iFinity

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:33 AM 

I've just published the latest release of the Url Master module, which contains an exciting new feature.  The new feature is the ability for any DNN site, regardless of what other software it uses, to use 'Vanity' Urls.  A vanity url is just a simple url which acts a shortcut to your user profile page.  The most famous recent case was the decision by Facebook to open up their system to associating a Url to a members facebook account.  But it's nothing new : twitter use simple User Profile urls (http://twitter.com/brucerchapman), as does LinkedIn and countless other sites.

I started to get a few requests for this type of thing, mostly for people who are using Url Master on a site setup for social networking.   Initially I said it couldn't be done, but if you leave the subconscious working on something for long enough, a bright idea is bound to occur.  So I'm happy to announce that, from version 1.14, the Url Master module now contains a feature to allow any DotNetNuke site the ability to have simple User Profile urls.

This feature works with many third party modules.  It works by rewriting the username back to a configured Url that modules on a specific page in the site would normally use.   Sound confusing?  You don't need to know the details: here's what they look like:

http://www.ifinity.com.au/Bruce_Chapman

That's it : simple and to-the-point.  In that case, I've configured the module to work for the user home page for the support forums on this site.  But you can configure it for just about any third-party module that has a user-profile component, including the Smart Thinker social networking suite, and ActiveSocial.  ActiveSocial recently released a similar feature, but this will work with previous releases of the ActiveSocial module as well.   You can even set this up to work for the username link common to most DotNetNuke websites.

You can also see the User Profile Urls in action at http://www.pokerdiy.com : you can see Rodney Joyce's user profile at http://www.pokerdiy.com/rod.aspx  

Best of all, you can elect to automatically 301 redirect all of your old user profile urls to the new, shorter url.  That way, users won't know the difference until they see it, and you won't end up with duplicate content indexed for your site.

How it Works

There are two options for generating the user profile url.  You can either use the DotNetNuke username, or you can use the DotNetNuke Display Name.  Astute readers will instantly tell me that the Display Name field is not guaranteed unique, and it can contain all sorts of Url-illegal characters.  No matter : if the Display Name is not unique or contains Url-illegal characters, the generated User Profile Url degrades gracefully into a longer Url containing the original userid, but with a cleaned up version of the display name on the end.  Still friendlier than a simple id/65.aspx Url.

If you'd like to try this new feature out, please download the latest version from the Url Master Product Page and read the instructions.  Basically you need to obtain the querystring for the module that displays the user profile on your site, then select the designated page and turn the User Profile feature on.  You then just supply that querystring for the module, and it's all done.

Other new Features in 1.14

The other feature already previewed in this blog is the option of removing extensions from your url completely (see Switching off all page extensions on a DotNetNuke site)   This feature works brilliantly with the User profile urls, but also improves the Urls of things like the /privacy /register and /login links.

DotNetNuke 5.1 Compatibility

The 1.14 release has been tested against the latest 5.1 Beta version from DotNetNuke.  If you're planning on installing a 5.1 site, you'll need to get the 1.14 release.

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