Upgrading all links from HTTP to HTTPS (just purchased SSL certificate)?

adrial79

Hey there! Is there any way to force all links to go to HTTPS now that I have my SSL certificate installed? Thanks!

adrial79

Is there a permalink refresh plugin or something?

peregrine

do you have this in conf/config.php

$Configuration['Garden']['ForceSSL'] = TRUE;

adrial79

Oh cool! It's really that easy, huh?

adrial79

Hm, I just added that to config.php — http://screencast.com/t/mDLUmh7i — but it's not forcing links to the new https ... Is there something else I have to do?

peregrine

maybe this will provide some ideas.

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/26429/how-to-use-vanilla-with-ssl/p1

I don't use ssl I was just wondering if you had the config statement above.

and I found the function

if (!function_exists('ForceSSL')) {
   /**
    * Checks the current url for SSL and redirects to SSL version if not
    * currently on it. Call at the beginning of any method you want forced to
    * be in SSL. Garden.AllowSSL must be TRUE in order for this function to
    * work.
    */
   function ForceSSL() {
      if (C('Garden.AllowSSL')) {
         if (Gdn::Request()->Scheme() != 'https')
            Redirect(Gdn::Request()->Url('', TRUE, TRUE));
      }
   }
}

AllowSSL should be TRUE by default since it is in the config defaults file.

but the funny thing is I don't see anything at all relating to this config in vanilla 2.1
(so I don't know if it is a thing of the past or is not in the php code.

$Configuration['Garden']['ForceSSL'] = TRUE;

Bottom line I don't have a clue.

vrijvlinder

Are you embedded or stand alone ? Please post a link. If you use Safari it will only use ssl if it has no choice, it is a browser setting. . You might need to adjust your server to only serve in ssl. Something I do not know if it may affect SEO ..

adrial79

Hey vrijvlinder!

It's standalone here:
http://herpeslife.com/herpes-forum/

... and of course also here (HTTPS):
https://herpeslife.com/herpes-forum/

adrial79

And if it does affect SEO, I imagine there's a plugin somewhere to give 301 redirects to all forum posts?

vrijvlinder

I see all link in ssl. Even when reaching the website via the non encripted link. So it is working, I am using Chrome

adrial79

Oh really? That's awesome!

Strange that it's not auto-redirecting to the encrypted link when I click http://herpeslife.com/herpes-forum/ ... I tried on Safari and Firefox, too.

vrijvlinder

Your forum is called support forum right? on the navbar links ? It appears in ssl when I hover it. It won't redirect, it will simply serve it like that. All links appear to me as encrypted.

You may need to check what your htaccess has to adjust it to make all links only be served in ssl.

adrial79

Ah, I see what you're saying. The support forum link at the top of the page is hard-coded to go to https. When I hover over any of the other vanilla links, they don't have the https, unfortunately: http://screencast.com/t/POp4iNoXJ

adrial79

I found this article, but wondering if it'll work ...
http://serverfault.com/questions/116206/how-do-i-use-htaccess-to-always-redirect-from-http-to-https

If it does work, then that should take care of any SEO concerns, right?

vrijvlinder

Yea I see now, ok try adding some rewrite rules

http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/ssl/how-to-force-ssl-using-the-htaccess-file

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4398951/force-ssl-https-using-htaccess-and-mod-rewrite

adrial79

Thanks! So if I tack this code exactly as-is into my .htaccess file, it should do the trick?

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

vrijvlinder

You need to add it in there somewhere along with the rest of the rewrite rules. I can't test this for you since i do not own an ssl cert. Just test and if it works then come back and testify... if not try something else. :P

x00

Stuff like this is almost always done best on the server level rather than the application level.

adrial79

IT WORKED!

Angels sing. Hallelujah. All that jazz.

Automatically redirects across the whole site to https!
http://herpeslife.com/herpes-forum/

adrial79

And just as a sidenote for anyone else going through this, I needed to go into the root level of each of the "folders" that held different aspects of the website. For example, there's the forum here — http://herpeslife.com/herpes-forum — that I had to update the .htaccess file in the "herpes-forum" folder itself. I had already updated the .htaccess file in the root level of herpeslife.com, but it wasn't recursive; didn't apply to all folders that are found under herpeslife.com.

phreak

@adrial79: There is rudimentary info that SSL might be one SEO factor for Google towards websites. What do you think about it and what's your experience? Was this a reason to go on https?

By the way... i have 2 errors when visiting the frontpage of your website with Chrome.