Hello.
I have just installed JoomSEF under Joomla 2.5. Seems very promising, but I won't be able to use it if I don't clarify a couple of issues. So I would appreciate some help. Also please note that, before posting, tried to search the forum thoroughly but couldn't find a way to solve my problems.

1. I use Falang. JoomSEF is supporting Falang, but I can't make it work. The author mentions that the Language Filter plugin must be disabled for JoomSEF to work properly. Fine, except for one point: How will Falang continue to work properly with Language Filter disabled? I have a complete multilingual site, and don't want to translate only URLs but all content as well. Disabling Language filter causes translation to be disabled, and also causes Falang language selector module not to work properly (as expected). Any help is welcome.

2. I have not yet been able to create proper SEF URLs. Even though JoomSEF is installed, my site still shows Joomla's SEF links. Every change I make to JoomSEF seems to be ignored (for example, I enabled UTF-8 to use my Greek aliases for articles, but nothing happens). I am kind of lost here. I tried also AceSEF and MijoSEF, and the URLs are created fine, without me doing anything. But I prefer JoomSEF. How can I make sure SEF URLs are generated properly?

Hello,

1. That plugin should be disabled, because JoomSEF has its own plugin to manage languages. Check configuration (tab language) if you have language enabled in JoomSEF. After that check plugins of 'system' type:
- disable System - Language Filter
- check that System - ARTIO JoomSEF is first in ordering
- check that System - FaLang Database Driver is after ARTIO JoomSEF
- check that System Language - ARTIO JoomSEF is enabled and it is ordered after FaLang Database Driver

2. If you change settings for JoomSEF, your SEF URLs are already generated. You should purge them all so there can be generated new SEF URLs. Also check if you have JoomSEF enabled.

Thank you. Tried and seems to work, will keep testing and post any issues. What about 'System SEF' plugin? Does it have to be disabled?

Now about the URL creation. It is my understanding that if the URLs are not created properly, could this mean my categorization must be wrong (but it looks fine to me). Generally speaking, should I rely on JoomSEF's automatic URL creation, or it is absolutely expected to have to edit all URLs manually after creation? Obviously, as the site goes bigger, this can prove difficult.

To give an example: My site contact page, after JoomSEF was installed, has become like this:

mysite.local/en/contact-us/mysite-contacts/mysite-en

Whereas I would expect it to be something simpler, like:

mysite.local/en/contact-us (Just like it WAS before installing JoomSEF).

I also repeat that foreign characters (Greek in my case) SEF URLs still are not created. UTF-8 is enabled in Joomla, and also in JoomSEF. But it does not work. Yet, this is not my problem. I can live with just English characters in my URL, as long as the structure is satisfactory.

I have managed to solve the foreign characters issue. I removed all the character replacement strings, and set the URL to be created by article title and not by alias. I now need help only for the long URL issue.

One more thing that might help to clarify my needs. Obviously, the URL is created in the following form:

mysite.local/<menu-item>/<categ...<article-name>

So I wonder if this can be altered. In certain situations it creates a URL that looks very bad. For example, in my forementioned 'Contacts' URL. In this case, this is a Top Menu link. It is shown on every page. So I guess for this link it would be appropriate to show only the <menu-item> part.

On the other hand, for normal links, it would be sufficient to show only the category name and the article name. No need to show the <menu-item>. By default it becomes something like this:

mysite.local/en/wedding-themes/wedding/wedding-themes

In this case, the first 'wedding-themes' is the menu item alias. The second one is the article alias. Our structure does not allow different alias names to be used, it would cause extra confusion. The desired URL would be something like:

mysite.local/en/wedding/wedding-themes

Hi,

You can control how SEF URLs for different Joomla components are generated by editing JoomSEF extensions parameters using the Manage Extensions page in JoomSEF.

For example for your articles, open Manage Extensions page in JoomSEF and open the Content extension parameters. There you can set for example how article title and categories should be added to SEF URLs and whether the menu title should be added to SEF URLs.