Installation and configuring plug-in URL Redirect Manager for nopcommerce.
The plugin redirects the old and broken URLs of your store to the right pages (301, 302, 303, 307), answers the selected URLs with a status code (204, 403, 404, 410) and keeps a log of the 404 errors, so you see which pages still need a redirect.
It's easy to configure the plugin. See pictures.
1. After installing, the plugin adds the menu 'FoxNetSoft' - 'Redirect Manager' with three pages: 'Url rewrites', 'List of 404 errors' and 'Configure'.
2. Open 'Configure'.
'Enabled' turns all redirects and the 404 log on or off.
'Remove localized prefix from the URL'. Enable it if your store has the language code in the URL (/en/, /de/). The plugin removes the language code before it looks for a rule, so one rule 'old-page' works for /en/old-page and /de/old-page. It works only when 'SEO friendly URLs with multiple languages enabled' is on in the nopCommerce settings.
'Enable log of 404 errors' saves every URL of your store that answers 404 in the 'List of 404 errors'.
3. 'Url rewrites' lists all your rules. You could search them by 'Request Url', 'Target Url' and 'Redirect type', edit or delete a rule in the grid. 'Delete All' removes every rule.
The redirect type of a saved rule can't be changed. Delete the rule and add it again with the new type.
A new or changed rule works at once, you don't need to restart the store.
4. Add a new rule in the block 'Add new record' under the grid.
'Store'. 'All' or one store. A rule for one store wins over a rule for all stores.
'Request Url'. The old URL without the domain, e.g. 'old-page' or 'shop/notebooks/apple-macbook-pro.html'. You could paste the full URL, the plugin removes your domain and the first '/'.
A '*' at the end of the 'Request Url' catches every URL that starts with the text before it. 'shop/*' catches /shop/notebooks/apple-macbook-pro.html, /shop/books and so on. The '*' works only at the end, there are no regular expressions. Be careful with short masks: 'c*' would also catch /cart and /checkout. Use 'shop/*', not 'shop*'.
'Target Url'. The new URL: a page of your store ('apple-macbook-pro'), a full URL of another site, or a token:
%remover1% - remove the first part of the URL. /category1/category2/product goes to /category2/product.
%lastpart% - go to the last part of the URL. /shop/notebooks/apple-macbook-pro.html goes to /apple-macbook-pro (.html and the query string are removed).
%subPath% - add the part of the URL after the '*'. The rule 'old-catalog/*' with the 'Target Url' 'catalog/%subPath%' sends /old-catalog/notebooks/macbook to /catalog/notebooks/macbook.
'Preserve Query Strings' keeps the query string of the old URL (?utm_source=..., ?gclid=...) on the new URL.
'Comment'. Your note, up to 100 characters.
5. 'Redirect Type'.
'301 Moved Permanently' is the usual choice for a page that has moved. Search engines pass its ranking to the new URL.
'302 Found', '303 See Other' and '307 Temporary Redirect' are for temporary moves.
'204 No Content', '403 Not Authorized', '404 Not Found' and '410 Gone' send only the status code, without a redirect, so they don't need a 'Target Url'. Use '410 Gone' for a page you removed for good.
6. Check a URL before you rely on the rules. Put a URL of your store into 'Request Url' in the block 'Check rules' and press 'Get the target URL'. The plugin shows the 'Target Url' the current rules give.
A rule without a query string also catches the same URL with a query string. The rule 'test1' sends /test1?utm_source=newsletter to its target.
An exact rule wins over a rule with '*'.
7. Many redirects at once. 'Export to CSV' saves all rules to a CSV file. 'Import from CSV' adds the rules from a file in the same format, one rule per line, without a header line:
RequestUrl,TargetUrl,RedirectType,StoreId,Comment,PreserveQueryStrings
The first three columns are required, the rest are optional. RedirectType is the code: 204, 301, 302, 303, 307, 403, 404 or 410. StoreId 0 means all stores. PreserveQueryStrings is True or False.
Example.
iphonex302,iphonex,301
oldmainpage,/,301,0,old home page
shop/*,%lastpart%,301,0,old shop,True
discontinued-item,,410
The import skips a line if its 'Request Url' already has a rule for that store. It doesn't change the old rule. To replace all rules, export them, edit the file, press 'Delete All' and import the file.
8. 'List of 404 errors' shows the URLs of your store that answered 404 and 'Count of requests' for each of them. 'Enable log of 404 errors' must be on. You could search by 'Url' and export all or the selected rows.
Add a rule for the URLs with many requests, then delete them from the list. The plugin doesn't clean the list by itself, so use 'Delete Selected' or 'Delete All' from time to time.
9. The plugin adds the card 'List of Urls' to the product, category and manufacturer edit pages. It shows the SEO names of the page (type 'Default'), its old SEO names and the redirect rules that lead to it, so you see at once which old URLs come to this product. You could delete a redirect here.
10. The plugin checks every request before nopCommerce looks for the page, so it could redirect the old .php, .aspx and .html URLs of your previous shop too. A rule for the URL of an existing page wins, the customer never sees that page. The admin area is never redirected.