Allow Dots, Slashes and Spaces in Miva Part Numbers

[lesliekirk]

I have a boat load of questions and maybe this topic should not be a "Dream Feature" request since it's already doable (although not advisable). I just started testing on my dev site and got a result other than what I expected.

Brennan do you think this topic should be moved? Or should I start over with a new post?

[lesliekirk]

URI Management replaces all spaces with dahses and uses the product name (not the code by default)

Yes, I understand by default. But this site would be using the product code, not the product name. What happens then? Still adds dashes? Or will it product the links with the plus like Miva Merchant is currently doing?

[Brennan]

URI Management replaces all spaces with dahses and uses the product name (not the code by default)

[lesliekirk]

lesliekirk your situation sounds a bit different as you are not using URI management already. Your best bet would be to upload a spreadsheet of the old URLs (current structure) to create 301 redirects in URI Management after you generate the new URLs you want (you could also keep the same URL structure you have today by doing this same things but upload them as canonical URLs) As long as you don't have parameters in the URLs this will work great.

I'd like to circle back on this now that I know it's Miva Merchant adding the plus signs into the spaces into the links.

I'd like to turn the URI Management on but I'm not sure what it's going to do when I ask it to generate the URI's. Will it insert the plus signs?

[lesliekirk]

Might need someone from Miva to chime in on that. I can add this URI with no problem.

/some+old+product+code.html

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My bad, I was trying to do it with the spaces, not the plus signs. It working with the plus signs would make perfect sense with what Miva Support just told me:

The Miva Merchant software appears to be using + instead of %20 to replace the spaces by default

[Ron Frigon]

If I try to manually add the old URL with the plus sign I can't.

Might need someone from Miva to chime in on that. I can add this URI with no problem.

/some+old+product+code.html

Capture.JPG

[lesliekirk]

If they're not using URI Management it must be done in .htaccess. In this case you can import the old URL, including the + sign instead of spaces, into URI and be good to go. You're not redirecting the product code, you're redirecting whatever the actual url is.

I guess that's where I am confused. If I try to manually add the old URL with the plus sign I can't. So you are saying I can force the system by doing an import?

Also, the bigger problem, the products do need to be redirected to other product codes. The store owner is creating new product codes (hopefully without the spaces) that these old ones need to be redirected to.

[Ron Frigon]

I'm now wondering if I should take a peek at the current htaccess file. Could they have been inserted via that way?

If they're not using URI Management it must be done in .htaccess. In this case you can import the old URL, including the + sign instead of spaces, into URI and be good to go. You're not redirecting the product code, you're redirecting whatever the actual url is.

[lesliekirk]

That seems odd to me. I would try a couple different browsers. A space should be %20.

I thought so too, but I even looked at on Microsoft Edge, different machine from my daily driver and they are there too. I'm now wondering if I should take a peek at the current htaccess file. Could they have been inserted via that way?

[Ron Frigon]

The browser is output the URL with plus signs in the spaces.

That seems odd to me. I would try a couple different browsers. A space should be %20.

[lesliekirk]

Got it. Then your only real option is to build all the redirects one at a time in the .htaccess file. There is not going to be a rule based way to go from having spaces in the product code to using a sligified product name for example.

What is going to be the best format to use for the URL with spaces in an .htaccess redirect file? The browser is output the URL with plus signs in the spaces.

[Brennan]

Got it. Then your only real option is to build all the redirects one at a time in the .htaccess file. There is not going to be a rule based way to go from having spaces in the product code to using a sligified product name for example.

[lesliekirk]

The URL cannot have spaces only the product code (if you turn off strict validation for codes)

So you're saying the current URL structure has spaces like that?

Yes, the current URL structure has spaces. That is how the vendor provides the product codes, so it's how the store owner inputs them.

[Brennan]

The URL cannot have spaces only the product code (if you turn off strict validation for codes)

So you're saying the current URL structure has spaces like that?

[lesliekirk]

A couple things worth clarifying here.
lesliekirk your situation sounds a bit different as you are not using URI management already. Your best bet would be to upload a spreadsheet of the old URLs (current structure) to create 301 redirects in URI Management after you generate the new URLs you want (you could also keep the same URL structure you have today by doing this same things but upload them as canonical URLs) As long as you don't have parameters in the URLs this will work great.
If you coming from old style Miva long links that does contain URL parameters, your only option is to build a .htaccess file of the old URL to the new URL for each product/category.

So color me confused. Will the uploading of a spreadsheet bypass the errors cause when manually trying to create a URI? There is no plan to update to product codes without the spaces.

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The links are not the old-style long links