Subdomain for my Vanilla Forum

volvox

I have a Vanilla Forum at " volvoxsoft.com/Forum " Recently, i have added the subdomain " forum.volvoxsoft.com " pointing to the normal forum path. Problem is that i loose the style/theme. Any idea was is going on?

sirlancelot

Pick one URL and use the other URL as a redirect (301 permanent). Having duplicate content will hurt your PageRank.

If you choose forum.volvoxsoft.com you will need to update your conf/settings.php file with the correct URLs.

volvox

Theme and Style paths, and most other paths seen on CONF Setting are absolute paths which are the same. I changed the Base URL to forum.volvoxsoft.com but this has no effect. Note: i have no duplicate content. I have same content as before in exactly the same paths - i only tell my domain 'form.volvoxsoft.com' = my subdomain 'volvoxsoft.com/Forum'

sirlancelot

A redirect means that when someone goes to URL A, it will direct the browser to URL B (meaning the URL in the browser's address bar actually changes). If this isn't happening, it means you have duplicate content (content that is exactly the same at two different URLs).

You need to pick one URL for your forum to reside and redirect the other ones using HTTP 301 Redirect.

volvox

I have no duplicates. Lets see this. I have this absolute path '/var/www/html/Forum/' where Vanilla is installed with the index.php and the themes, library, conf etc. subfolders. I get to the vanilla forum with URL: volvoxsoft.com/Forum I have also this other absolute path ' /var/www/html/phpBB3 ' where a test php forum is installed with its index.php and many subfolders. I get to this phpBB3 forum with URL: volvoxsoft.com/phpBB3 Now, i have set SUBDOMAINS (redirect) for both forum. For Vanilla ia have set: http://volvoxsoft.com/Forum redirected to : http://forum.volvoxsoft.com Ans for the phpBB3 forum i have set: http://volvoxsoft.com/phpBB3 redirected to: http://forum2.volvoxsoft.com RESULT: Vanilla does not show the forum with theme attached. the phpBB3 forum does. I have not changed any path for any of the forum, I have no duplicate content. Why does Vanilla do not show the theme (while the phpBB3 show it)? Thanks.

sirlancelot

I'm still not seeing any redirecting happen. When I click on http://volvoxsoft.com/Forum it loads the site with that URL, when I click on http://forum.volvoxsoft.com/ it loads the site with that URL. It doesn't matter that they represent the same files on your server, the point I'm trying to make is that the client (eg. your browser) thinks they are different locations (thus, duplicated content).

URLs and Filesystem paths are not treated the same. You need to configure your server to perform an HTTP 301 redirect on http://volvoxsoft.com/Forum -> http://forum.volvoxsoft.com/

After that, you need to update /var/www/html/Forum/conf/settings.php to reflect the URL change.

volvox

I'm using a service provided by my server (at Jumpline.com) to create a subdomains. I did it with my test forum phpBB3 and it works (as i told you before), without changing any of the configuration files of phpBB3. Similar subdomain created for Vanilla forum does not work. Why? I'm gonna ask my server provider (jumpline). thanks. ================================================= Note: Here the text from Jumpline to create subdomains: You can add a sub-domain to your existing website, such as subdomain.yoursitedomain.com, to help organize a large or complex site into multiple smaller sites. For example, if you have a members only section of your website, you may want to consider adding a sub-domain called members.yoursitedomain.com which has the members only content. To add a sub-domain to your existing hosting account: Log in to your VDS Manager by clicking the ‘Login to VDS Manager’ link from the Products page of the Customer Manager, which is located at https://my.jumpline.com. Click on Domains on the left side of the screen If you wish to add the sub-domain to a virtual host, click its name in the list on the left. The main domain for your site is pre-selected, so you do not need to click on it if you wish to add a sub-domain to your main website. In the Sub Domains box on the right, Click Add. Enter the following information: * Sub Domain Name: Only enter the first portion not including the domain name. For instance if you want members.yoursitedomain.com, you will only enter members in this field. * Root directory: This must be a directory that already exists and is where the files for this site will be located. Example: /var/www/html/members/ Click Your new sub-domain is now created and will be accessible by name in just a few hours, once the name servers have recognized up this addition to the domain. This automatically adds the sub-domain’s DNS entry to the DNS Records tab of the VDS manager, so no other manual changes are required.