Administrator Manual¶

Installation¶

There are two ways to properly install the extension.

1. Composer installation¶

In case you use Composer to manage dependencies of your TYPO3 project, you can just issue the following Composer command in your project root directory.

composer require colorcube/simulate-static-urls

2. Installation with Extension Manager¶

Download and install the extension with the extension manager module.

Requirements¶

The typical url rewriting (for Apache, Nginx, …) needs to be enabled and properly configured so that index.php is called for any url. The Apache configuration looks like that:

# If the file/symlink/directory does not exist => Redirect to index.php.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
RewriteRule .* /index.php [L]

TYPO3 itself provides a .htaccess file with proper configuration. For Nginx you can find configuration on the net.

Configuration¶

To enable the extension you have to add this TypoScript setup:

config.simulateStaticUrls = 1

Everything else has default values and doesn’t necessarily need special configuration.

Here’s a full example of all config options:

config {
   simulateStaticUrls = 1
   simulateStaticUrls {

       language = 1
       language {
           0 = de
           1 = en/gb
       }

       path = 1
       pathSegmentMaxLength =
       pathSegmentSmartTruncate =
       pathSegmentReplacementChar = _
       pathFormat = lowercase

       titleMaxLength = 40
       titleSmartTruncate =
       titleReplacementChar = _
       titleFormat = lowercase

       // if you want some parameters shorter
       parameterEncodingType = md5
       // list of parameters to be encoded others will be excluded
       parameterEncodingInclude = cHash, print, tx_ttnews[backPid], tx_ttnews[tt_news], tx_ttnews[pS], tx_ttnews[pL], tx_ttnews[arc], tx_ttnews[cat], tx_ttnews[pointer], tx_ttnews[swords]
       // list of parameters to be excluded from encoding
       parameterEncodingExclude =

   }

   // disable the other ones
   tx_realurl_enable = 0
   simulateStaticUrls = 0
}

The configuration is similar to the older simulatestatic extension. Except of the PATH_INFO mode the extension can be configured to work mostly like simulatestatic.

Properties¶

Property	Data type
simulateStaticUrls	boolean
simulateStaticUrls.language	int
simulateStaticUrls.language0	string
simulateStaticUrls.titleMaxLength	int
simulateStaticUrls.titleSmartTruncate	boolean
simulateStaticUrls.titleReplacementChar	string
simulateStaticUrls.titleFormat	string
simulateStaticUrls.path	boolean
simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentMaxLength	int
simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentSmartTruncate	boolean
simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentReplacementChar	string
simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentFormat	string
simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingType	string
simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingInclude	string

simulateStaticUrls¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls

Data type

boolean

Description

If set TYPO3 makes all links in another way than usual. With Apache mod_rewrite has to be enabled and configured in httpd.conf for use of this in the “.htaccess”-files.

Include this in the .htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* /index.php [L]

This means that any “*.html”-documents should be handled by index.php.

TYPO3 provides already a more sophisticated rewrite configuration in an example .htaccess file. That should be used.

Now if is done, TYPO3 will interpret the url of the html-document like this:

[title].[id].[type].[language].html

Example:

TYPO3 will interpret this as page with uid=23 and type=0 :

Startpage.23.0.0.html

Default

false

simulateStaticUrls.language¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.language

Data type

boolean

Description

If set, a language iso code will be added to the url as path segment if the language uid > 0 and in the language record the iso code is set.

If you want the same for the default language (0) or different codes for the languages, there’s additional configuration needed with language0, language1, and so on.

Example:
/en/Startpage.23.1.0.html
instead of the default, “Startpage.23.1.0.html”, without the /en/.

Default

true

simulateStaticUrls.language0¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.language0 simulateStaticUrls.language1 …

Data type

string

Description

If you want the default language (0) as path segment or different codes for the languages > 0, there’s additional configuration needed with language0, language1, and so on.

Example:

simulateStaticUrls.language0 = de
simulateStaticUrls.language1 = en/gb

/de/Startseite.23.0.0.html
/en/gb/Startpage.23.0.1.html

This can be handy if a system language is not only a language but also used as a content dimension like a country.

Default

undefined

simulateStaticUrls.titleMaxLength¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.titleMaxLength

Data type

int

Description

If set, TYPO3 generates urls with the title in, limited to the first [simulateStaticUrls.titleMaxLength] number of chars.

Example:

very_cool.23.0.1.html

instead of the full title, “very_cool_stuff_here.23.0.1.html”, with titleMaxLength=9.

Default

40

simulateStaticUrls.titleSmartTruncate¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.titleSmartTruncate

Data type

boolean

Description

If set, title will be truncated at word boundaries if possible when also titleMaxLength is set.

Example:

very_cool.23.0.1.html

instead of the full title, “very_cool_st.23.0.1.html”, with titleMaxLength=12.

Default

false

simulateStaticUrls.titleReplacementChar¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.titleReplacementChar

Data type

string

Description

Word separator for URLs generated by simulateStaticUrls.

Typical values are underscore “_” or hyphen “-“.

Example:

very_cool_stuff_here.23.0.1.html
very-cool-stuff-here.23.0.1.html

Default

_ (underscore)

simulateStaticUrls.titleFormat¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.titleFormat

Data type

lowercase, uppercase, camelcase

Description

Defines the case of the title text.

Example:

very_cool_stuff_here.23.0.1.html
VERY_COOL_STUFF_HERE.23.0.1.html
very_Cool_Stuff_Here.23.0.1.html

Default

lowercase

simulateStaticUrls.path¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.path

Data type

boolean

Description

If set, TYPO3 generates urls with a path (and not only a filename).

Keep in mind the path itself has no functionality and is ignore by the system when decoding an url. When the user shortens the url to access a different ‘directory’ that will not work. But that also doesn’t work very well with other xxxurl extension.

Example:

/this/is/a_path/which_looks_like_a_real_path_but_is_fake/very_cool.23.0.1.html

Default

true

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentMaxLength¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentMaxLength

Data type

int

Description

If set, the generated path segments are limited to the first [simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentMaxLength] number of chars.

Example:

/this/is/a_path/which_looks/very_cool.23.0.1.html

instead of the full path segment, “../which_looks_like_a_real_path_but_is_fake/..”, with pathSegmentMaxLength=12.

Default

0 (false)

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentSmartTruncate¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentSmartTruncate

Data type

boolean

Description

If set, path segment will be truncated at word boundaries if possible when also pathSegmentMaxLength is set.

Example:

/this/is/a_path/which_looks/very_cool.23.0.1.html

instead of the full path segment, “../which_looks_like_a_real_path_but_is_fake/..”, with pathSegmentMaxLength=15.

Default

false

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentReplacementChar¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentReplacementChar

Data type

string

Description

Word separator for URLs generated by simulateStaticUrls.

Typical values are underscore “_” or hyphen “-“.

Example:

/this/is/a_path/which_looks/cool.23.0.1.html
/this/is/a-path/which-looks/cool.23.0.1.html

Default

_ (underscore)

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentFormat¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.pathSegmentFormat

Data type

lowercase, uppercase, camelcase

Description

Defines the case of the pathSegment text.

Example:

/this/is/a_path/which_looks/cool.23.0.1.html
/THIS/IS/A_PATH/WHICH_LOOKS/cool.23.0.1.html
/This/Is/A_Path/Which_Looks/cool.23.0.1.html

Default

lowercase

simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingType¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingType

Data type

string

Description

Allows you to also encode additional parameters into the simulated filename.

Example:

You have a news-plugin. The main page has the url “News.228.0.0.html” but when one clicks on a news item the url will be “News.228.0.0.html?tx_mininews_pi1[showUid]=2&cHash=b8d239c224” instead.

Now, this URL might not look like you expect. These are the options:

Value set to “base64”:

This will transform the filename used to this value: “News.228+B6Jn R4X21pbmluZXdzX3BpMVtzaG93VWlkXT0yJmNIYXNoPWI4ZDIzOWMyMjQ_.0.0.html”. The query string has simply been base64-encoded (and some more…) and added to the HTML-filename. The really great thing about this that the filename is self- reliant because the filename contains the parameters. The downside to it is the very very long filename.

Value set to “md5”:

This will transform the filename used to this value:

“News.228+M57867201f4a.0.0.html”. Now, what a lovely, short filename! Now all the parameters has been hashed into a 10-char string inserted into the filename. At the same time an entry has been added to the cache_md5params table in the database so when a request for this filename reaches the frontend, then the REAL parameter string is found in the database! The really great thing about this is that the filename is very short (opposite to the base64-method). The downside to this is that IF you clear the database cache table at any time, the URL here does NOT work until a page with the link has been generated again (re-inserting the parameter list into the database).

NOTICE: The encoding will work only on parameters that are manually entered in the list set by .simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingInclude (see right below) or those parameters that various plugins might allow in addition. This is to limit the run-away risk when many parameters gets combined.

Default

md5

simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingInclude¶

Property

simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingInclude

Data type

string

Description

A list of url parameter that may be a part of the md5/base64 encoded part of a virtual filename (see property in the row above).

Example:

simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingInclude = cHash, tx_news_pi1[news], tx_news_pi1[controller], tx_news_pi1[action]

Default

none

Maintenance¶

With the TypoScript configuration simulateStaticUrls.parameterEncodingType to md5 url parameters will be stored in the database table cache_md5params. If the data of that table get lost all parameters for the urls are lost too, but the pages will still be delivered with the right type. The field tstamp of the table stores a timestamp of the last access. So you could deleted entries with old timestamps if you like.