Hi, using Ecommerce PlusASP v6.6.5 for .asp

Can someone please point me in the direction, or let me know, how to have my product detail page use a friendly URL.

Example: https://www dot emsplace.com/shop/proddetail.asp?prod=Real_Pressed_Queen-Ann-Lace_for_Designers_-_5_%22x_8%22_sheet_fl-sm-3 has the ?prod=

and I thought a while back I had it going to just the item name, in this case the item name is: Real Pressed Queen-Ann-Lace for Designers - 5 "x 8" sheet fl-sm-3

I have upgraded my store a few months back and just now noticed. Either I didn't have friendly URL's before and thought I did, or have not done that yet.

So, wondering how I can get the special characters out of the default product details page URL if possible.

Thank you ahead of time:-)

Hi coastalem, seo urls can be setup as outlined here https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/help/search-engine-friendly.asp#seourl They will use the product name so its important not to use special characters such as quotes in the name, you could do something like 5in x 8in sheet fl-sm-3

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Hi Sinbad, appreciate the link.

Q: is there a way to change the " for example in your reply, as a global thing for the product name.

I know how to do a find/replace for site pages and update all respective pages at once then upload the changed web pages.

But since the product names are done through the admin in the database, do I have to go into the database itself, in my case it is Access and make changes there?

And if I do the suggestions in the link you gave me using the webconfig method, what will happen if I don't change the " for example. Does the error you talk about only affect if I use the URL rewrite module or if I use either the URL rewrite module or the web.config

Thank you

Hi

You can change the product names in the admin products page or via the csv file upload - you wouldn't want hyphens in the name either by the way.

I'm not sure I follow your question about the web.config file, could you explain that a bit?

Andy

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Hi Andy, from the info link https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/help/search-engine-friendly.asp#seourl Sinbad provided your documentation says:

Note: I am very familiar with using web.config for 301 redirects so that is what I would focus on using and wondered if that method would throw errors if using hyphens and/or quotes. Sounds like quotes is a problem but don't know why hyphens would be a problem. I have LOTS of hyphens in my product names, but not may quotes.

***
web.config method

This is probably the simplest way of doing things. We have prepared a file called web.config that needs uploading to the root of your store. First of all you need to check if there is already a file called web.config on the server. If that file isn't already present download the config.zip file, unzip it and upload web.config to the store root.

If there is already a web.config file you will need to merge the contents of the existing file with the one available for download. Open the existing web.config file in a text editor. Download the config.zip file, unzip it and also open that in a text editor.

If for example the existing web.config file contains the following

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<asp scriptErrorSentToBrowser="true" />
</system.webServer>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="Off" />
<compilation debug="true" />
</system.web>
</configuration>

You would add the Rewrite code so you have something like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<asp scriptErrorSentToBrowser="true" />
</system.webServer>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="Off" />
<compilation debug="true" />
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="Categories Match" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^category/([^/]*)/?$" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="categories.asp?cat={UrlEncode:{R:1}}" />
</rule>
<rule name="Product Match" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^products/([^/]*)/?$" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="products.asp?cat={UrlEncode:{R:1}}" />
</rule>
<rule name="All Manufacturer Match" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^manufacturer/?$" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="categories.asp?man=all" />
</rule>
<rule name="Manufacturer Match" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^manufacturer/(.*)$" />
<conditions>
<add input="{UNENCODED_URL}" pattern="manufacturer/[^/]*" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="products.asp?man={UrlEncode:{R:1}}" />
</rule>
<rule name="Product Detail Page Match" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^([^/]+)/?$" />
<conditions>
<add input="{URL}" pattern="\.asp" negate="true" />
<add input="{URL}" pattern="\.css" negate="true" />
<add input="{URL}" pattern="\.gif" negate="true" />
<add input="{URL}" pattern="\.jpg" negate="true" />
<add input="{URL}" pattern="\.js" negate="true" />
<add input="{URL}" pattern="\.png" negate="true" />
<add input="{UNENCODED_URL}" pattern="[^/]+" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="proddetail.asp?prod={UrlEncode:{R:1}}" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.web>
</configuration>

Save that file and upload it again to the store root.

You can now test the extension-less URLs, making sure you have also added the new paramters listed above to vsadmin/includes.asp. If you have tested, made sure the file changes are correct and it's not working for you, there is anoher method available but this will require the help of your host.

***
Question: I have lots of - (hyphens) in my product names. Why will that cause a problem?

Thanks

It won't be a problem using a hyphen if you choose to use an underscore ie detlinkspacechar="_" but if you chose to use a hyphen, detlinkspacechar="-" that would likely cause problems.

Andy

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