#9182 – Export 4SEF URLS

Hi

I installed 4SEO on my 3.10 website and have successfully upgraded my URLS to 4SEO. 

4SEO does not do anything about SEF URLs, so I'm not sure what you are referring to. Are you using sh404SEF on that site? is that related to your question?

My question is, how do I export the 4SEO data from my 3.10 website so I can install 4SEO on my Joomla4 and import it and continue on? This is my last issue before moving over to Joomla 4.

I don't see how that would be possible. 4SEO analyzes the content of a website. If the target site is not the same as the initial site, then the collected data does not apply.

I think you need to clarify what you mean by "upgraded my URLs" and what exactly it is that you want to import from the old site to the new one, and whether the content (articles, categories, menus, SEF URLs) are going to be the same.

Best regards

Yannick Gaultier

weeblr.com / @weeblr

Hi

Do (can) I install 4seo on my J3 website and export the data, then import it to 4seo in my J4 site? 

Again, 4SEO has nothing to do with URLs. It does not create or manage URLs in any way. It does not care or know how URLs are created, won't touch them at all.

To maintain your URLs when moving from Joomla 3 to Joomla 4, what you need is 4SEF. 4SEF does only one thing: create and manage SEF URLs in the way sh404SEF does. 

I want to be clear here: 4SEF does absolutely nothing else than creating and managing SEF URLs: absolutely no SEO function, not redirect, nothing else. 

4SEF is in beta testing, and has been for the last 5 months (do you receive our newsletter?), pending enough testers to take the "beta" tag off.

Do (can) I install 4seo on my J3 website and export the data, then import it to 4seo in my J4 site?

If I rephrase this to become:

> Do (can) I install 4SEF on my J3 website and export the data, then import it to 4SEF in my J4 site?

Then the answer is no, there is no "export from 4SEF on a site and import from 4SEF on another site".

The simplest way is to just install 4SEF on your new site, and in most cases it will just re-create the same URLs as sh404SEF on Joomla 3.

Now things are more complex if you have:

- non-joomla content (ie an e-commerce, K2, etc): in that case, you need to try, in our experience it will work in nearly all cases as well, automatically

- custom URLs

If you have custom URLs, 4SEF can import them from sh404SEF. But the sh404SEF database tables have to be available on the Joomla 4 site. The normal process is that you install 4SEF on your J3 site, do all the import, and then you upgrade that site to J4.

As you don't follow this path, then you have to make sure the sh404SEF database tables are available to 4SEF on the J4 site, so that it can import the custom SEF URLS. You will have to re-configure 4SEF exactly the same as sh404SEF was on your old site, by hand (when installed on J3, 4SEF reads the configuration automatically but as sh404SEF is not installed on your J4 site, 4SEF cannot read the config, only the data from the db tables).

Note that 4SEF is fully documented, including a getting started video with a chapter on importing from sh404SEF (although it's being done on a Joomla 3 site to be upgraded to J4, not your use case)

We have not touched other sh404SEF features such as custom meta data, page titles, opengraph, etc If you have these, then you indeed need 4SEO - as 4SEF only and strictly only does SEF URLs. The same process will apply here: 4SEO can import these but the sh404SEF database table have to be present in the database of the J4 site.

I've been a sh404sef user for years, is there a discount/upgrade path I can take, or do I just pay full price?

4SEF is available (has been for several months) as part of your sh404SEF subscription so you can have it today, in the downloads. There's only one subscription for sh404SEF / 4SEF. 4SEO is a separate product, doing the job of 4 to 5 SEO extensions, at about half their price, there's definitely no room for any form of discount at any time, grouped or not.

Best regards

Yannick Gaultier

weeblr.com / @weeblr

Hi

 It wasn't for me. That's why I was asking. I purchased 4SEF at the full price,  invoice #8O56WJCDGN3M so I could use it, as my websites are running out of time. Since you offered me a 20% discount on renewing my sh404sef that expires on the 16th, I was hoping for a discount on the 4SEF. 

I'm not sure I follow you. If you - or someone else - has a renewal discount on an sh404SEF subscription, then they also have that discount on 4SEF because sh404SEF and 4SEF are one and the same subscription. That's the point: if you are an sh404SEF user, then you move on to 4SEF transparently, with the same subscription, keeping your renewal discount.

You actually cannot purchase 4SEF today, there's no 4SEF subscription, only the sh404SEF + 4SEF one. I'm sure I'm missing something here.

In any case, the renewal discount is the only discount we do, at any time, or in any situation, per the above reasons.

Best regards

Yannick Gaultier

weeblr.com / @weeblr

Hi

I get confused sometimes when two different products are only one letter apart. That's why I included my invoice number so you could look at it and see what I was talking about.

Well, I had hope "For SEF" and "For SEO" would set them apart but indeed just one letter may still be confusing. It's easier with 4Logs, 4Video, etc but in that particular case "SEF" and "SEO" really is what each extension is about.

So, going from sh404SEF to 4SEO, no upgrade path? Because sh404SEF doesn't work on Joomla 4

There isn't, because 4SEO is not a successor to sh404SEF. It does not do the main part of sh404SEF (SEF URLs) and it does big, major things that sh404SEF could not do (Structure data, Sitemap, Content replacer, Broken links detection, to list a few).

Now that I have it installed, how can I get the "index.php" out of the URL? Right now it's "mysite.com.com/index.php/blog/article-name" when all of the links I have scattered throughout the Internet is "mysite.com.com/blog/article-name".

This is a Joomla option, not a 4SEO (which does not do anything with URLs anyway), 4SEF or even sh404SEF. It's under "Use URL rewriting" in Joomla global configuration.

Best regards

Yannick Gaultier

weeblr.com / @weeblr