Anything Digital Development

All URL generated by sh404SEF are built only once, and then stored in the database to be re-used for subsequent requests. When you change some settings, this may change the way URL are built (for instance, you may decide to include from now on section name in content URL). In such a case, URL stored in the database need to be cleared, and replaced by new ones, so you should click on OK to have URL deleted from the database (see next question, on Rebuilding the URL database)

Please note that starting with version 2.0 of sh404sef, you will not be prompted anymore about "Clearing the URL cache", but rather informed about the possible requirement to do so, and a link will be provided to go to the URL manager and perfom such clearing!

There are also cases when you change a parameter, but this will not alter the way URL are built (for instance activating/de-activating security features or meta tags management). In such case, you should click on Cancel, so that already built URL stay in the database. I changed some settings to change the way my URL looks, and answered OK when prompted to erase the URL cache, but now all I get is 404 : page not found errors

When a page request comes in (mysite.com/I-want-this-page.html for instance), sh404SEF looks into the URL database to find if this URL exists, and what its non-sef, Joomla-understandable counterpart. If the URL does not live in the database, then we don't know what is the non-sef equivalent, and therefore declares a 404 : Page not found error.

When you clear the URL database after changing some parameters, the database is empty, so no URL can be found anymore (except for the home page mysite.com, which will always be accessible)

So now the question becomes : How do I get URL back into the database ?

Well, you need to visit first your homepage. As said before, the home page is always accessible, because Joomla can understand this URL without sh404SEF assistance. When the homepage is viewed, all URL shown on that page will be recalculated and added to the database.

For instance, very often the front page will have the main navigation menu. By loading the front page once in your browser, all URL on your main menu will be recalculated and stored (plus any URL showing on the front page as well, like links to stories, latest news,etc). Now if you click on one of these menu items, you will go to another page. Likewise, when this page is displayed, any link showing on the page will have its URL re-calculated by sh404SEF and stored in the database.

So from one page to the other, all URL are rebuilt as soon as they are displayed on a page. It follows that the recommanded way of handling this is simply to use an online sitemap generator.

Why ? because a sitemap generator will do exactly that : tell it what is your homepage address (http://mysite.com), and it will browse this page, and then follow any link it'll find on this page, and then all links found on all other pages. The result is that it will browse all pages on your site, automatically and rapidly, therefore all URL for your site will be rebuilt by sh404SEF automatically