SH404SEF & Virtuemart V2 - not playing well together

[jan suhr]

Its not hard to change the vmart code to change category title, and product page title.

and SEF is not mandatory for a site to do well. I dont use SEF on my 1.1 site

So why don't you change it so that there is a field for TITLE among the other Meta data settings?

Jan

[jjk]

It's me again  - AFAIK Google indexes the title tag, not the title meta tag. So I agree with this link: http://www.webmarketingnow.com/tips/meta-title.html
With my old webshop, designed 7 years ago,  I have plenty of number one positions at Google without a single title meta tag.

[alatak]

Hi,

please have a look here
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=93746.0

[jan suhr]

Its not hard to change the vmart code to change category title, and product page title.

and SEF is not mandatory for a site to do well. I dont use SEF on my 1.1 site

Any tips to where to find that code to change and maybe some hints on how to do it?

Jan

[marcello123]

Well, just like some of you I installed VM2 and updated SH404sef to the latest version. Seems to be a problem with them working together (not yet a plugin available) but you can make a small improvement. In SH404sef you can just skip the virtuemart component and VM2's seo routing does it instead. It's not the best solution but better than no solution at all.

But of course, the best trick would be a SH404sef plugin, it should not be that hard to create. Maybe it's already there?

[dave collerton]

I never managed to resolve this problem - in the end I migrated my entire site to j1.7.3 using jupgrade and dropped SH404SEF - using just core joomla in j1.7 everything in fine. I have to say that j1.7 hosts Virtuemart V2 very nicely and they play well together. J1.5 and Virtuemart don't seem to have been given the same thought - I guess to be expected as J1.7 is the latest and greatest from the joomla team.

This also resolved a problem with Virtuemart Cart not functioning properly - posted elsewhere. Whether this was a jscript error or another problem I don't know but having a new platform to work on allowed me to look at the jscripts being loaded.

With regards SEF, I always try to use this on every site - humans like to see meaningful URLS and php, bless it, simply doesn't do this. All of my websites - my commercial ones, have very good ranking and some of this will be down to SH404SEF which also creates reasonable meta tags. To my mind it is the combination of content, tags and meaningful URL's which matter - getting all three dead right makes a big difference.

Regards
Dave

[T.A. Garrison, LLC]

I'm using J1.7 and VM2.0. I have "no" sef software installed. No matter the combinations of options, I'm unable to get sef working with the system more than 95%. With sef on in J1.7 and VM2.0, all works well until you drill down to a specific product. When you click on the product details you are sent back to the parent category - BUT...the url shows that you are on the product item page.
The entire system works 100% if I just turn off the sef in J1.7. But, my client is going nuts about all the code in the url and wants sef - just because he likes that look better.
Yet, sef should work anyway. Personally, I've never been able to get a J1.7 sef system working 100% with all software and extensions installed, and I don't sweat that. But this client wants sef working.

There must be something I keep overlooking, but I'm baffled.

Further, when attempting to create menu items to specific VM products, NOT categories or sub-categories, I have a list of only 6 products in "Required Settings > Select a Product". The site has more than 100 products. I don't get that either. After selecting "Virtuemart Product Details Layout" there are only 6 products from which to choose.
Banquet, you're a VM expert. Any thoughts?! My head is getting sore from beating it on the desk.

Thanks.

[jjk]

My J1.7.3/VM2 SEF is working great. Concerning your first problem - comparing your URL with one of mine:

Your URL:
.../index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=50&virtuemart_category_id=33
Note: For some reason your URL doesn't include an "&itemid=x". (sh404sef rewrite still active?)

My URL:
.../index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=1312&virtuemart_category_id=7&Itemid=125
SEF and URL rewriting switched off in Joomla (the latter displays "index.php?" in the URL), plus SEF switched off in VM2:

Same product URL as above with SEF and URL rewriting switched on in Joomla, plus SEF switched on in VM2:
.../gallery/automobile-art/absolutely-british-jaguar-e-type-detail

Concerning your second problem - if you can't get menu items for specific products to work, you simply could use VM2's "Featured Products" module instead. (Just my suggestion)

[PRO]

Itemid does not appear in all cases, depends how you get to the product.

If you get to the product through a category link that has a joomla menu item, you get it.

From the product module, no itemid

From the Joomla root frontpage, thats a vmart layout, no item id.

[PRO]

If you are having problems with SEF, its probably due to htaccess,

I always use akeeba admin tools to create htaccess, it always does it right

[uglyfashion]

sh404SEF will let you create your own TITLEs which is the first thing Google looks for.

Even if it slows down the server a lot of other Joomla stuff do that too, joomla itself to start with.

Full sh404SEF support is a mandatory thing for a Joomla webshop if it wants to be a player. So someone has to write a sh404SEF plugin for VM2, I know that the folks at Anything digital will not do it, it is a task for the VM-crew.

As I see it there are a few things still missing in VM2 for it to be a full featured webshop alternative for Joomla.
Jan

Its not hard to change the vmart code to change category title, and product page title.

and SEF is not mandatory for a site to do well. I dont use SEF on my 1.1 site

Kicking your legs is not necessary for swimming.  I can swim with just my arms.  Still... it's easier if I kick my legs.