Appending of forum ID inconsistency?

[Shamil]

Why is it that the forum ID is not appended to the URL of the Announcement and Have you seen..? forums?

 

[Erik]

Why is it that the forum ID is not appended to the URL of the Announcement and Have you seen..? forums?

Interesting, nice catch.

 

[Brandon_R]

Nice catch, yeah why not?

 

[Shamil]

Appending a number to it makes the link invalid as well

 

[Criss]

Maybe they were created when the SEO was still in it's infancy?

 

[Erik]

Maybe they were created when the SEO was still in it's infancy?

That was my first guess, but that doesn't really make sense as I doubt the URL's are 'saved' anywhere - i.e. if they update the SEO code the URL's should update as well. I would think.

 

[Shamil]

Weird. I wonder why appending an appropriate number invalidates the URL?

 

[Erik]

Weird. I wonder why appending an appropriate number invalidates the URL?

Perhaps you were just guessing the ID number wrong?

http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements.2/ 301's to http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements/

 

[Shamil]

Perhaps you were just guessing the ID number wrong?

http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements.2/ 301's to http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements/

Hmm, ok, but I swear I've seen it working with 1 before.

 

[James]

Perhaps it's an admincp feature to not require IDs for certain forums... that'd be a nice idea

 

[Onimua]

Perhaps it's an admincp feature to not require IDs for certain forums... that'd be a nice idea

True, but that would break if you had two forums with the same name wouldn't it?

 

[Erik]

True, but that would break if you had two forums with the same name wouldn't it?

Yeah, which is why the ID number should be appended and it's why an ID number is appended to all threads.

If anyone's wondering when you would ever have multiple forums with the same name, imagine this:

Windows Support
     - OS Support
     - Software Support
     - Other Support
Mac Support
     - OS Support
     - Software Support
     - Other Support

You get the idea.

 

[Disjunto]

Interesting.... something special about those forums?

 

[Mike]

Perhaps it's an admincp feature to not require IDs for certain forums... that'd be a nice idea

Ding ding ding!

I actually hinted at this in the example page:

Have a look at the URL. Notice that there's no ID in it. This is an option for all node types, though it's only exposed for pages now.

You are given the choice to enter a name for the forum to be accessed by (the "slug", if you're familiar with WP). The advantage is that you don't have an ID. The disadvantage is that you basically can't change this without breaking existing links to it.

It's specified on a per forum basis, and yes it has to be unique. The ID based version will still work.

 

[Floris]

The disadvantage is less compared to the advantage of being able to make:

domain.com/newsletters/
domain.com/team/
domain.com/documents/

 

[Paul B]

Can you explain why it's an advantage to not have an ID for certain forums/pages?

Is it just to make the url more closely match the forum or page name?

 

[James]

As Floris said:

The disadvantage is less compared to the advantage of being able to make:

domain.com/newsletters/
domain.com/team/
domain.com/documents/

It allows for a more user-friendly URL.

Ding ding ding!

I actually hinted at this in the example page:

You are given the choice to enter a name for the forum to be accessed by (the "slug", if you're familiar with WP). The advantage is that you don't have an ID. The disadvantage is that you basically can't change this without breaking existing links to it.

It's specified on a per forum basis, and yes it has to be unique. The ID based version will still work.

So we can change the URL of non-ID categories? I just hope if I ever have to do this, there is some way to redirect the old link to the new link.

 

[Enigma]

Can you explain why it's an advantage to not have an ID for certain forums/pages?

Cleaner/shorter/more readable URLs. Wikipedia pages don't have IDs in the URL, for example.

 

[Shamil]

Cleaner/shorter/more readable URLs. Wikipedia pages don't have IDs in the URL, for example.

However, you can't have articles with the same name. The article name becomes much more specific.

 

[Erik]

So we can change the URL of non-ID categories? I just hope if I ever have to do this, there is some way to redirect the old link to the new link.

You could just add a redirect rule above all the other standard stuff in .htaccess. Should work fine.

And yes, I am definitely liking this feature.