SEF Advance

If you successfully run Joomla! on your web site just make sure that you can run basic built-in SEF (with or without Apache mod_rewrite).

First thing you should check if you get Not Found error is that you have the .htaccess file on your site's root. Note the dot in the beginning!
If you have the file check its content, try replacing it with htaccess.txt included in Joomla package.
If correct .htaccess file is in place then your .htaccess override doesn't work or mod_rewrite module is not activated. Make sure mod_rewrite module is loaded and your server configurations allow .htaccess override.

Make sure you correctly uploaded .htaccess file. It has to be uploaded in ASCII mode! Also make sure that your server configuration allows .htaccess override and that mod_rewrite module is activated.

If you are sure that you correctly uploaded .htaccess file in ASCII mode your server may be missconfigurated forbidding the RewriteRule directive. Try putting following line in your .htaccess file (on the very first row):
Options +FollowSymLinks

SEF Advance is created for Apache web server. Although it has been reported possible to get it working on IIS with some special extensions, we can not offer any support for this configuration.

SEF Advance is very easy to install (just upload it as any other component). However if you need help just contact us. Make sure your server fulfils all the requirements though. We can not assist you to setup mod_rewrite or do server configurations; you should have the built-in SEF working before the purchase.

Apache mod_rewrite commands have certain impact on site load. However, SEF Advance only has a single Apache instruction to point the server to the right file. All logic is purely implemented in PHP. Therefore SEF Advance does not have a significant impact on the server load or speed.

Unlike other SEF components, SEF Advance doesn't store URLs in database to later look them up for conversion. Instead, SEF Advance does all the URL conversions on-the-fly. This method has proven to be more effective in terms of performance because it avoids dealing with database searches on very large, non-indexed, duplicate-entries tables.
Additionally, SEF Advance features disk cache option for further decreasing the load on your database.
SEF Advance has been successfully running on many large sites during the years.

The dynamic modules in Joomla! work on the Itemid concept. It highly depends on the pages you linked to main menu. In order for SEF Advance to find the correct Itemid, the corresponding section / category, blog, item or component must be added to menu and published, with public access.

You don't have to add all articles separately, just can simply create a menu item that links to their root category or section.

If you don't want the links to be visible you can hide them by assigning them to a dummy menu which is not loaded in your template, but the entries must be somewhere in the menu.

You may also need to ensure that you don't have items with duplicate names in the menu. Remove the duplicates (even if they are in different menus). You may also need to empty your trash (make sure that you empty both content and menu trash, they are under separate selections).

Finally, to check which Itemid, if any, is returned activate debug option in SEF Advance configurations.

This indicates that SEF Advance is pulling wrong Itemid from database or no Itemid at all. Make sure that you add all sections (listings or blogs) to main menu. If you don't want them to show you can unpublish them but they must be there.
Also make sure that you don't have duplicate items in the menu. It can happen that you have same links in different menus (e.g. mainmenu and topmenu). In this case delete duplicates and use ordinary relative URLs instead.
Make sure that you empty the trash too as some duplicates may exist there as well.

Yes, the traditional built-in SEF links will still work. SEF Advance will handle requests for old URLs by redirecting to their advanced equivalents. The correct Permanent Redirect header will be returned so search engines will know that they need to replace the old links.
For better ranking on search engines you are encouraged to rewrite the old static links anywhere there you have control. All links within Joomla! / Mambo will change automatically as you install SEF Advance. Even all internal relative non-sef links within the content will be automatically translated to SEF Advance.

When you create an internal hyperlink in your Joomla! content always enter a relative, non-sef URL. A correct example would be:
<a href="/component/content.../?Itemid=134">link</a>
The built-in SEF plugin will then automatically convert this link to SEF Advance.
Note that some editors might override your link. You may want to turn the editor off or view item's HTML code to make sure the link is relative.
The same rule applies when making an internal link in main menu: always use relative, non-sef URL and it will be automatically converted.
By ensuring you are not creating hardcoded static links you gain full control over all links in Joomla. If you later would make a change in your SEF Advance settings all links will follow the new rules and you will not have to worry about any of them being broken.
To find out the non-sef address of the page you want to link to you might want to disable SEF for a moment in your global configurations.

SEF Advance will rewrite core content and all core component URLs to "nice", human friendly, URLs. If the component has SEF Advance extension, it will also get advanced URLs. Otherwise, if component is SEF enabled, its URLs will be same as with standard built-in SEF.

You need to develop SEF Advance extension (sef_ext.php) for your component and put it in the component's main directory. For more info about the extension format read our SEF Advance Extensions Guide.

Yes, but this is subject to additional charges for custom programming. In the first hand you should contact the component's author with request for SEF Advance extension. If he is not willing to do it you can contact me for a quote where cost depends on the component's complexity.

A list of some 3rd party components that utilize SEF Advance extensions can be found here.

If your 3rd party component uses router.php file for core SEF, make sure that you don't have same category names (alias) as the menu entry under which you added this component.
For example, if your component is accessed by http://www.domain.com/resources/ make sure you don't have any category with alias "resources". Otherwise SEF Advance will look for the category instead of finding the component.

If you are on Joomla version 1.7 or later, you can upgrade automatically using one-click-updates. Otherwise, you can upgrade manually: just upload SEF Advance package file on the top of the old installation. If you are on Joomla 1.5 or 1.0, export your settings under the backup option in SEF Advance configuration, uninstall the old version and install the new one through Joomla component installer. Finally, go the backup again and import your settings back.

If you can't find the solution to your problem here please search the forum where you can also ask for help.
If you still have problems you may email us using the contact form. Before contacting us always make sure you are running the latest version of SEF Advance. The issue may already be fixed but you haven't upgraded.