some of the aliases are changed with a date added after the manufacturer's name. This is constantly occuring to random manufacturers. I can't see any logic...

I hope there is a sollution to this. Joomla 2.5 and VM 2. Thanks!

[jjk]

I hope there is a sollution to this. Joomla 2.5 and VM 2. Thanks!

Are you using the same old Joomla and VM versions which were mentioned in the first post? I still can't reproduce that. (The oldest installation I have on my local PC is VM 2.0.26d). Perhaps the issue would disappear if you would update and afterwards click on "Install or if necessary update tables" in the VM 'Tools & Migration' view.

[ex3mist]

Hello jjk,
And thanks for the fast replay!

Yes, my versions of Joomla and VM are also old. And I don't update due to some custom modifications that I might loose. Because of this and couple of other reasons I consider building a new site with Joomla 3 and VM 3. Until then I'm just looking for a sollution that would give me more time.

If I can give you more information about the problem, or if you think there is something I can try that will give you a clue, please, let me know? I'll be very grateful.

BTW, I see that in the new VM there is no menu item type that shows all the products by a manufacturer too. Which is my case here. Isn't it an important feature? At least I think it is... Cause I see that a major part of the users start browsing by looking at the brands and then the products by a certain brand they like.

[Milbo]

You have in vm3 even 2 possibilities. You can create a Manufacturer menu item or use a category menu item and select a manufacturer in the filter options.

[ex3mist]

You have in vm3 even 2 possibilities. You can create a Manufacturer menu item or use a category menu item and select a manufacturer in the filter options.

That was not what I was talking about. I meant a menu item that opens all the products by certain manufacturer, no matter the category. The category page with a filter by manufacturer is definately not this. The Manufacturer Details Layout opens a page with information for the manufacturer - name, logo, description, web page, e-mail, etc., and there is a link "Open all Manufacturer products". The page that link opens is the page I mean. There is no menu item type that links directly to it. That way the brand is the primary filtering option, then the user chooses a category. I've just notised that this is very common way of searching for a product - by starting from the brand.

P.S. I know this conversation is a little bit out of the topic here, so if necessary move it to another category in order to continue discusion there.