How to keep URLs in sync btwen shop nav and menu

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10 years 3 months ago #164411

-- url of the page with the problem -- : livelaughlove.com
-- HikaShop version -- : 2.3.2
-- Joomla version -- : 3.3.1

This is something that has been baffling me in Hikashop for some time and I would love to understand how to make it work.

I start with a menu called "shop" in my main menu. It has an itemid of 108 and the link is

index.php?option=com_hikashop&view=category&layout=listing&Itemid=108

If I click on that menu I land in a page with subcategories. One of them is called "cards & Stationary" and the link from inside the hikashop navigation (by clicking on the category Icon) is:
index.php?option=com_hikashop&task=listing&ctrl=category&cid=17&name=cards-stationary&Itemid=108
Note that it carries the "shop" link itemID>

However, I also created a menu link to the same category and the link generated by joomla (I used menu type Hikashop>>>"Products Listing")
index.php?option=com_hikashop&task=listing&ctrl=category&cid=17&name=cards-stationary&Itemid=272

So now I have 2 links going to the same page. One generated by the "shop" menu:
index.php?option=com_hikashop&task=listing&ctrl=category&cid=17&name=cards-stationary&Itemid=108
and one generated by the joomla menu
index.php?option=com_hikashop&task=listing&ctrl=category&cid=17&name=cards-stationary&Itemid=272

Respectively the generate these SEF URLs:
http://livelaughlove.com/live-laugh-love-shop/category/17-cards-stationary
and
http://livelaughlove.com/cards-and-stationary
'
Even more intriguing, I have not found a way to associate a module to the '17-cards-stationary' page while the one with its own menu works flawlessly.

I think I need to rebuild the entire navigation of the site, but I need to understand how to avoid having multiple links for the same page.
I don't care if it has an ID or not (probably better with the ID to avoid problems) but I do care if I have different pages for the same category. Especially if I cannot assign modules to them.

Please do test the site in this manner:

1) Click on the main menu >> Shop >> Cards & Stationary (from the subcategories list in the content area).
SEF URL: livelaughlove.com/live-laugh-love-shop/c.../17-cards-stationary
J URL: index.php?option=com_hikashop&task=listing&ctrl=category&cid=17&name=cards-stationary&Itemid=108

2) Now click on the left menu on "cards & stationary" (this menu is called Hikashop Accordion)
SEF URL: livelaughlove.com/cards-and-stationary/c.../17-cards-stationary
J URL: index.php?option=com_hikashop&task=listing&ctrl=category&cid=17&name=cards-stationary&Itemid=272

3) Now click on the horizontal menu below the main menu
SEF URL: livelaughlove.com/cards-and-stationary
J URL: index.php?option=com_hikashop&view=category&layout=listing&Itemid=272

Notice that 1 & 2 have the same SEF URL while 2 & 3 have the same itemID.

The goal for me is to end up with a single and identical page that shares the same URL. If I have to use some third party SEF program I'll be happy to. Ace SEF was the one suggested by hikashop, but it's no longer available from the Joomla extension. <Maybe someone knows of a good substitute or some other trick I can use to get these URLs under control.

Thank you.


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Last edit: 10 years 3 months ago by conticreative.
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10 years 3 months ago #164442

Hi,

Set the option "Force canonical URLs on listings" of the HikaShop configuration to "Use canonical URL if specified".
Then, edit your categories and in the "Canonical URL" field, enter the URL that you want to be used for each category among the three ones you have. Then, all the links will be this one.

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10 years 3 months ago #164522

Thank you. Now I remember this one. I knew there was a way but I could not remember.

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10 years 3 months ago #164534

I have another question related to this: the canonical URLs work great, except that I am using the " Skyline Nested Accordion For HikaShop Module" and that menu module seems to ignore the canonical URL completely.

I am planning to use Artio SEF anyway and I should be able to fix it with that but shouldn't this me nu module work with the canonical URL?

An example is:

Category Jewelry
Canonical URL: livelaughlove.com/jewelry
Skyline menu URL: livelaughlove.com/jewelry/category/13-jewelry

Is there a way to fix that?

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10 years 3 months ago #164550

Well, I just realized that the Skyline menu is really messing out things badly.
In fact, it is confusing the last two categories in the menu:

Shop                     108 option=com_hikashop&view=category&layout=listing&Itemid=108
apparel                 274 option=com_hikashop&ctrl=category&task=listing&cid=12&name=apparel&Itemid=274
Accessories         275 option=com_hikashop&ctrl=category&task=listing&cid=14&name=accessories&Itemid=275
Jewelry                  276 option=com_hikashop&ctrl=category&task=listing&cid=13&name=jewelry&Itemid=276
Home & Garden  277 option=com_hikashop&ctrl=category&task=listing&cid=16&name=home-garden&Itemid=278
Cards&Stat           278 option=com_hikashop&ctrl=category&task=listing&cid=17&name=cards-stationary&Itemid=108
Note that in "Home and Garden" the URL has the itemID of the "Card and Stationary" link (278)
Also, "Home and Garden" is carrying the ID of the Shop (108) while the other link are not affected at all and look normal.

I am honestly baffled by this, but I opened a ticket with the Skyline Accordion Menu and I hope to hear from them soon.
For my part, I looked at the links and menus, modules, etc and they bare all in good order AFAICS. There is no reason why "Home & Garden" should have the ID of the menu after it and that menu should carry the "Shop": itemid. Bizarre.

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10 years 3 months ago #164557

Hi,

The Skyline module is not compatible with that option of HikaShop as far as I know (that's something we only added a few months ago while the skyline module has been developed a long time ago). It will require the developers of that module to adap slightly their code in order to use the new SEF URL creation system of HikaShop.

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10 years 3 months ago #164660

Thank you. That may be the reason I haven't got a response to my ticket.

Do you suggest I ditch the menu and build it manually? I cannot have those URLs so messed up.

Of course, I could also just use some SEF third party program to point all the URLs to a single on. We don't have that many categories to manage so it would be viable for us.

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10 years 3 months ago #164712

Hi,

I don't know the code of that extension so I can't help on this, so if the support is not answering you, you'll have to ditch it yes.
You can try this extension instead (it does roughly the same thing):
www.joomlack.fr/en/joomla-extensions/accordeonmenu-ck
I don't think that they modified yet their extension to handle that but the support should hopefully be more responsive.

SEF alias is also an option yes. It's your call :)

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10 years 3 months ago #164887

The developer for the Skyline menu came through and it now works just fine. In fact it even picks up the canonical link as far as I can tell and it no longer displays one category as a subcategory of its peer.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

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