Joomla Search Engine Friendly URL help

[quill1959]

I am replicating a vanilla HTML sit with a Joomla version and I am almost ready to go live with it, but I am having trouble checking that Search Engine Friendly URLs are working.

The web site is in a subdirectory of my hosting space as I plan to host more than one Joomla site once I am happy with the setup.

I can't at the moment transfer the DNS for the domain to webhosting.co.uk because the existing site is still live.

I have tried the various things mentioned in forums, I have installed an SEF extension, but every time I turn SEF on, I can no longer navigate to my pages through the menu as I get a 500 error. What I haven't done is set up a mysite variable in the configuration file as I don't have a live domain to set it to. This may of course be the cause of my problems. If I need to do that then what mysite variable do I put in while I am still using the 'temporary URL' to access the administration console and preview.

Is there an idiots guide to setting up Joomla SEF available?

Thanks in advance
Simon.

[Rachel]

Hello Simon,

Welcome to the forums

A major reason to this might be the DNS not pointing to the correct nameservers. Once the domain resolves to our servers and you still face the same issue then it is only the mod_rewrite and .htaccess that needs to be checked.

I will have a tech take a look at the logs and the .htaccess code right away though.

In the meantime if you have any updates, kindly reply to this thread.

[Rachel]

Hello Simon,

Could you give it a try now?

[quill1959]

Originally Posted by Rachel

Hello Simon,

Could you give it a try now?

Hi Rachel.

Apologies for the delay in replying, I have been away for a few days.

I have tried turning on the 'Use Apache mod_rewrite' and 'Add suffix to URLs' options in Joomla again, but whatever I do gives me 404 errors when I click on any of the menu items on the site preview.

As I explained in my original posting, I can't transfer the DNS over yet as the existing site is still active and I would like to know that the SEF URLs are working before I do so anyway.

I admit that I am very new to the Joomla system, so I apologise if I am being an idiot.

I have been following the instructions on
docs.joomla.org/Enabling_Search_Engine_Friendly_(SEF)_URLs

I get to Step 5 under the Apache heading, which suggests that the problem could be

If this option causes errors, please see How to check if mod rewrite is enabled on your server.
If it is not enabled and you have access to the file apache/conf/httpd.conf, open that file and check if the line LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so is uncommented. If necessary, uncomment the line and restart the Apache web server.

Are you able to confirm if mod rewrite is enabled or not. Certainly the test that they mention in the linked page would suggest it isn't.

Regards,
Simon.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by quill1959

Hi Rachel.

Apologies for the delay in replying, I have been away for a few days.

I have tried turning on the 'Use Apache mod_rewrite' and 'Add suffix to URLs' options in Joomla again, but whatever I do gives me 404 errors when I click on any of the menu items on the site preview.

As I explained in my original posting, I can't transfer the DNS over yet as the existing site is still active and I would like to know that the SEF URLs are working before I do so anyway.

I admit that I am very new to the Joomla system, so I apologise if I am being an idiot.

I have been following the instructions on
docs.joomla.org/Enabling_Search_Engine_Friendly_(SEF)_URLs

I get to Step 5 under the Apache heading, which suggests that the problem could be



Are you able to confirm if mod rewrite is enabled or not. Certainly the test that they mention in the linked page would suggest it isn't.

Regards,
Simon.

Hello Simon,

I have asked one of our techs to look into your issue. I will post a update shortly.

Regards,
Ross

[Ross]

Hello Simon,

I have checked your account but did'nt find any rules in .htaccess. You will need to write/set rules in .htaccess first and then test the functionality. If you still face the same issue, then you can contact our support team via Live chat.

Regards,
Ross