Redirect old URLs to vBulletin 5 URLs

**RoelVB** · Sat 19 Dec '15, 3:59am

You could add those rewriterules to your .htaccess file:

Code:

RewriteRule ^forum/([A-Za-z0-9]+)\-([A-Za-z0-9]+).html$ forum/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^forum/([A-Za-z0-9]+)/([A-Za-z0-9]+)\-([0-9]+),([0-9]+).html$ forum/$1/$4-$2 [R=301,L]

Those rules will redirect your users to the new URLs.

You could test them over here: http://htaccess.mwl.be/

**Pragya soni** · Tue 4 Apr '23, 5:44am

Hello everyone,

I have upgraded Vbulletin version from 4.2.5 to 5.7.3. I observed that URL format does not match my existing forum which has Vbulletin version 4.2.5.
My URL format for Forum into Vbulletin version 4.2.5

Forum Id and Thread Id also do not match.

Forum (Old URL) -> forums/18-Practice
Threads (Old URL)-> threads/38765-Test-image-upplod

After Upgrade version, site URL does not match format.

Forum (New URL) -> forum/agriville-com-community-centre/practice
Threads (New URL)-> forum/agriville-com-community-centre/practice/34703-test-image-upplod

All forums are inside the category of agriville-com-community-centre.

Can you please suggest to me, how to customise or rewrite rule for below URL?

Forum -> forums/18-Practice
Threads -> threads/38765-Test-image-upplod

**Trevor Hannant** · Tue 4 Apr '23, 7:46am

In your .htaccess file, find the following section then un-comment the relevant lines to enable these redirect rules:

Code:

    #If you used friendly urls in vB4, then uncommenting the following rules will redirect the #
    #old vB4 urls to a similar location in vB5.  This is unnecesary for a new vB5 install.
    #RewriteRule ^threads/.* showthread.php [QSA]
    #RewriteRule ^forums/.* forumdisplay.php [QSA]
    #RewriteRule ^members/.* member.php [QSA]
    #RewriteRule ^blogs/.* blog.php [QSA]
    #RewriteRule ^entries/.* entry.php [QSA]

**Pragya soni** · Wed 5 Apr '23, 5:33am

Hello Team,

I have uncommented code of htaccess file which is suggested by you, but URL does not work for forum and thread. It redirects to home page.
I also searched file forumdisplay.php and showthread.php into all folders, but these files does not exist.

My older version of forums is Vbulletin 4.2.5 and I used Friendly URL setting for redirection

After upgrade version from Vbulletin 4.2.5 to 5.7.3, this feature not exist into current version. Due to this reason URL does not works as previous.
I need to rewrite mode for my URL, so that I can get my URL as previous.

Forum (Old URL) -> forums/18-Practice
Threads (Old URL)-> threads/38765-Test-image-upplod
After Upgrade version site URL does not match format.
Forum (New URL) -> forum/agriville-com-community-centre/practice
Threads (New URL)-> forum/agriville-com-community-centre/practice/34703-test-image-upplod

All forums are inside the category of agriville-com-community-centre. We are trying to remove this from URL

Can you please help me to get above URL format with same id?

**Wayne Luke** · Wed 5 Apr '23, 8:23am

You cannot use the previous URL format with the same ID. vBulletin 5 does not support it. You won't find the old school files of vBulletin 4.X either. They are obsolete and not used.

The URL rewrites above should be the exact ones used in the .htaccess file provided with the vBulletin 4.2.5 download. The system will then feed the generated forumdisplay.php or showthread.php file to vBulletin 5's index.php file. The system will then match the ID number with the new ID provided when you upgraded to vBulletin 5. This will allow it to display the page.

If you somehow customized your Mod Rewrite Friendly URLs using an third-party addon, you would have to use the same rewrites you used in vBulletin 4.2.5 within the .htaccess file provided by vBulletin 5. You cannot replace the .htaccess file that is provided with an older version.

What are the exact contents of your vBulletin 4.2.5 .htaccess file?

What are the current contents of the vBulletin 5.7.3 .htaccess file on your server?

**Pragya soni** · Thu 6 Apr '23, 3:23am

Hello Team,

Please find htaccess files for both the version 4.2.5 (htacess_version4-2-5.txt) and 5.7.3 (htaccess_version5.7.3.txt). Please check it and let me know.

Attached Files

**Wayne Luke** · Thu 6 Apr '23, 8:06am

So in the supplied 5.7.3 .htaccess file, you have uncommented the RewriteBase line but not uncommented the lines below:

Code:

#RewriteRule ^threads/.* showthread.php [QSA]
#RewriteRule ^forums/.* forumdisplay.php [QSA]

The above two lines need to be uncommented by removing the # character.

If vBulletin 5 will be in the root directory of your site using RewriteBase / is unnecessary. If it is in a sub-directory of your site it should be ReWriteBase /sub-directory

Next in your 4.2.5 .htaccess, you have a number of hard coded redirects for topics and forums. You will most likely need to maintain these for them to work. If they aren't important then you can skip them.

Finally, you have a custom redirect for topics:

Code:

#RewriteRule ^threads/.* showthread.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ showthread.php?$1 [L,QSA] #<-- This is custom

You might need to maintain this. Ask your server administrator.

Also for testing purposes, you should go into the AdminCP and set "Redirect 404s to Root Node" to no. Settings → Options → Site URLs and Routing.

**Pragya soni** · Mon 10 Apr '23, 2:08am

Hello Team,

I have added above code into htaccess file and getting error file not found.

AdminCP : Settings → Options → Site URLs and Routing.

.htaccess file

After doing all settings getting below error: File not Found

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

**Wayne Luke** · Mon 10 Apr '23, 9:43am

To be honest, I am not sure why it isn't working. The error you're showing now is not a vBulletin Error. If the redirects were not working in vBulletin, you would get a page with the site's header and footer and an error of "Invalid URL".

Please submit a Support Ticket.

Redirect old URLs to vBulletin 5 URLs

Redirect old URLs to vBulletin 5 URLs

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