[osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Magic SEO URLs for CRE Loaded.
Fred
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:51 am

[osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Postby Fred » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:32 am

I am currently trying to set a wordpress implementation into an OSC shop, and I have some questions regarding MSU.

My implementation is as follows:

  • [mydomain/catalog/] is, let’s say, the root of OSC
  • Wordpress will be installed in [mydomain/catalog/wordpress/] for I need the OSC framework to behave as master (basically with application_top for every page: sessions, functions, etc.)

My main concern for now (then I will deal with sessions and "single sign on" between both frameworks) is to avoid the MSU rewriting rules that affect all the [mydomain/catalog/] pages.

Is there a simple way to “short-cut” MSU for all the [mydomain/catalog/wordpress] URLs? Am I correct to believe that this could be achieved in the [mydomain/htacess] or in the MSU [mydomain/catalog/htacess]? Any other suggestion?

Thanks for your help

Fred
Tienda Olokuti - Comercio justo, bio, eco

inveo
Inveo Support
Posts: 1285
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:07 pm
Contact:

Re: [osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Postby inveo » Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:05 pm

I am expecting tons of troubles if you are going to merge Wordpress and osCommerce in any way, but no with Rewrite Rules/MSU.
I recommend you to keep Wordpress and osCommerce separately (no file sharing/include/etc).

Fred
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:51 am

Re: [osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Postby Fred » Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:21 pm

Well, I also see tons of problems...but on the other hand, I need it.
Let me explain.

First, I am not seeking to get famous as a blogger, just to add quality and relevant content related with what we sell, in order to increase traffic to the shop and domain. So it needs to be SEO-linked, which means sharing the domain.

What I want is to make it transparent for the user:
  1. 1 login --> this means somehow a single sign on strategy
  2. Switching between shopping cart pages and blog elements without losing user information (for instance adding an item to the shopping cart, directly from an article in the blog) --> this means sharing session (as far as I know)
  3. maintain SEO-optimized out-of-the-box wordpress structure and MSU-patched OSC structure --> this means leaving wordpress urls untouched by MSU rewriting

These 3 points are crucial and need to be solved, and as would say Dr House, "Differential analysis!"

Well, points 1 and 3 could probably be solved without wordpress being inside the OSC framework ("application_topped"). But I cannot imagine how to handle point 2 without sharing the session and all the application-top stuff... can you?

My technical approach could be wrong. It could also be tremendously hard to implement. But the idea is good. So if you have any other technical suggestion to achieve all this, do not doubt it a minute.

Now, my question about how to short-cut MSU rewriting on some URLs is still valid... how can I achieve that?

Thanks

inveo
Inveo Support
Posts: 1285
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:07 pm
Contact:

Re: [osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Postby inveo » Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:54 am

Fred wrote:These 3 points are crucial and need to be solved, and as would say Dr House, "Differential analysis!"


I understand your reasons, but you can trust me it is better to have well working web site than such Features.

Fred wrote:But I cannot imagine how to handle point 2 without sharing the session and all the application-top stuff... can you?


No since MSU does not use osCommerce/WP API.

Fred wrote:Now, my question about how to short-cut MSU rewriting on some URLs is still valid... how can I achieve that?


The question is what do you mean by short cutting - as I already wrote, there are no any extra actions required on MSU side if you want to use osCommerce and WP your way.

Fred
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:51 am

Re: [osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Postby Fred » Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:28 pm

I understand your reasons, but you can trust me it is better to have well working web site than such Features


I agree on the priority of having a well working web site. But if you can have something better, and keep it working, I suppose it is worth giving it a chance. So I have been investigating and got some results. Indeed, point 2 was not that complicated. Without any code, I can now switch (navigate) between both envs without losing any information (cart content) or add items to the cart, directly from the posts of the blog.

As regard MSU-specific question (point 3), I confirm that MSU leaves untouched non-OSC URLs, so there should not be any rewriting conflicts.

As soon as I get it implemented (could take a while for non-technical reasons), I will post a link to the site.

Cheers,

Fred

Meursault-2
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:29 am

Re: [osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Postby Meursault-2 » Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:48 am

Hi Fred et al,

As someone facing a similar WordPress/OSC challenge, (my proposed setup is virtually identical to the one you outline in your original post), any update on whether/how you were able to solve the switching between frameworks issue, (i.e how to maintain user info, shopping cart details) would be invaluable.

Many thanks.

Meursault-2

Fred
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:51 am

Re: [osCommerce] Short-cutting MSU rewriting for specific URLs

Postby Fred » Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:36 am

Hi Meursault-2,

Well, I did it but it cost me far more than I mentioned in an earlier post, where I claimed to have solved point 2.

You can see it working at http://www.olokuti.com
Create a user in "Registrate", add products to your cart, then go to "Blog", then back to Tienda Online (or any other tag, page, etc.)... and you can see that the information is maintained all the way through.

I spent 1 month and a half working on the subject. The reason was also my too basic knowledge of sessions handling (It's far better by now, believe me!). And that is exactly why I use frameworks: for their very first layers (login, sessions, etc.) which have been heavily tested, and have no reasons to be modified from one project to another.

Regarding OSC-WP, I found no help or real solutions on the net. Even commercial products that claimed to handle the issue (exactly as I thought I had at first) were not really integrating both frameworks, and information was lost on certain (in fact very frequent!) conditions.

What I can say is that the solution maintains 2 separated installations of both frameworks (wwwroot/osc and wwwroot/wp) along with their own rewriting rules, and does not mean a big code-rewriting : it's clean, fast (keeps performance as good as it was), and flawless (as far as I know... any bug report greatly appreciated).

However, it is not the kind of "try this line of code" solution, and it could also depend on your own server configuration, security, etc. I am working as an IT freelance consultant. So if your need is professional, feel free to contact me through the mailbox.