[jira] [Commented] (OFBIZ-5312) Proposal: URL-Generation Changes (mostly for SEO reasons but not only)

["Paul Foxworthy (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-5312?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=15837156#comment-15837156 ] 

Paul Foxworthy commented on OFBIZ-5312:
---------------------------------------

With the recent discussion on ecomseo on the dev mailing list, I'd like to make some observations here.

Good, clean URLs are good for human beings, not just for SEO. .../control/... is definitely not a good, clean URL.

Good, clean URLs are beneficial for all of OFBiz, not just e-commerce, not just product information.

Several times in the discussion on this issue, people have said different URLs should not lead to the same content. It is true duplicate content will disadvantage you with Google and other search engines. The solution is *not* one unique URL for given content. The solution is to add a canonical URL link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_link_element) to the content, to make clear the primary URL and to make clear alternative URLs are just that, alternative paths to the same thing.

One of the strengths of OFBiz is that a product can belong to more than one category. If we have URLs containing categories, naturally there will be more than one URL for a product. For example

https://mysite.com/products/SKU-1234
https://mysite.com/products/christmas-hat
https://mysite.com/products/christmas/christmas-hat
https://mysite.com/products/hats/christmas-hat

might all get you to the same page. 

That's a good thing not a bad thing, provided we get the canonical URL right.

> Proposal: URL-Generation Changes (mostly for SEO reasons but not only)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: OFBIZ-5312
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-5312
>             Project: OFBiz
>          Issue Type: New Feature
>          Components: specialpurpose/ecommerce
>    Affects Versions: Trunk
>            Reporter: Jacques Le Roux
>            Assignee: Jacques Le Roux
>            Priority: Minor
>              Labels: changes, ecommerce, friendly, seo, url
>             Fix For: 16.11.01
>
>         Attachments: classloaderpatch.txt, OFBiz-5312-allowpaths-email-jsp-patch-20140625.patch, OFBIZ-5312-infinite-loop-20141209.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBIZ-5312 - ofbiz-ecommerce-seo.patch, OFBiz-5312-product-ecommerce-seo-20131031.patch, OFBiz-5312-product-ecommerce-seo-for-seo-branch.patch, OFBiz-5312-product-ecommerce-seo.patch, SeoContextFilter.java.patch
>
>
> [This was proposed by Paul Piper in Nabble 7 months ago|http://ofbiz.135035.n4.nabble.com/Proposal-URL-Generation-Changes-td4639289.html]. Here is quoted Paul's proposal
> {quote}
> Hey Everyone,
> over at ilscipio (www.ilscipio.com) we developed a set of functional OFBiz changes that we believe the entire community could benefit from. The changes have been implemented in parts in Syracus (www.syracus.net) for a while now, but we figured that some of which are too crucial for ofbiz' success in the long run, so we are considering the contribution (as we did with the SOLR component).
> As you are probably aware, OFBiz has a pretty uncommon way of generating URLs. Most of this has to do with the fact that OFBiz uses a servlet (ControlServlet)  to handle all requests. The servlet is mounted at /control, so that it won't interfere with other servlets. Though functionally valid, this has the sideeffect that all urls are actually created on /control, which is neither pretty, nor good by any measures of SEO. It also means that a few 302 redirects are necessary to forward the user from / to /control/main. It also makes requests more complicated, since many forwards are necessary whenever somebody wants to move away from this implementation.
> Since this is hurtful to many of the implementers, I wanted to discuss whether or not you guys would be interested in the changes we have made. The functional changes contain:
> * Removal of /control out of all the urls
> * SEO-friendly URLS
> * Configurable product/category and other URLs
> * Frontpage mapping from /main to /
> It was tested on our end and contains all necessary improvements (Transforms, Sample Configuration, Servlets & Filters) for it to be applicable.
> If interested, I would create a new JIRA ticket for this and after a few minor internal discussions, we will gladly provide the rest of you with it.
> Regards,
> Paul 
> {quote}
> There is even a patch, mostly done by Jinghai Shi, that I attach here. Even if it has been already used in [Syracus|http://syracus.net/] since early this year, some help would be needed to test it thoroughly in OFBiz.
> Then we should discuss if it's the way to go. I believe it is. Who needs a /control/ or /main by default in ecommerce urls? Would you not prefer http://localhost:8080/ecommerce/ over http://localhost:8080/ecommerce/control/main ?



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