ZENVERSE » phpbb http://zenverse.net Design and Web Development Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:49:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 SEO for PHPBB3 – Site Title, Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions http://zenverse.net/seo-for-phpbb3-site-title-meta-keywords-and-meta-descriptions/ http://zenverse.net/seo-for-phpbb3-site-title-meta-keywords-and-meta-descriptions/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:33:18 +0000 Zen http://zenverse.net/?p=1275 No offence, but the fact is phpBB has a lot of weaknesses, not seo-friendly being one of them. However, with some simple steps you can improve the SEO of your phpBB. Here in this guide, we will add some basic SEO features to your phpBB by using a better Site Title, adding Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions. I am using phpBB 3.0.5 for this guide.

A Better Site Title

This is the default site title for phpBB subSilver2 theme.

?View Code HTML
<title>{SITENAME} &bull; <!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->{L_MCP} &bull; <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->{L_UCP} &bull; <!-- ENDIF -->{PAGE_TITLE}</title>

According to the codes above, no matter where you are, your site name would be shown first. This is recommended for your main forum index, but not for viewforum and viewtopic. For better SEO, your forum title or topic title should appear first. That can be achieved by the following codes.

Open your template’s overall_header.php, look for <title></title> tags (like above) and replace it with the following :

?View Code HTML
<title><!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->{L_MCP} &bull; <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->{L_UCP} &bull; <!-- ENDIF -->
   <!-- IF SCRIPT_NAME == "index" -->{SITENAME} - {SITE_DESCRIPTION}
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "viewforum" -->{FORUM_NAME} | {SITENAME}
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "viewtopic" -->{TOPIC_TITLE} | {SITENAME}
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "posting" --><!-- IF S_USER_LOGGED_IN --><!-- IF TOPIC_TITLE -->{L_TOPIC} - {TOPIC_TITLE}<!-- ELSE -->{L_FORUM}<!-- IF FORUM_NAME --> - {FORUM_NAME}<!-- ENDIF --><!-- ENDIF --><!-- ELSE -->{SITENAME}<!-- ENDIF -->
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "ucp" -->{L_VIEWING_UCP} - {PAGE_TITLE}<!-- IF CUR_FOLDER_NAME -->{CUR_FOLDER_NAME}<!-- ENDIF -->
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "mcp" -->{L_VIEWING_MCP}<!-- IF PAGE_TITLE --> - {PAGE_TITLE}<!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF L_TITLE --> - {L_TITLE}<!-- ENDIF -->
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "faq" -->{L_VIEWING_FAQ} - {L_FAQ_TITLE}
    <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "search" -->{L_SEARCH} <!-- IF SEARCH_TITLE --> - {SEARCH_TITLE}<!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF SEARCH_MATCHES --> - {SEARCH_MATCHES}<!-- ENDIF --> | {SITENAME}
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "memberlist" --><!-- IF S_USER_LOGGED_IN -->{PAGE_TITLE}
    <!-- IF S_SHOW_GROUP --> - {GROUP_NAME}<!-- ENDIF --> | {SITENAME}<!-- ELSE -->{SITENAME}<!-- ENDIF -->
   <!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "chat" -->{L_VIEWING_CHAT}
   <!-- ELSE -->Viewing Undefined page<!-- ENDIF --></title>

This is an edited version of codes taken from another website (I forgot). I found this site title suits me well. Change things around to suit your need.

Now here’s how your site title looks like:

Forum index : Site Name – Forum Description
View Forum : Forum Title | Site Name
View Topic : Topic Title | Site Name

Adding Meta Descriptions

Also in overall_header.php, add this at anywhere in the <head> tag.

?View Code HTML
<meta name="description" content="<!-- IF SCRIPT_NAME == "viewforum" -->{FORUM_DESC}
<!-- ELSEIF SCRIPT_NAME == "viewtopic" -->{MESSAGE_TRIMMED}<!-- ELSE -->YOUR DEFAULT META CONTENT<!-- ENDIF -->" />

Replace the “YOUR DEFAULT META CONTENT” with the meta description of your site. It will be used on pages when its not viewforum or viewtopic.

MESSAGE_TRIMMED is undefined, yet.

As you can see the template tag {MESSAGE_TRIMMED} is undefined. {MESSAGE_TRIMMED} is a new template tag that should carry not more than 150 characters of the content of first post because most search engines use a maximum of 160 characters for the description.

Open your_phpbb_root/viewtopic.php, look for:

?View Code PHP
define('IN_PHPBB', true);

Replace with:

?View Code PHP
$zvloop = 0;
define('IN_PHPBB', true);

Next, look for:

?View Code PHP
if (isset($cp_row['row']) && sizeof($cp_row['row']))

If you can’t find the line, stop finding and paste the codes below after the big $postrow array. if you found it, paste this codes below before the line:

?View Code PHP
  if ($zvloop == 0) {
    $zv_topic_trimmed = substr(strip_tags($postrow['MESSAGE']),0,150);
  $zvloop++;
  }

Lastly, look for:

?View Code PHP
// Output the page
page_header($user->lang['VIEW_TOPIC'] . ' - ' . $topic_data['topic_title']);

Replace it with:

?View Code PHP
$template->assign_vars(array(
	'MESSAGE_TRIMMED' => $zv_topic_trimmed
));
 
// Output the page
page_header($user->lang['VIEW_TOPIC'] . ' - ' . $topic_data['topic_title']);

That’s it for meta description.

Adding Meta Keywords

Although meta keywords is not important anymore, there’s no harm adding it.

Paste this after your meta description and change the keywords. It wll be used throughout your forum so use suitable keywords.

?View Code HTML
<meta name="keywords" content="seperate,your,keywords,using,comma,without,any,blank,space" />

Any comments or corrections are welcomed.

]]> http://zenverse.net/seo-for-phpbb3-site-title-meta-keywords-and-meta-descriptions/feed/ 12 Session Integration for phpBB 3 in Different Folders or Subdomains http://zenverse.net/session-integration-for-phpbb-3-in-different-subdomains/ http://zenverse.net/session-integration-for-phpbb-3-in-different-subdomains/#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:08:31 +0000 Zen http://zenverse.net/?p=1126 If you came from search engine, I bet you have read this guide “phpBB 3 cross-site session integration” at phpBB website. If you haven’t, please read if you need to understand the codes better (more descriptions at the page).

NOTE : if you need to integrate session for a custom file in the same folder as the forum, read this guide instead.

Recently I looked into this matter because I need to integrate the forum’s session with my premium themes area (which should be up in 24-48 hours).

This tutorial has 2 parts:

You need to follow session integration for Different Folders first before going for Different Subdomains.

Session Integration in Different Folders

Create a custom php file

Let’s look into “Different Folder” first. In my case, I created a new folder outside the forums folder. In other words, my forum directory is public_html/mysite/forums and my new folder is at public_html/mysite/testing.

Create a file called ‘index.php’ inside ‘testing’ folder and paste the following codes into the file:

?View Code PHP
<?php
 
define('IN_PHPBB', true);
define('ROOT_PATH', "../forums");
$forumurl = 'http://mysite.com/forums';
$newurl = 'http://mysite.com/testing';
 
if (!defined('IN_PHPBB') || !defined('ROOT_PATH')) {
    exit();
}
 
$phpEx = "php";
$phpbb_root_path = (defined('PHPBB_ROOT_PATH')) ? PHPBB_ROOT_PATH : ROOT_PATH . '/';
include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.' . $phpEx);
 
$user->session_begin();
$auth->acl($user->data);
 
?>

If you want to show all your stored user data variable, use this :

echo '<pre>'; var_dump($user); echo '</pre>';

Edit line 4 with the path to forums folder. In my case, it is ../forums.
Edit line 5 with the URL to the forum.
Edit line 6 with the URL to the new folder.

Identify logged-in users and guest

The codes below explain it all.

?View Code PHP
<?php if ($user->data['user_id'] == ANONYMOUS) { ?>
// content for guests
<?php } else { ?>
// content for members
<?php } ?>

Login directly at your new folder

This is where I stopped following the guide because the login and logout method does not work for me. I added a login form myself:

?View Code PHP
<form action="<?php echo $forumurl; ?>ucp.php?mode=login" method="post">
<input type="text" name="username" value="" /><br />
<input type="password" name="password" value="" /><br />
<input type="checkbox" name="autologin" value="1" /> Remember Me<br />
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="<?php echo $newurl; ?>" />
<input type="submit" name="login" value="Login" /> </form>
Not a member? <a href="<?php echo $forumurl; ?>ucp.php?mode=register">Register now</a>!

Note that the form has a username field and a password field, a checkbox with “remember me” option, a link to register and it redirects back to the new folder after login.

Logout link

Logging out would need your session id. You can get that id from $user->data['session_id']. This is the logout link :

?View Code PHP
<a href="<?php echo $forumurl; ?>ucp.php?mode=logout&sid=<?php echo $user->data['session_id']; ?>&redirect=<?php echo $newurl; ?>">Log Out</a>

Suming up (up to here)

So until here, I have this codes in my public_html/mysite/testing/index.php.

?View Code PHP
<?php 
 
define('IN_PHPBB', true);
define('ROOT_PATH', "../forums");
$forumurl = 'http://mysite.com/forums';
$newurl = 'http://mysite.com/testing';
 
if (!defined('IN_PHPBB') || !defined('ROOT_PATH')) {
    exit();
}
 
$phpEx = "php";
$phpbb_root_path = (defined('PHPBB_ROOT_PATH')) ? PHPBB_ROOT_PATH : ROOT_PATH . '/';
include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.' . $phpEx);
 
$user->session_begin();
$auth->acl($user->data);
 
?>
 
<?php if ($user->data['user_id'] == ANONYMOUS) { ?>
// content for guests - login form
<form action="<?php echo $forumurl; ?>ucp.php?mode=login" method="post">
<input type="text" name="username" value="" /><br />
<input type="password" name="password" value="" /><br />
<input type="checkbox" name="autologin" value="1" /> Remember Me<br />
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="<?php echo $newurl; ?>" />
<input type="submit" name="login" value="Login" /> </form>
Not a member? <a href="<?php echo $forumurl; ?>ucp.php?mode=register">Register now</a>!
 
<?php } else { ?>
// content for members - logout link
 
<a href="<?php echo $forumurl; ?>ucp.php?mode=logout&sid=<?php echo $user->data['session_id']; ?>&redirect=<?php echo $newurl; ?>">Log Out</a>
 
<?php } ?>

It displays a login form for guest and a logout link for member.

Redirect after login and logout

Login redirect is already done if you followed my codes above. It was done using a hidden input with name “redirect”. However, logout redirect need some tweaks to work.

Open ucp.php from your forum’s main folder and look for:

?View Code PHP
meta_refresh(3, append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}index.$phpEx"));

Replace with :

?View Code PHP
meta_refresh(3, append_sid(request_var('redirect', "{$phpbb_root_path}index.$phpEx")));

Look for :

?View Code PHP
$message = $message . '<br /><br />' . sprintf($user->lang['RETURN_INDEX'], '<a href="' . append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}index.$phpEx") . '">', '</a> ');

Replace with :

?View Code PHP
$message = $message . '<br /><br />' . sprintf($user->lang['RETURN_INDEX'], '<a href="' . append_sid(request_var('redirect', "{$phpbb_root_path}index.$phpEx")) . '">', '</a> ');

Explaination : The meta refresh now check for $_GET['redirect'] and use the value if it is found.

Session Integration in Different Subdomains

You need to follow the guide above for the edits in ucp.php.

This is the guide to use same session for different subdomains. EG: your forum URL is http://forums.mysite.com and new subdomain is http://testing.mysite.com

Based on the codes above, I changed line 5 and 6 to my new URL:

?View Code PHP
$forumurl = 'http://forums.mysite.com/';
$newurl = 'http://testing.mysite.com/';

Change Cookie domain

This step is a must for different subdomains.

Login into admin panel > Server configuration > Cookie settings

Change the cookie domain to your main domain with a dot in front. In my case, my cookie domain is

.mysite.com

This edit makes cookie visible on all subdomains of mysite.com

Redirection after login and logout don’t work!

If you noticed, the redirect after login or logout does not work anymore. This is because the redirect() and meta_refresh() functions in phpBB do not allow external redirect by default.

Open includes/functions.php from forum’s folder :

Look for :

?View Code PHP
function redirect($url, $return = false, $disable_cd_check = false)

Replace with :

?View Code PHP
function redirect($url, $return = false, $disable_cd_check = true)

Look for :

?View Code PHP
function meta_refresh($time, $url, $disable_cd_check = false)

Replace with :

?View Code PHP
function meta_refresh($time, $url, $disable_cd_check = true)

EXPLAINATION : Why don’t I add third argument with value of “boolean true” in the redirect() function in ucp.php?
I tried but it doesn’t work. Maybe it is a bug? To achieve what I want, I have to edit the third argument’s default value in functions.php.

End.

Hope this helps you. All comments are appreciated. If I missed something, tell me.

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