XF 2.2 Can I display custom URL cleanly if using a single node as forum home page?

[EchoRomeo]

For my site, www.permittingtalk.com, I'm using an individual forum node (forum view/thread list) as my homepage instead of the conventional forum list page. To make the individual node work as my home page, I have the "index page route" setting set to the node URL (in my case, forums/permitting-forum.1130/) and I've renamed the node's 'URL portion' with the word "home" to make the URL that displays reflect the node's homepage status (see below).





But the result is that when you navigate to permittingtalk.com, the URL doesn't display as www.permittingtalk.com, as I'd like it to, but rather "https://www.permittingtalk.com/forums/home/", which isn't ideal.

Is there any way to make my URL (www.permittingtalk.com) point cleanly to the forum node, so that the node URL (https://www.permittingtalk.com/forums/permitting-forum.1130/) displays simply as www.permittingtalk.com?

Thanks!

 

[Mr Lucky]

Too complicated

You just use the index page route with the forum URL as you have it - no need for the URL portion

 

[mjda]

Try going to Setup -> Options -> Basic options and setting the Index page route to "forums/home/".

 

[Mr Lucky]

Try going to Setup -> Options -> Basic options and setting the Index page route to "forums/home/".

That will also work if the URL portion is changed, but there is no need to have changed the URL portion as it would show as root www.permittingtalk.com anyway

 

[mjda]

That will also work if the URL portion is changed, but there is no need to have changed the URL portion as it would show as root www.permittingtalk.com anyway

Yeah, I know. I was just providing it as an alternative in case, for some reason, they (or anyone else who finds this thread while searching) wanted to leave the URL portion as home (or anything else).

 

[EchoRomeo]

Thanks @Mr Lucky and @mjda. I appreciate your help troubleshooting!

You just use the index page route with the forum URL as you have it - no need for the URL portion

When I don't set the forum's 'URL portion' field to anything, and set 'index page route' as shown above, the URL displays in the address bar as https://www.permittingtalk.com/forums/permitting-talk.1130/. When I use "home" for the 'URL portion' field, the URL displays as https://www.permittingtalk.com/forums/home (i.e., how I had it). This is all purely aesthetic, of course, since we're just talking about the text that appears in the browser address bar. That said, if having my URL display as www.permittingtalk.com isn't possible, then I feel like I'd want the displayed URL to be as concise and as close to that as possible.

@Mr Lucky, are you basically saying to just keep it simple and not worry about dressing up how the URL displays in the address bar? Otherwise, I do feel like it makes sense to use 'URL portion' to shorten the displayed URL and have text there (e.g., "home") that's a little more meaningful than the forum ID number.

BTW, I'm on XF Cloud and asked XF support if it'd be possible to connect my custom domain with the underlying domain URL for the node. They responded "Once a Cloud subscription has been set up, it isn't possible to change the domain as it is linked internally with all of the systems. Even if it was possible, a URL of that configuration is not supported for the domain URL. It would require an add-on to set a different URL as the domain root URL." I've searched around a bit and don't think such an add-on exists.

 

[Mr Lucky]

are you basically saying to just keep it simple and not worry about dressing up how the URL displays in the address bar?

No I’m the simplest thing to get what you want, ie that forum to be showing as the root, ie https://www.permittingtalk.com

node. They responded "Once a Cloud subscription has been set up, it isn't possible to change the domain as it is linked internally with all of the systems.

Maybe they misunderstood and think you want to change the domain

 

[Mr Lucky]

Are you leaving Home page url in basic option blank?

 

[Mr Lucky]

I just tested this on my test blank install and it works. I can't see why the cloud install stops it happening.

No need to change the URL portion change for the forum, or add any route filter.

Index Page route = forums/forumname.xxxx/

No need for anything in home page or link logo fields.

(Optionally you can add to the home page URL if you want the home tab to show, but then the forum tab will also still show as the current tab and that makes no send in your case)

So in your case as you do not need the forum list, I would leave home page URL blank but change the name of the Forums tab to Home, by editing the phrase nav.forums (EDIT: looks like you already changed it to Forum - it could stay like that or change it to Home which would be my preference)

NB: this should work either way whether you changed the URL portion in the node settings or not. Whatever the actual URL is you use that for Index page route (no slash at the front)

 

[Mr Lucky]

BTW, when hovering over the logo you get a text cursor rather than a link hover (finger icon). At least you do in Safari

You can fix that with extra.less

.p-nav-smallLogo img
{cursor:pointer}

 

[EchoRomeo]

I just tested this on my test blank install and it works. I can't see why the cloud install stops it happening.

No need to change the URL portion change for the forum, or add any route filter.

Index Page route = forums/forumname.xxxx/

No need for anything in home page or link logo fields.

(Optionally you can add to the home page URL if you want the home tab to show, but then the forum tab will also still show as the current tab and that makes no send in your case)

So in your case as you do not need the forum list, I would leave home page URL blank but change the name of the Forums tab to Home, by editing the phrase nav.forums (EDIT: looks like you already changed it to Forum - it could stay like that or change it to Home which would be my preference)

NB: this should work either way whether you changed the URL portion in the node settings or not. Whatever the actual URL is you use that for Index page route (no slash at the front)

I don't know! I have the index page route set correctly as far as I can tell. Also, 'URL portion' is now blank. Below is what the relevant settings now look like under basic options. If you open www.permittingtalk.com you can see the URL displays as "https://www.permittingtalk.com/forums/permitting-talk.1130/".


I don't suppose the custom style I'm using would have any effect on this?

 

[EchoRomeo]

BTW, when hovering over the logo you get a text cursor rather than a link hover (finger icon). At least you do in Safari

You can fix that with extra.less

.p-nav-smallLogo img
{cursor:pointer}

Thanks! I appear to get link hover (finger icon) when hovering over the logo in Firefox, Chome, and Edge, so that's maybe just a Safari issue? Will go ahead and add to extra.less for any potential Safari users.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I don't know! I have the index page route set correctly as far as I can tell. Also, 'URL portion' is now blank. Below is what the relevant settings now look like under basic options. If you open www.permittingtalk.com you can see the URL displays as "https://www.permittingtalk.com/forums/permitting-talk.1130/".
View attachment 291943

I don't suppose the custom style I'm using would have any effect on this?

It absolutely shouldn’t but try on default without addons enabled

 

[EchoRomeo]

It absolutely shouldn’t but try on default without addons enabled

Thanks - no dice there. Just tried default style and disabled all add-ons and the long URL still displayed.

 

[EchoRomeo]

Too complicated

You just use the index page route with the forum URL as you have it - no need for the URL portion

For this solution, note that you need to make sure there's a slash at the end of the forum URL that you use for 'index page route'. As mentioned by @Mr Lucky, you also can't ever have a 'URL portion' specified.

For example:

Correct:
Index page route: forums/permitting-talk.1130/
URL portion: (blank)

Incorrect:
Index page route: forums/permitting-talk.1130/
URL portion: (not blank)

Incorrect:
Index page route: forums/permitting-talk.1130
URL portion: (blank or not blank)

 

[Mr Lucky]

note that you need to make sure there's a slash at the end of the forum

Theoretically, it should work with or without