links through the cgi-bin. workaround?

[dave_finlayson]

Interesting, do we get a clue???

If anyone has a pointer in the right direction I will happily sit down and see if I can work it out!!!!!

[dave_finlayson]

Anyone ever come up with anything for this?

[gabrielcrowe]

bloody hell Malcolm, are you going to tell the man or what?

[gabrielcrowe]

solution

well, i solved this one.

this was my solution path:

1 - create and fill an online database of products urls and their references
2 - parse the html of a page for cgi bin links
3 - access database and swap them links out and swap in solid urls
4 - page is displayed in browser with real links in real time

[dead links removed]

(this page is the default page for the site)

atm, only this page has this feature, for testing, its not sitewide.


now for the technical bits:
This came to be while i was working on an sql sync plugin for Actinet. this plugin simply takes the product data from your Actinic catalog and sends it to an sql database online. this data is then used to populate the dealfinder on the site and also the links on the front page.

the sql plugin will come with source code to get you started with your own interactive elements and how to get data out of the database. the code will be in easy insertable chunks and in asp, as well as php.

the idea is that the interactivities will add features such as 'review this product' and 'best sellers' and the likes, to versions of actinic that dont support them, like version 7, for example.

ideas? feedback? suggested pricing for those that know about this kind of thing?

[gabrielcrowe]

also, i forgot to mention, that this modification does not require any change to the actinic templates that bjuild the sections. the page is 'intercepted' as it's sent to the browser for the link swapout to take place.

user friendly see.

[Mike Hughes]

Impressive stuff.

It's a pity actinic doesn't have any 'hooks' that would allow a plugin to run at various points in the 'check, build and upload' process.

for example if your plugin could be kicked off by actinic after it had built the pages but before they were uploaded then that would be ideal. All you'd need to do is replace the cgi links with static ones and then let actinic carry on with it's stuff.

Of course this is something actinic should be able to do anyway. The database is already there so all they have to do is use it properly.

I prefer to have my pages static and avoid real time procesing on the server so my preference is to have all the processing done on the PC before anything gets uploaded if at all possible.

Mike

[gabrielcrowe]

the images on that front page are also processed, using the gd library.

they are resampled in real time from the product images.

you'll find that technique also in the dealfinder. so that i dont get nasty jaggy images.

its a compromise.

server cpu spins hot -or- bandwidth hogging jpgs.

[gabrielcrowe]

actually, thats a very good idea.

i think its possible to watch the folder and then manipulate the files as actinic drops them in there.

then when actinic uploads, it uploads the modified ones.

lets see if i cant make that work. brb.

[Darren B]

an old thread i know, but wondered if we are any further on with a work around, did changes to this ever make the wish list?

These days google is now telling me i have duplicate content for actual url's and cgi-bin links. It's great that SE's are following cgi links but not so good that it now thinks this is duplicate content

[Duncan Rounding]

You could block cgi-bin links in your htaccess file if you wanted but if you just left it as it is then surely it would just mean that only one set of links would make it to the index anyway?

[Darren B]

You could block cgi-bin links in your htaccess file if you wanted but if you just left it as it is then surely it would just mean that only one set of links would make it to the index anyway?

Thanks duncan

I did contemplate blocking cgi-links, but if these could be proper url's then surely this would be better for internal linking. From what i understood, internal linking was also important and blocking the cgi-bin would kill most of this.

hmmm, seems i might just have to then, i had hoped that someone had fond a work around. Thought it was worth asking though

Cheers
Darren