registration required for ask a question page if i come from google search

[jooomlaa]

Hi,

I think since installation of version 2.0.22c I have the following problem:
When a visitor comes from Google, and Google is calling a page "ask a question for the product" then appears an almost blank page with the request that the visitor has to register to use this page.
The user leaves the site frustrated.
Thats bad because:
1. he don't need register! How can i do this?
2. It would be better wouldt be redirected to the product-Page. How can i do this?
3. The "ask a question page" is not good for calling stand alone without J!/VM-Templates. Perhabs it is possible to integrate a now follow attribute in each "ask a question"-link in produkt template page.

[jenkinhill]

Turn on "Allow non logged to send questions" in Configuration/Shopfront

You could redirect in .htaccess if the user is not already on your site.

[Maxim Pishnyak]

Perhabs it is possible to integrate a now follow attribute in each "ask a question"-link in produkt template page.

template overrides for productdetails - default.php

Code Select Expand

<a class="ask-a-question" href="<?php echo $this->askquestion_url ?>" ><?php echo JText::_('COM_VIRTUEMART_PRODUCT_ENQUIRY_LBL') ?></a>
You could put rel="nofollow" easily there, could you?

[jooomlaa]

Thank you Maxim and Jankin,

the way to put the rel-nofollow in the a-tag I know and i realised. But I think that would be part of the core scripts, because the problem actually have all.

You could redirect in .htaccess if the user is not already on your site.

That would really be a good solution and it has an immediate effect for existing search engine entries. But I'm not as fit in the syntax. Will you be so kind and can you post me the line?

[jooomlaa]

Turn on "Allow non logged to send questions" in Configuration/Shopfront

I could not find this option because it is wrong in German translation. I switch to original english translation and can see the right one.
In German there is "Nicht eingeloggten Benutzern erlauben, Empfehlungen zu senden" which means, "allow Recommendation" and not "allow send Questions". That's a difference.

[jenkinhill]

The .htaccess syntax will depend on your server and is outside the scope of VirtueMart support. Try Google, but the code needed will be something link here - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17008910/how-to-allow-only-same-domain-requests-for-specific-directories-with-htaccess

[jjk]

Turn on "Allow non logged to send questions" in Configuration/Shopfront

I could not find this option because it is wrong in German translation. I switch to original english translation and can see the right one.
In German there is "Nicht eingeloggten Benutzern erlauben, Empfehlungen zu senden" which means, "allow Recommendation" and not "allow send Questions". That's a difference.

That's my fault. I missed that the english text was changed some time in the past. So the german translation (and some other translations, too) still show the outdated text.
In the file: yourdomain\administrator\language\de-DE\de-DE.com_virtuemart_config.ini (approximately line 396/397) you can change it to this:

COM_VIRTUEMART_RECCOMEND_UNATUH="Nicht eingeloggten Benutzern erlauben, Fragen zu senden"
COM_VIRTUEMART_RECCOMEND_UNATUH_EXPLAIN="Falls aktiviert, kann jeder Benutzer Produktempfehlungen, Fragen zu den Produkten oder Preisanfragen senden. Andernfalls können nur eingeloggte Benutzer diese Funktionen nutzen. Wenn Sie diese Funktion aktivieren, sollten Sie ihre E-Mails regelmäßig überprüfen, da sie auch von Spambots missbraucht werden kann."

[Maxim Pishnyak]

the way to put the rel-nofollow in the a-tag I know and i realised. But I think that would be part of the core scripts, because the problem actually have all.

Thank you for the tip.

htaccess redirect could be bad for SEO. Don't you think so?

[Milbo]

Turn on "Allow non logged to send questions" in Configuration/Shopfront

I could not find this option because it is wrong in German translation. I switch to original english translation and can see the right one.
In German there is "Nicht eingeloggten Benutzern erlauben, Empfehlungen zu senden" which means, "allow Recommendation" and not "allow send Questions". That's a difference.

Die Option gilt jetzt für alle Arten von mail action by user. Also recommend, ask a question und ask for price.

[jooomlaa]

Modifications of the .htaccess is too difficult for most webmasters.
The shop configuration should be the preferred way. But this is not acceptable for any.
If you lock these links for search engine, you do not have all these problems. Then it does not matter whether SEF URL or real URL. These pages like "ask-a-question", "recommend" ... have no value for SEO. There are no relevant keywords contain. These sites compete with the more important product pages.

(sorry, for my bad english)

[jjk]

Personally I don't have that problem in my VM2 shop with my configuration and Google doesn't index i.e. 'ask a question' views. But Milbo has added some nofollow, noindex, etc. today for the next VM2 version which should take care of your problem.

[jenkinhill]

Modifications of the .htaccess is too difficult for most webmasters.

No it is a basic skill to provide site protection, url rewrites, 301 redirects etc. And is a requirement for proper SEF url generation in Joomla.

[jooomlaa]

@jenkinhill: ".htaccess mods": that true ;-)
@jjk: thx to milbo 4 adding this attributes

Personally I don't have that problem in my VM2 shop with my configuration and Google doesn't index i.e. 'ask a question' views

Lucky. Here you can see a real sample if you search in google to this product-sku/keyword for clutchs "883089.000034" you get this target-url on 4. position (top rank! but bad/wrong page) http://zweimassenschwungrad.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&task=askquestion&virtuemart_product_id=638&virtuemart_category_id=1415&tmpl=component&Itemid=274. Try it! Its realy a problem.

[jooomlaa]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.domain.com/.*$
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*)&task=askquestion(.*)&tmpl=component(.*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /$1?%1%2%3 [R=301,L]

[Maxim Pishnyak]

Thank you for sharing.