trouble with article list module and modern URL routing

[terryburg]

My apologies if this has been asked 100 times before, but I can't find where if it has.

I have an existing (J3.9) site with an article list module in a sidebar, and legacy URL routing. The linked URL the module generates to my article from that list is then mydomain.com/43-what-we-do/continuing-education/annual-meeting/649-annual-meeting-2019 and that works. The link goes to the article.

However, if I get into article options and set URL routing to modern and "remove IDs from URLs" to yes, and refresh my page with the module on it, the article link now points to just mydomain.com/annual-meeting-2019. All the intermediate category hierarchy is gone. Plus it results in a 404

There's no 3rd party SEF extension on this site. Global config SEO settings are yes on both Search Engine Friendly URLs and Use URL Rewriting and always have been.

What did I forget to do?

Thanks.

[csthomas]

What menu type do you have at the home page?

[terryburg]

It is just a standard menu which I assigned a type of mainmenu.

No menu item points directly to any of these articles. Normally the only way people access the articles from this category is via the article list created by this "Articles - Category" module.

However the main menu does have one entry to a category blog that displays just a subcategory of the parent.

[Webdongle]

So you are saying that the links (created in the core Category blog) do not work with 'URL routing to modern and "remove IDs from URLs' to yes"

viewtopic.php?f=714&t=793531

[csthomas]

The home menu item is category "Blog" but your article belongs to a different category (Annual Meeting). Category "Annual meeting" does not have its own menu item, nor its parents.

Category/Article tree:
Blog
-> ...
-> ...
What We Do
-> Continuing Education
-> -> Annual Meeting
-> -> -> 649-annual-meeting-2019

For me it is joomla routing bug.

To workaround it you can create a hidden menu item for "all categories" or for each top category.

[Webdongle]

The home menu item is category "Blog" but your article belongs to a different category (Annual Meeting). Category "Annual meeting" does not have its own menu item, nor its parents....

Where is the link to his site ?

[csthomas]

These were just my assumptions. I tested similar configuration on my local joomla.

[Webdongle]

The home menu item is category "Blog" but your article belongs to a different category (Annual Meeting). Category "Annual meeting" does not have its own menu item, nor its parents....

Then the link to that Article would be from a hyperlink inside another Article ?

[terryburg]

"So you are saying that the links (created in the core Category blog) do not work with 'URL routing to modern and "remove IDs from URLs' to yes" "

Correct the links do not work. However it is not a category blog, but a category article list module of type "Articles - Category".

This site is not online just on my local server. But csthomas' assumption about the structure of the category/article tree is correct.

Thanks to both for your responses. I will try the hidden menu workaround but I really would rather not have to do that especially not for all my sites.

[Webdongle]

...
Correct the links do not work. However it is not a category blog, but a category article list module of type "Articles - Category".

... But csthomas' assumption about the structure of the category/article tree is correct.

...

Both statements can not be true. Either it is a link in the Category list that is not working or the Article does not appear in the list because it belongs to a different category.

[terryburg]

"Both statements can not be true. Either it is a link in the Category list that is not working or the Article does not appear in the list because it belongs to a different category."



The article is a member of the Annual Meeting subcategory. As far as I know that's the only reason it would show up in the module's list of articles for the category. It is correct that the link in the category list does not work.

[Webdongle]

OK ... so the links in the list for the main category work but those in the sub category don't ?

[terryburg]

"OK ... so the links in the list for the main category work but those in the sub category don't ?"

No links work.

So that you can see this for yourself I created two test Joomlas, just vanilla 3.9 with only Akeeba in them plus some categories and articles. One uses legacy routing and one uses modern.

The category/article structure is:

What We Do
- Continuing Education
-- Annual Meeting
--- 2019 Annual Meeting (2 articles)
-- Other CE (one article)
-- Random More CE (one article)

Articles - Category module has
> Category Filtering Type - Inclusive
> Category - Continuing Education
> Child Category Articles - Include
> Category Depth - 3

There's also a main menu item, category blog pointing just to subcategory Other CE and I think that may be part of the issue.

PHP is 7.0.32

Oddly enough, the problem in this test "modern" Joomla manifests just a bit different than what I observed in my live site. It is hard to explain, and inconsistent, so you can just take a look. Click around in the cat list module to the right, and then the menu item in the main menu and then the module again. Strange stuff going on in the address bar in both regions, and articles not found in the Modern or if they are some strange URL construction in the menu bar.

Sorry for these weird link URLs but Dreamhost is having DNS issues today. It will ask you to "enter" the site.

Legacy - http://x1cyz.hosts.cx/
Modern - http://wr47g.hosts.cx/

The only things different between these sites is the site name and "Modern Routing" plus "Remove IDs from URLS" turned on in the modern.

[Webdongle]

First ... did I miss to see where you said it was a module not the Component ?
Second ... there is 'Legacy' or 'Modern' Modern Legacy.
Third ... where in Joomla is the setting to remove the Article ID from the url ?

[terryburg]

Pretty sure I have mentioned "module of type 'Articles - Category'" a time or two. Sorry is there is any confusion. It's a module that's not working right, or at least I don't understand it.

I am switching back and forth between Legacy and Modern in the Content->Articles->Options->Integration tab, with the "URL Routing" switch. When I choose Modern another switch "Remove IDs from URLs" also appears. As I understand it this is supposed to get rid of the numbers that appear in the URLs in the address bar when they are generated out of category blogs and lists.

Described at: https://docs.joomla.org/J3.x:New_Routing_System (a little dated)

Note sure what you mean by 'Legacy' or 'Modern' Modern Legacy unless it's to do with the choice of Remove IDs or no.

From what I have read in various Github discussions the choice of routing isn't going to be optional in J4 but mandatory.

Updated:

Dreamhost DNS finally updated so those links are also:

http://j39legacy.dreamhosters.com/
http://www.j39modern.dreamhosters.com/

Not quite as creepy as those .cx things

Thanks again for your responses.

[terryburg]

Also, as csthomas advised above, I created a hidden menu in the copy on my local server with a category list item pointing to the "What We Do" level, and now the modern routing scheme works properly for those links in the right sidebar module.

[Webdongle]

Ah yes ... found it. My site works OK with those settings. Also works on localhost for me

[terryburg]

Did you have actual menu items like lists or blogs etc. also pointing to the same categories used in your Category Article list module?

[Webdongle]

Yep. Check the 'Lorem Ipsum' Article ... it has no menu item associated with it or with the category it is in. The link works but it is not seo friendly and contains Article and Category ID's

Addendum
If on a Category blog page then the link to the orphaned item fails. If on a Single Article page then the orphan page can be reached but the url contains the previous url.

Please raise an issue in https://issues.joomla.org/

[terryburg]

Thanks. I was also able to achieve that non-SEO friendly URL format on some occasions, but on others got the 404.

But of course what I really wanted was nicely formatted SEO-friendly URLs with the numbers removed, and I thought by what the doc said that the Modern routing with the ID number removal should achieve that.

Thanks for the time you have spent. I'll just go with csthomas' workaround for my sites in future. We'll see if others run into the issue when J4 rolls around.