Archive For November, 2005

Just a bug fix release, mainly for people running forums with table prefixes. Download it from vbulletin.org.

Hi everyone,

vBSEO 2.3.0 has been officially released! We are very excited about this new version as major performance gains have been achieved, specifically for vBulletin 3.5.x series. Changes to both, vBSEO’s pre and post processing engines have resulted in a much more efficient handling of variables.

/* Note: When upgrading from 2.x.x to 2.3.x you must uninstall your crawlability_vbseo.xml product plugin and proceed with a fresh .xml product installation. */

Note: To better serve our growing userbase, we are implementing a new ticket system to be released shortly. It’s a robust platform which includes a knowledge-base database for frequently asked questions.

Buy vBSEO 2.3.0

Here is a summary of updates included in vBSEO 2.3.0:

(1) NEW FEATURE: vBSEO 2.3.0 & vB 3.5.x series - We’ve decided to tag the new vBSEO a full additional version number (2.3.0) after some major changes to the pre/post processing engine that minimizes dB load for vBulletin’s 3.5.x series.

Nearly all performance impact has been reduced to calculations during url replacements and mod_rewrite!

(2) NEW FEATURE: Changes within the ‘SEO Functions > Direct Links’ section - The prev/next thread direct links options (2) have been replaced with a single option for simplicity… who would want to replace the previous thread direct link but not the next link?
Also, a new option has been added (Replace ‘Forum Links’ with direct links to target URLs) that replaces your ‘Forum Links’ with the direct target URLs. These Forum Links are the ones that would commonly be redirected when entering URLs via the Forum Manager in the admincp.

See the Replace ‘Forum Links’ option used in our forums with a direct link to our new vBulletin resources page. vB’s default functionality for forum links would 301 redirect these links instead of having direct URLs.

(3) NEW FEATURE: New function for extensibility vbseo_any_url(/newthread.php) - This function allows the rewriting of dynamic URLs with corresponding SEO URL (including custom rewrite rules applied). See the vBSEO Functions for Extensibility for more details.

(4) UPDATE: The privacy redirects feature (Redirect ALL External URLs Posted in Private Forums) has been refined to exclude non ‘http://’ type requests; For example http://www.external-domain.com will be redirected via http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/redirect-to/?redirect=http://www.external-domain.com but irc://irc.external-domain.com/channel will not.

(5) UPDATE: vBSEO will strip rel="nofollow" attributes added physically to the original vBulletin templates when disabled for any page type (showpost, printthread, member profiles, etc.) via the vBSEO Control Panel.

(6) UPDATE: Special characters such as / and " in thread titles will be replaced using the acronym expansion feature. As an example:
- 14" can be replaced for ‘14 inches’
- S/C can be replaced for ‘Super Charger’

/* Note: For the "inch" replacement, you should use ‘&quot’ => ‘inch’ instead of ‘"’ => ‘inch’. */

(7) UPDATE: CRRs in Root (Beta2) update - Several refinements have been made to the ‘CRR in Root’ beta feature. Also, a problem with redirection of old URLs from the root level has been corrected.

Note: This requires an additional step in the installation process. The following updated .htaccess directives must be added in the *root folder* (not vBulletin folder):

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !forum/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !vbseourl=
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ forum/vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1&vbseorelpath=../&%{QUERY_STRING}

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !forum/
RewriteRule ^(.*.php)$ forum/vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1&vbseorelpath=../&%{QUERY_STRING}
Note: In the above "forum" must be changed to the actual name of the folder in which your vBulletin installation resides.

/* Remember: The original .htaccess still resides in the vBulletin *forum root folder*. */

(8) FIX: Issue related to the ‘first_x_words’ pattern in the Relevant Replacements feature.
(9) FIX: Internal broken links for certain configurations.
(10) FIX: Whitelist whitespace ‘trim’ functionality not working properly when having multiple elements.
(11) FIX: Issue with Search Engine Bot activity log resets due to high bot activity.
(12) FIX: Minor issue with switching (on/off) email rewriting for vB 3.5.x
(13) FIX: "Redirect ALL External URLs Posted in Private Forums" option conflicting with public (forum) links.
(14) FIX: "Redirect ALL External URLs Posted in Private Forums" option not applied correctly for showpost pages
(15) FIX: mySQL errors with mailqueue and vBulletin 3.0.x series.

Download Location: All Licensed users may download vBSEO 2.0 Gold from their User Control Panel at the http://www.vbseo.com forums. Under the "Miscellaneous" section, there will be a link to "Download vBSEO".

Download vBSEO: http://www.vbseo.com/downloads/

Upgrade Instructions:
(1) Close your forums via your admincp
(2) Remove the vBSEO 2.x Plugin via your admincp
(3) Install vBSEO as a product by uploading ‘crawlability_vbseo.xml’
(4) Backup your vbseo_all.xml settings file (through ‘forums/vbseocp.php’)
(5) Upload all the files in the ‘/upload’ folder
(6) Restore your previous settings by uploading your backup .XML file
(7) Re-open your forums

Note: Steps 2, 4 and 6 are for upgrades only and are not required when you are installing vBSEO for the first time.

Update 11/30/2005
2.3.1 has been released with the following changes:

(1) FIX: Link to the most recent thread in subforums not working properly.
(2) FIX: Incorrect anchor for the ‘vBulletin’s Archive Options’ link via the vBSEO Control Panel.

Update 12/06/2005
2.3.2 has been released with the following changes:

(1) NEW FEATURE: Smart Stopword Removal from URLs? Enabling this option filters "stopwords" from URLs ONLY when titles are longer than the specified number within the ‘Limit URL Length’ setting.

Example1
Thread title: Cookie error related to vBSEO (Limit URL Length set to 6 words)

URL without stopword filtering:
http://www.vbseo.com/f101/cookie-error-related-to-vbseo-2481/URL with stopword filtering:http://www.vbseo.com/f101/cookie-error-related-vbseo-2481/
URL with smart stopword filtering:http://www.vbseo.com/f101/cookie-error-related-to-vbseo-2481/ (note that stopwords have not been filtered as the original title contains less than 6 words)

Example2
Thread title: Cookie error related to vBSEO and vBulletin (Limit URL Length set to 6 words)

URL without stopword filtering:http://www.vbseo.com/f101/cookie-error-related-to-vbseo-and-vbulletin-2481/URL with stopword filtering:http://www.vbseo.com/f101/cookie-error-related-vbseo-vbulletin-2481/URL with smart stopword filtering:http://www.vbseo.com/f101/cookie-error-related-vbseo-vbulletin-2481/ (note that stopwords have been filtered as the original title contains 6 or more words)

(2) UPDATE: CRRs in Root (Beta3) update - An issue with links not being rewritten on non-forum pages has been corrected.
(3) UPDATE: Version Removal Option - Disable this setting ‘VBSEO_NOVER_INFO’ via your config_vbseo.php file and the copyright notice won’t display the vBSEO version ("2.x.x") information.
(4) UPDATE: Upgrade instructions for both, 3.0.x & 3.5.x vB versions are included now in the Readme file.

(5) FIX: Issue with poll titles when smilies are added.
(6) FIX: Broken links for certain usernames in some server configurations.

Thank you all for reporting issues and bugs and suggesting new features!

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