Last post 5 hours 36 min ago

Posts last week 82

Average response time last week 34 min

All time posts 68071

All time tickets 10515

All time avg. posts per day 20

Helpdesk is open from Monday through Friday CET

Please create an (free) account to post any question in the support area.

Please check the development versions area. Look at the changelog, maybe your specific problem has been resolved already!

All tickets are private and they cannot be viewed by anyone. We have made public only a few tickets that we found helpful, after removing private information from them.

#4352 – 404 Errors for aliases already in database

Posted in ‘sh404SEF’

This is a public ticket. Everybody will be able to see its contents. Do not include usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 14:31 UTC

philg-iheartcorp-com

Since updating to version 4.12.0.3715, I get hundreds of external 404 errors for URLs which are already in the alias database.

In external 404 errors:
1) Select an SEF URL
2) On next screen, check the box for the correct SEF URL, then click 'Select redirect target'
3) On next screen, I get the Error Message 'Cannot save alias : this alias already exists in the database.'

I think the prior version of sh404SEF checked the URL for a matching alias before placing these URLs into the 404 list.

Is there now a configuration setting that needs to change? If not, can I get a copy of an earlier version of sh404SEF please?

Thanks.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 14:42 UTC

wb_weeblr

I think the prior version of sh404SEF checked the URL for a matching alias before placing these URLs into the 404 list.

Yes, of course. A page cannot become a 404 if there is a redirect for it.

If that were to happen, then it means the redirects don't work. Have you tried one? what happens?

Please provide at least one full and real URL of such use case. Also maybe a screenshot of those 404s, and one of the aliases, to see exactly how they were created. I don't really understand how something like that is even close to being possible.

Rgds

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 14:54 UTC

philg-iheartcorp-com

Here is an example:

The external 404 SEF UR is 'sportlights/wanna-play-adult-sports/itemlist/tag/Kethy Fenlon'

Scrren capture files attached.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 14:58 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

1 -

If that were to happen, then it means the redirects don't work. Have you tried one? what happens?

2 -

Please provide at least one full and real URL of such use case.

What's the full URL?

Rgds

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 15:00 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi,

ok, please provide us with superadmin credentials to your website. You can create a temporary account, and delete it afterward, but it must have superuser level, it'll be much faster for everyone.

Thanks and regards

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 15:23 UTC

philg-iheartcorp-com

https://www.xxxx.com/administrator/index.php

Username: xxxx
Password: xxxx

No 2FA secret key required

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 16:31 UTC

philg-iheartcorp-com

Please let me know as soon as you are done with this required superadmin access.

I have stopped all normal activity (posting events, press releases, etc.) on this site until after you have completed your access.

Thanks.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 16:43 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

The problem is the space in the original 404., ie the alias created is "sportlights/wanna-play-adult-sports/itemlist/tag/Kethy Fenlon"
But an URL like that does not exist when a user visit this link, the browser transform this into "sportlights/wanna-play-adult-sports/itemlist/tag/Kethy%20Fenlon" as a space is invalid.

To make it work, you have to enter the alias as "sportlights/wanna-play-adult-sports/itemlist/tag/Kethy%20Fenlon". I did that for this example. You do have something strange here, as you also have added an alias for "sportlights/wanna-play-adult-sports/itemlist/tag/Kethy-Fenlon", ie where the space has been properly replaced with a "-".

I don't know where these URLs with a space in them come from, but they are not produced by Joomla or sh404SEF, so there is really no need to redirect them at all

I have stopped all normal activity (posting events, press releases, etc.) on this site until after you have completed your access.

Why? where are those 404 coming from and why is it important to redirect them?

Rgds

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 17:03 UTC

philg-iheartcorp-com

At some point, your program sh404SEF was accepting spaces in the URLs as opposed to %20.

Here is an example:
One of the main attractions in our city is the local speedway, called Oswego Speedway. When I look at the aliases for the oswego speedway tag, here is what I get:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEF url: tag/oswego-speedway.html
Alias List:
oz-life/oz-health/healthy-life/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
oz-life/oz-health/alternative/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
oz-life/life-full/itemlist/tag/oswego speedway
oz-life/oz-health/challenges/itemlist/tag/oswego speedway
oz-life/oz-health/challenges/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
tag/inside-oswego-speed
oz-biz/ladders-companies/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
oz-life/style/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
oz-life/life-full/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
itemlist/tag/Oswego-Speedway.html
oz-life/oz-health/healthy-life/itemlist/tag/oswego speedway
suny-oswego-sports/tag/oswego speedway.html
sportlights/wanna-play-adult-sports/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
oz-life/oz-health/alternative/itemlist/tag/oswego speedway
tag/oswego speedway.html
oz-life/style/itemlist/tag/oswego speedway
suny-oswego-sports/tag/oswego-speedway.html
oswego-speedway/tag/oswego-speedway.html
oz-biz/biz-buzz/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
tag/oswego-speedway/
tag/oswego-spedway.html
tag/inside-oswego-speedway.html
sportlights/sports-info-results/oswego-speedway/itemlist/tag/oswego speedway
sportlights/sports-info-results/oswego-speedway/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
oswego-speedway/itemlist/tag/oswego-speedway
oz-biz/ladders-companies/itemlist/tag/oswego speedway
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You'll notice there are no %20s in this alias list. I did not ass any of these aliases by hand, they were all a result of using the 404 redirection feature.

If the only fix for this is for me to go through all aliases and replace spaces with %20s, that does not seem to be an efficient solution.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 17:11 UTC

wb_weeblr

At some point, your program sh404SEF was accepting spaces in the URLs as opposed to %20.

No, absolutely never. That's not an sh404SEF question. It's been like that since the web was started. Whether Joomla, Wordpress, Drupla or anything else, space is an illegal character in URLs and is either replaced with %20 or a + sign.

You'll notice there are no %20s in this alias list. I did not ass any of these aliases by hand, they were all a result of using the 404 redirection feature.

And those with a space breaks, and those without work fine.

If the only fix for this is for me to go through all aliases and replace spaces with %20s, that does not seem to be an efficient solution.

Not only is this not efficient, but totally not needed and a waste of time. Why do you want to redirect those URLs? Do you have a lot of traffic on them? dozens of 404s per day? what's the problem you are trying to solve?

Anyway, if you want to redirect many similar URls, you may as well use the new generic redirects, which are described in thedocumentation on this page. As you seem to have repetitive patterns, this might be a solution.

But the real solution is to absolutely do not do anything about those URLs with a space. They are 404s, and rightly so, and unless you have many, many of them, they simply just be left as is.

Rgds

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 17:42 UTC

philg-iheartcorp-com

We seem to be going off on a tangent.

The issue I have is that aliases that used to be checked and then accepted since they were in the alias list are now being flagged as a problem, yet when I go to add them to the alias list again, they are not accepted since they are already there.

This is happening for hundreds of URLs per day.

If I can go back to an earlier version of sh404SEF, I'd really appreciate that. This problem was not present before I upgraded.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 18:01 UTC

wb_weeblr

This is happening for hundreds of URLs per day.

Have you looked at the details of those 404s with a space? All of them are created by one single bot, the Majestic bot.

These links are not internal, they are not an SEO issue, they are created by a bot crawling your site.

The issue I have is that aliases that used to be checked and then accepted since they were in the alias list are now being flagged as a problem, yet when I go to add them to the alias list again, they are not accepted since they are already there.

As we have rebuilt the redirect handler to handle generic redirects, it's quite possible that the "Redirect to SEF URL" has lots the ability to handle those invalid URLs.

If I can go back to an earlier version of sh404SEF, I'd really appreciate that. This problem was not present before I upgraded.

This is not a problem, it does not cause any issue at all and does not require any immediate change or action. I have put this request on the change list, and it will be addressed in a future release.

PS: If there is one thing you need to do urgently though, it's to stop the Majestic crawling. They are indeed requesting hundreds of non-existing pages per day on your site.

Rgds

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 18:07 UTC

philg-iheartcorp-com

OK, thanks for your assistance.

This ticket is closed, therefore read-only. You can no longer reply to it. If you need to provide more information, please open a new ticket and mention this ticket's number.