[jlangevin]

rmoore, i think you have rewrites and redirects confused

this is how it goes:

mod_rewrite (htaccess) is used to transparently (hidden to users and search engines) map a static url to a dynamic location

redirects are *only* used when a user or search engine visits the old *dynamic* url, which is when a 301 redirect sends the user to the new static url. this occurs in PHP

using htaccess/mod_rewrite does nothing that a search engine would see, so what you're concerned with is the 301 redirect that occurs in the PHP script


as for my question to you, i wasn't asking how to programmatically change XC SEO, but it was more of, how would you handle the duplicate url issue?

i.e.- my solution for the duplicate urls (dynamic old url vs the static new url) was to 301 redirect the old urls to the new url location, which works well for me. but if this 301 redirect is of concern to you, the only alternative i see is to allow duplicate urls

so, x-cart already has a dynamic url to view the product. then there is also another variant of the url to view the product, but this url will include the category id and page id. additionally, if you have the static shop generation enabled in x-cart (which creates a physical page for each url), there is at LEAST 1 additional url for each page, if not more

so add in XC SEO's "static" representation of the urls, you essentially double these numbers, if there is no redirection


OR, you can use XC SEO, which redirects all old urls to their new location. additionally, if you are an SE, you will only see 1 possible variant of a url for each page, vs the multiple possible versions (again, regarding the inclusion of category id, page id, etc, in addition to other variables that have to be rewritten for x-cart)


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so, my question to you is, how would you suggest that the multiple url situation be handled? that it be left alone, so that there are 10-15 urls per page (with XC SEO installed, and X-Cart's old dynamic urls still accessible), or have 1-5 urls per page for users, 1 url for SE's?

or, do you have another suggestion? (I'm very open to suggestions, fire away)