[Typo3-dev] OT: RealUrl importance? [was: 3.6.2 to be releasedsoon]

[Ernesto Baschny]

Hi!

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004, JoH wrote:

> >  It is important because <your site>/sports/ means something to users,
> > <your site>/483.6.html does not.
>
> But <your site>/sports.html does, right?
> And even <your site>/sports.0.html will do.
> This can be done by using aliases and simulate static documents.
> So where's the reason for the hype about realURL?

Besides "looking nice", there are a couple of more reasons why we want
and need realURL (nobody would have cared about writing this extension if
it wasn't that case):

The RealURL is logged by Apache, and I can nicely generate reports and
statistics for sub-parts of my site. If I have a bunch of .html-files in
the same root-hierarchy, I have no easy way to distinguish them in the
logs.

Another reason is that many search engines WILL score based on parts of
the URL, pathnames, etc, so if I have meaningful stuff in the URL, it will
make it easier for people to find it.

Another reason is to quickly "go down (or up) a path" in a site that does
not provide links to do that in a meaningful way. Even providing links,
its sometimes faster to just "cut down" the URL until the part you want to
navigate to. Haven't you ever manipulated the URL in the browser's
Address-bar this way? I do it regularly... Not possible with a flat
hierarchy.

There are certainly arguments against it, but there are some favoring it,
so it's not just a "hype" or a "philosophical question", its a question of
what's important for each Typo3-user.


Greets,
Ernesto