Running Ecommerce Plus PHP v7.4.6

My question relates to [url="https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/help/manufacturers.asp"][blue]setting up a manufacturers.php page[/blue][/url] with custom <title>, <meta name="Description">, <h1>custom heading</h1> and <p>custom description</p>

Making this work using Vanilla URL's is very easy. And renaming the manufacturers page to [maroon]brands.php[/maroon] works fine as well.

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But when you activate the [url="https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/seo/search-engine-friendly-urls-php.asp"][blue]Search engine friendly URL's[/blue][/url] I just cannot get the Redirect to either [maroon]manufacturers.php[/maroon] or [maroon]brands.php[/maroon] to work at all.

What happens is the Redirect goes to [purple]categories.php?man=all[/purple] regardless. Sure, that does list all Manufacturers/Brands. But I want to display the [maroon]brands.php[/maroon] page with custom <title>, description, <h1>heading and description.

Yes, I have followed the instructions. Here is my configuration.

[purple]includes.php[/purple]

[font=Courier New][orange]// ==>> SEO FRIENDLY EXTENSIONLESS URLs v6.4[/orange]
$seodetailurls=TRUE;
$seocategoryurls=TRUE;
$detlinkspacechar='-'; [orange]// For proddetail.php 'Has Static URL' filename, use dashes to separate words entered[/orange]
$urlfillerchar='-'; [orange]// For proddetail.php page, use-dashes-to-separate-words in Product Name[/orange]
$seocaturlpattern="/category/%s"; [orange]// category.php page URL pattern[/orange]
$seoprodurlpattern="/pages/%s"; [orange]// products.php page URL pattern[/orange]
$seomanufacturerpattern="/brand/%s"; [orange]// Product Attribute Group Name 'Brand' URL pattern[/orange]
$seourlsthrow301=TRUE; [orange]// Enable this when SEO URLs are working to generate HTTP 301 Moved Permanently error advice for Search Engines[/orange][/font=Courier New]

[font=Courier New][orange]// MANUFACTURER rename to Brand[/orange]
$manufacturerpageurl="brands.php?man=all";
$xxManuf='Brands'; [orange]// Appears in Breadcrumb link on products.php listing[/orange]
$manufacturerfield="Manufacturer"; [orange]// (optional) Show Manufacturer field info on the proddetail.php page (I think this is Obsolete)[/orange]
$GLOBALS['xxManLab']='Brand'; [orange]// Change label from default Manufacturer[/orange][/font=Courier New]

[purple].htaccess[/purple]

[font=Courier New]<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Search Engine Friendly Extensionless URL's
RewriteRule ^category/([^/.]*)/?$ /categories.php?cat=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
RewriteRule ^pages/([^/.]*)/?$ /products.php?cat=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
[red]RewriteRule ^brand/?$ /brands.php?man=all [QSA,nc,L,B][/red]
RewriteRule ^brand/([^/.]*)/?$ /products.php?man=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) proddetail.php?prod=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
</IfModule>[/font=Courier New]

Any advice about why the [red]brand RewriteRule[/red] does not work would be very much appreciated.

Gary
[img]https://itzap.com.au/pics/logo/itzap-website-design-works-mini-logo.png[/img]

Hi Gary
This is what works for me, but if this doesn't help then please let me know and I'll dig deeper...

includes.php

// ==>> SEO FRIENDLY EXTENSIONLESS URLs v6.4
$seodetailurls=TRUE;
$seocategoryurls=TRUE;
$detlinkspacechar='-'; // For proddetail.php 'Has Static URL' filename, use dashes to separate words entered
$urlfillerchar='-'; // For proddetail.php page, use-dashes-to-separate-words in Product Name
$seocaturlpattern="/category/%s"; // category.php page URL pattern
$seoprodurlpattern="/pages/%s"; // products.php page URL pattern
$seomanufacturerpattern="/brand/%s"; // Product Attribute Group Name 'Brand' URL pattern
$seourlsthrow301=TRUE; // Enable this when SEO URLs are working to generate HTTP 301 Moved Permanently error advice for Search Engines

// MANUFACTURER rename to Brand
$manufacturerpageurl="brand/";
$xxManuf='Brands'; // Appears in Breadcrumb link on products.php listing
$manufacturerfield="Manufacturer"; // (optional) Show Manufacturer field info on the proddetail.php page (I think this is Obsolete)
$GLOBALS['xxManLab']='Brand'; // Change label from default Manufacturer

.htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Search Engine Friendly Extensionless URL's
RewriteRule ^category/([^/.]*)/?$ /categories.php?cat=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
RewriteRule ^pages/([^/.]*)/?$ /products.php?cat=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
RewriteRule ^brand/?$ /categories.php?man=all [QSA,nc,L,B]
RewriteRule ^brand/([^/.]*)/?$ /products.php?man=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) proddetail.php?prod=$1 [QSA,nc,L,B]
</IfModule>

And you don't actually need the physical "brands.php" page as it's all done by URL rewriting to the categories.php and products.php pages.

Vince

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Hi Vince, thanks for the reply.
I tried your settings and they produce exactly the same result as mine.[quote]you don't actually need the physical "brands.php" page as it's all done by URL rewriting to the categories.php and products.php pages.[/quote][font=Courier New][red]RewriteRule ^brand/?$ /categories.php?man=all [QSA,nc,L,B][/red][/font=Courier New]

The result here is the list of Menu Categories and the list of Manufacturers both appear with identical <title>, <h1> heading and short description.[quote]My question relates to [url="https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/help/manufacturers.asp"][blue]setting up a manufacturers.php page[/blue][/url] with custom <title>, <meta name="Description">, <h1>custom heading</h1> and <p>custom description</p>[/quote]At the present time the answer is no, you cannot do this if using the search engine friendly URL's, which is a pity.

So perhaps this belongs in the Suggestion Forum.

I believe that the better solution would be to look into altering the URL RewriteRule to Redirect to a [maroon]manufacturers.php[/maroon] (or [maroon]brands.php[/maroon]) page. This way webmasters can present a unique page <title>, <h1> heading and short description to visitors and the search engines, like this ...

---

[code][font=Courier New][navy]<head>
<title>Leading Brands available from ABC Computers Pty Ltd</title>
<meta property="og:title" content="Leading Brands available from ABC Computers Pty Ltd">

<meta name="Description" content="ABC Computers stock all leading brands of computer gear and IT components. Here you can browse our product range according to manufacturer.">
<meta property="og:description" content="ABC Computers stock all leading brands of computer gear and IT components. Here you can browse our product range according to manufacturer.">
</head>

<body>
<h1>Leading Brands available from ABC Computers Pty Ltd</h1>
<p>ABC Computers stock all leading brands of computer gear and IT components. Here you can browse our product range according to manufacturer.</p>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/inccategories.php" ?>
</body>[/navy][/font=Courier New][/code]

---

And when the visitor clicks on a manufacturer, [maroon]products.php[/maroon] takes over and presents that Manufacturer <h1> heading, description and page list as usual.

Regards,

Gary
[img]https://itzap.com.au/pics/logo/itzap-website-design-works-mini-logo.png[/img]

Hi Gary
Ok, my apologies and I missed the point there a bit. But can't you do a bit of jiggery pokery with the title. Just a for instance...

<title><?php
if(getget('man')=='all')
print 'your all manufacturers title';
else
print 'Leading Brands available from ABC Computers Pty Ltd'; ?></title>

The metainfo.php script will automatically detect that the page is a manufacturer page and populate $sectionname and $sectiondescription anyway, but you can interrogate the query string to see what parameters are in it if you want to fine tune.

Vince

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Wowee, that works a treat Thanks so much Vince !

[navy]categories.php[/navy]

---

[font=Courier New][code]<head>
<title><?php
if(getget('man')=='all') {print $rootmanufacturertitle;}
else if(!empty($pagetitle)) {print $pagetitle;}
else if(!empty($sectionname)) {print $sectionname . ' | ' . $sitename;}
else {print $rootcategorytitle;} ?></title>

<meta name="Description" content="<?php
if(getget('man')=='all') {print $rootmanufacturerdescription;}
else if(!empty($sectiondescription)) {print str_replace('"','"',$sectiondescription);}
else {print $rootcategorydescription;} ?>">
</head>

<body>
<h1><?php
if(getget('man')=='all') {print $rootmanufacturertitle;}
else if(!empty($pagetitle)) {print $pagetitle;}
else if(!empty($sectionname)) {print $sectionname;}
else {print $rootcategorytitle;} ?></h1>

<?php include_once ( $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/vsadmin/inc/inccategories.php") ?>
</body>[/code][/font=Courier New]

---

That makes [navy]manufacturers.php[/navy] (or [navy]brands.php[/navy]) obsolete. A very clever solution. Thanks again

Gary
[img]https://itzap.com.au/pics/logo/itzap-website-design-works-mini-logo.png[/img]

Hi Gary
Thanks Gary and I'm glad it works.

Vince

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