SmartTrafficTrader Requires PHP Index? Nooo!
 

So I just installed Smart Traffic Trader on a couple sites and then I noticed that the documentation states that in order to run it on a page, the page must have a .php extension.

"In order to count incoming hits, you need to add a short PHP code to every page where your trades will send traffic to. All those pages must have .php extension, otherwise it won't work (you can't use .shtml, because some features of the script wouldn't work). If they don't have .php extension, rename them (if your index page is index.html, you need to rename it to index.php etc.)."

Why isn't this made known before downloading and installing? Does anyone know of a way around this?

Thanks,
c-lo

you could set Apache to parse html docs with the php parser...or you could recode the software. Either way you need to use php to run it since that is what it's coded in.

Or you can simply include php in your html files

There's really no way around that, but a quick hack (if supported by your server/configuration) is to add php_flag prepend_file /path/to/file.php into your .htaccess and set it to use the php parser via the AddType directive - but this will cause it to be run for EVERY file.

But, in order to be able to successfully do that you need to set a handler to parse html as php.

....scratch that.

do some mod_rewrite magic from index.html to index.php?
but why not just leave it as index.php, why do you want it to have index.html so badly anyway?

One reason is that I'm afraid my page's PR might decrease, plus I'll have to rename every page on all of my sites to .php, change all the directory links, recreate sitemaps, etc.

It just seems like a large hassle. One I could have avoided had they forewarned me on their site.

I appreciate all the help fellas, but seeing as how I'm php illiterate, I have almost no clue as to how to apply the tips you've given me.

I do appreciate it though.

:Oh crap
c-lo

eh, well it looks like the only thing you can do then in your case is to recode the scripts as .html, make a handler be able to parse html as php and that's that...but yea, need a programmer in your case i guess.

Like what woj said. If you have to keep your existing page type... I'm guessing because you have a warning page or something setup on index, use the following (assuming your page is tgp.shtml):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^tgp\.shtml$ tgp.php

just addhandler in httpd.conf for html.. ask your admin to do it, he'll know

Oh, just to add, to setup the handler...
for CPanel with Apache: CPanel Home - Apache Handlers
enter:
.html
x-httpd-php

you could do it through .htaccess if you want email me if you need help
but having it as .php it will not decrease pr

Wow, thanks for all the help fellas.

Okay, say I do go through all the page renaming, etc...how can I make my mainpage (aka blah.com) default to the .php page. I know if I have index.html it will default to that if my domain is typed in, but how would I make it default to index.php when my domain is typed? Surely this is possible.

EDIT: Also, would changing the page extension affect my placement in the SERPs?

Thanking you,
c-lo

again, this is another apache setting to be set in httpd.conf or an .htaccess

Okay, thanks studiocritic...I'll see if I can get my host to configure that for me.

Anyone got an answer to my last question; will the .php change affect my SE placement?

later
c-lo

someone already answered that.. google doesnt care what your files are named.

as far as changing existing links, you'd need to do a proper 301 redirect from all of the old URLs. this could have some temporary negative effects on your rankings. if these are new sites, it doesnt matter at all.

They're aged a little...and actually, I think someone answered the question as to whether or not it would affect pagerank not SE placement.

Well I guess I'm gonna start settin up redirects and changing links...thanks for the help, man.

later
c-lo

shouldv'e done some research :2 cents:

I asked around the forum about different tradescripts a little while back. I've never used a script that had these requirements so it didn't exactly cross my mind. What exactly am I suppose to ask to garner a response of "it requires your entire site to be .php"?

In fact, I've never heard of a script requiring such. I shouldn't have to do research on something like this, it should be on the site. In my opinion, that's like installing Windows Vista and the help files tell you it's not backwards compatible.

:2 cents:
c-lo

it will not matter

Thanks, mattz! :)

In general, you should always have a mod rewrite to define the standard URL, either domain.com or www.domain.com. Example: You want www.domain.com, so you do a rewrite for domain.com, domain.com/index.html and www.domain.com/index.html (or /index.php, whatever you index page's extension is) to automatically change to www.domain.com or you could end up with 4 pages indexed, all with different PR and duplicate content ! Just one idiot linking to domain.com/index.html could (with a little bad luck) ruin your SE rankings, even if you have 1000 incoming links to www.domain.com

How is your domain indexed ? If it's (www.)domain.com/index.html, you'll temporarily face a drop of your PR and ranking, but they will recover over 3-6 months, if it's just (www.)domain.com, there will be no (temporary) interruption in your SE traffic.

Repost, sorry, removed the links on the URLs, better to read:

In general, you should always have a mod rewrite to define the standard URL, either domain.com or www.domain.com. Example: You want www.domain.com, so you do a rewrite for domain.com, domain.com/index.html and www.domain.com/index.html (or /index.php, whatever you index page's extension is) to automatically change to www.domain.com or you could end up with 4 pages indexed, all with different PR and duplicate content ! Just one idiot linking to domain.com/index.html could (with a little bad luck) ruin your SE rankings, even if you have 1000 incoming links to www.domain.com

How is your domain indexed ? If it's (www.)domain.com/index.html, you'll temporarily face a drop of your PR and ranking, but they will recover over 3-6 months, if it's just (www.)domain.com, there will be no (temporary) interruption in your SE traffic.

Oh, I see. Excellent post, StarkReality. I'll try to get that changed.
Would I also make these mod rewrite changes through the .htaccess file?

Thanks,
c-lo