Hi,

I've been running ArtioSEF with the Virtuemart component from some time on my site and most things work great. However the issue I have is that when I add new products to the site and I have the Virtuemart new products module running (www.theitguide.co.uk, on the left) the SEF URL doesn't generate properly.

For example, a normal product URL is formatted like this:

category/sub-category/designer/product-name.php

If I have the new products module running it creates them like this:

virtuemart/sub-category/designer/product-name.php

So I have to turn it off before I add new products and it's becoming a pain!!!

Any suggestions on how to resolve this so I can keep the module published?

Thank you

Helen

Dear Helen,

I understand your problem and I will try to explain the (possible) cause.

The fact is, that JoomSEF will remember the first product URL it detects. Any other URL leading to the same product is then using the same URL -- this is to prevent duplicates.

The problem is most likely in the fact, the new products module is generating URLs in a bit different way than the default VM engine (when you browse categories). And as the module is always visible, it is always the first to generate the product URL and that is the reason why the "wrong" URL is stored by JoomSEF.

To make this prevent and not to have to change things manually, the only way that comes to my mind is to adjust the code of the module - i.e. change the way how it compones the product URL to match the way how it is done in the "core" component. Then the resulting URLs shall be the same.

Hi Jan,

Having gone away and thought about this a bit more it occured to me that this URL issue happens if I view the product in the 'My Designer' mode also.

Fundamentally, unless I first view the product in the correct overall category then the item ID is messed up and as a result the URL.

Is there a way in the SEF/Virtuemart file to amend the code so that the item ID is always the main category the item has been submitted to, rather than the one that happens to display the product first?

For example:
If I add a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes to the site, they can be viewed here:

www.theitguide.co.uk/designer-shoes.php
&
www.theitguide.co.uk/by-designer/christian-louboutin.php

Once the product is published if I, or another visitor on the site refreshes the 'by-designer' page before the 'shoes' page then Artio puts 'by-designer' instead of 'shoes' as the category.

As the website increases in popularity this happens more and more frequently.

Any help/advice would be great.

Thanks again

Helen