Use vB4 URL format in vB5

[fwulfers]

Is it possible to use the same vB4 URL format in vB5? I want to set up a new site in vB4 and make the future upgrade to vB5 as easy as possible, especially for search engine ranking and indexing. Changing the URL format never seems like a good idea.

Examples:

forum url

vb4: /forums/1-forum-name
vb5: /forum/category-name/forum-name

thread url

vb4: /threads/1-thread-title
vb5: /forum/category-name/forum-name/1-thread-title

Is this just a simple htaccess mod rewrite change?

[Ace]

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...B5-format-URLs

[fwulfers]

I figured it is perhaps more of a vB5 question. And there seem to be more developers hanging out in this forum these days.

I imagine it is an import issue for anyone upgrading from vB4 to 5, no?

[Wayne Luke]

You cannot use the same URL format. However vBulletin 5 will map your old URLs to their new locations.

[fwulfers]

Does that keep those SE spiders happy as well?

[Wayne Luke]

They'll be redirected with a 301 telling them to update their databases. There will be a SERP hit however over time, it should recover. Links into your site would need to be updated over time as well.

[John Lester]

So why this change in url format? Seems a bit .... useless to me.