[pmwiki-users] Adding .html . . .

[Andrew Standfield]

> The new group
> said that Google could not handle dynamic content and only played well
> with URLs ending in .html. As you read this, I'm sure many of you
> chuckle becuase that's patently absurd. Heck, Google even plays well
> with unClean URLs.

Actually, Google does have a hard time indexing dynamic pages. What  
we're talking about here, though, is not the "dynamic" pages  
something like PmWiki or blogging apps like WordPress generate. It's  
*truly* dynamic pages that are created entirely from application  
output. According to Google's Webmaster Guide:

"Consider creating static copies of dynamic pages. Although the  
Google index includes dynamic pages, they comprise a small portion of  
our index. If you suspect that your dynamically generated pages (such  
as URLs containing question marks) are causing problems for our  
crawler, you might create static copies of these pages. If you create  
static copies, don't forget to add your dynamic pages to your  
robots.txt file to prevent us from treating them as duplicates."

(http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349)

Also note this page: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/ 
answer.py?answer=34431

Which says, "Google indexes dynamically generated webpages,  
including .asp pages, .php pages, and pages with question marks in  
their URLs."

Notice that even Google's own pages are dynamic (including that  
page)... even more so than anything PmWiki may output. Besides,  
creating dynamic content that ends with an .html extension is still  
dynamic content. It's not like Google's crawler is going to come to  
the page and say, "Oh... no .html, I'll ingore it," yet index the  
exact same page because it has an extension.

Hell... I can't think of a "big" site that *doesn't* use dynamic  
content: Google, CNN, MSNBC, Every blog you've ever read,  any  
shopping site worth it's salt...  Have a look at Alexa's top 500 in  
the US (http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites? 
cc=US&ts_mode=country&lang=none)

If I were in your shoes, I would actually prepare a response to this  
outfit's claims. They sound like shysters. The client is being given  
the wrong impression, and your reputation is being trampled. Not to  
mention that this "group" is obviously misrepresenting their own  
skill levels and understanding of the technology involved.


Andy Standfield
http://www.vertigo25.com/
http://www.ipodnirvana.com/


On Sep 3, 2006, at 6:08 PM, Ben Wilson wrote:

> I recently "lost" a client. I have to put it in quotes, because my web
> support was a short-term solution.[1] The replacement web support
> group provided a list of "deficiencies," which only they could repair.
> On "deficiency" was based in part on the web host server configuration
> preventing me from properly implementing Clean Urls. The new group
> said that Google could not handle dynamic content and only played well
> with URLs ending in .html. As you read this, I'm sure many of you
> chuckle becuase that's patently absurd. Heck, Google even plays well
> with unClean URLs.
>
> However, it got me to thinking that I would like to have the .html
> dangling from the end of my pages. If nothing else, just to show that
> it can be done easily in PmWiki should one desire it.
>
> In researching this, I noticed ResolvePageName() in pmwiki.php will
> remove trailing '.html', which allows pmwiki to simulate static .html
> pages.[2] I then noticed that two variables allow the PmWiki site to
> refer to its own pages with the trailing '.html'. What follows this
> paragraph is the reconfigured variables that allows the page.
>
> $LinkPageSelfFmt = "<a class='selflink' href='\$LinkUrl.html'>\ 
> $LinkText</a>";
> $LinkPageExistsFmt = "<a class='wikilink' href='\$LinkUrl.html'>\ 
> $LinkText</a>";
>
> I'm sure there's a Cookbook page on this, but I'm too lazy to look.
> So, I thought I'd just email this out instead in case anybody else is
> interested.
>
> Ben
>
> [1]: After all, I'm a law student, what business do I have of
> providing IT support?
> [2]: E.g. http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Cookbook.html
>
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