24/7 Support: 800.608.6482

Reference Guide

Try our new AI assistant by clicking the chat icon in the lower right corner.

This Version is Out of Date

You can find the updated Miva 10 Reference Guide here

Back To Reference Guide

URI Management

Settings

Runtime

Link Source:

See also Changing Your Link Source.

Use the Link Source list box to select the style of URLs you want to use for your store. See also Miva Merchant URLs - A Brief History.

  • Long URLs: These are the original style of URLs that Miva Merchant used in PR7 and earlier. If you select this URL style, your customers will see and navigate your store using URLs like this: http://MyStore.mivamerchantdev.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=hawaiian_shirt&Store_Code=sample_store
  • Legacy SEO Short Link: This style of URL was introduced in Miva Merchant PR8.

    • If you select this URL style, your customers will see and navigate your store using URLs like this:

    http://MyStore.mivamerchantdev.com/product/hawaiian_shirt.html

    • In PR8 this URL style was called "short links" and was in the Domain Settings > SEO Settings tab.
    • In Version 9, this URL style is called "Legacy SEO Short Link" and is still supported. See URI Management > Legacy SEO Settings Tab.
  • URI Management: In Version 9, the term "URI Management" is a heading in the Menu button that includes several tabs (Settings, Legacy SEO Settings, etc.) but URI Management also refers to a new type of Miva Merchant URL.

    • The URI Management style URL is almost completely customizable. You can make the URL that the customer sees look like almost anything you want, and you "map" that URL to a location in your store. See URI Management > URIs tab.

    By default, a product page URL would look like this: http://MyStore.mivamerchantdev.com/hawaiian-shirt.html

URL Prefix: Usually this field contains your domain and defines the protocol. It is rarely necessary to change this field.
Secure URL Prefix: If your domain is using a secure certificate, enter the https domain in this field.

Page URIs

Page URIs are created for any store page other than product and category pages. For example, ABUS (About Us) and SFNT (Storefront) would have URLs created by the settings in this section.

Page URI Template:

One reason that the URI Management style URL is so customizable is that this style of URL is generated using Miva Merchant template code. The Page URI Template field contains the default code for pages in your on-line store that are not category or product pages (such as "About Us").

You can modify this code, which will be applied globally to your store, but you can also edit individual URLs in the URI Management > URIs tab.
Generate URIs For New Pages: Both the Generate and Delete checkboxes are only used if you selected URI Management in the Link Source field. These two checkboxes control whether the URLs in the URI Management > URIs tab are auto-created and deleted when you create and delete pages.
Delete URIs For Deleted Pages: See above.
Update Page URIs:

If you did something that would change the "construction' of a URI Management style URL, such as changing the URI template code, these settings let you control whether you want to update all of the existing URIs to reflect those changes. Note that changing your URIs can affect your SEO rankings.

  • Never: Your existing URIs would not change, but your new URIs would reflect your changes.
  • Add a Non-Canonical URI:
    • Normal: The existing URIs are not changed and are still canonical. A duplicate set of URIs is created and these are marked as noncanonical.
    • 30x Redirect: The existing URIs are not changed and are still canonical. New URIs will be created that re-direct to the canonical URIs.
  • Replace Existing Canonical URI:
    • Leave Old Canonical: Creates a new URI which becomes the new canonical URI. The existing canonical URI is marked as normal (non-canonical).
    • Delete Old Canonical: The existing URI is deleted. New URIs are created and are marked as canonical.
    • 30x Redirect: New URIs are created and marked as canonical. The existing URI is changed to a 30x redirect to the new URI.

Category URIs

The settings in this section affect URLs that are created for your category pages. However, the settings themselves work the same way as the settings in the Page URIs section.

Product URIs

The settings in this section affect URLs that are created for your product pages. However, the settings themselves work the same way as the settings in the Page URIs section.

Changing Your Link Source

Follow the instructions below if you want to change the type of URLs used in your store. See also:

If you are moving from Long URLs or SEO Legacy Short Links to the new URI Management style URLs, you may want to create redirects for your existing URLs so that you don't lose the SEO "weighting" for your old URLs. You may not need to create redirects if your store is new, or if your SEO ranks are low. Please contact professional services if you have questions about whether redirects are needed. You can also post questions and concerns to the Miva forums.

From Long URLs to Legacy SEO Settings

Follow these steps if you are currently using Long URLs and you want to switch to Legacy SEO Settings style URLs.

  1. Go to Menu> URI Management > Settings tab > Runtime section.

    2. 1.1. Change the Link Source to Legacy SEO Settings and click Update.

  2. Go to Menu> URI Management > Legacy SEO Settings tab.

    3. 2.1. Optional: check the Enable SEO-Friendly Store Front checkbox.

    2.2. Required: check the Enable Short Links checkbox.

    2.3. Click Update.

  3. Go to > URI Management > .htaccess tab. Click Update.

From Long URLs to URI Management Style URLs

Follow these steps if you are currently using Long URLs and you want to switch to URI Management style URLs.

  1. Go to Menu> URI Management > Settings tab > Runtime section.

    2. 1.1. Change the Link Source to URI Management.

    1.2. Take a look at the settings for Page URIs, Category URIs and Product URIs and make sure they are set to work the way that you wish and expect.

    1.3. Click Update.

  2. Go to Menu> URI Management > Legacy SEO Settings tab. Verify that the following checkboxes are unchecked.

    3. 2.1. Enable SEO-Friendly Store Front checkbox.

    2.2. Enable Short Links checkbox.

    2.3. Click Update if you make any changes.

  3. Go to Menu> URI Management > .htaccess tab. Click Update.
  4. Go to Menu> URI Management > URIs tab. Click Generate.

From Legacy SEO Settings to Long URLs

Follow these steps if you are currently using Legacy SEO Settings style URLs and you want to switch to Long URLs.

  1. Go to Menu> URI Management > Settings tab > Runtime section

    2. 1.1. Change the Link Source to Long URLs and click Update.

  2. Go to Menu> URI Management > Legacy SEO Settings tab. Verify that the following checkboxes are unchecked.

    3. 2.1. Enable SEO-Friendly Store Front checkbox.

    2.2. Enable Short Links checkbox

    2.3. Click Update if you make any changes.

  3. Go to Menu> URI Management > .htaccess tab. Click Delete.

From URI Management Style URLs to Long URLs

Follow these steps if you are currently using URI Management style URLs and you want to switch to Long URLs

  1. Go to Menu> URI Management > Settings tab > Runtime section.

    2. 1.1. Change the Link Source to Long URLs and click Update.

  2. Go to Menu> URI Management > Legacy SEO Settings tab. Verify that the following checkboxes are unchecked.

    3. 2.1. Enable SEO-Friendly Store Front checkbox.

    2.2. Enable Short Links checkbox.

    2.3. Click Update if you make any changes.

  3. Go to Menu> URI Management > .htaccess tab. Click Delete.

From Legacy SEO Settings to URI Management Style URLs

Follow these steps if you are currently using Legacy SEO Settings URLs and you want to switch to URI Management style URLs.

  1. Go to Menu> URI Management > Settings tab > Runtime section.

    2. 1.1. Change the Link Source to URI Management.

    1.2. Take a look at the settings for Page URIs, Category URIs and Product URIs and make sure they are set to work the way that you wish and expect.

    1.3. Click Update.

  2. Go to Menu> URI Management > Legacy SEO Settings tab. Verify that the following checkboxes are unchecked.

    3. 2.1. Enable SEO-Friendly Store Front checkbox.

    2.2. Enable Short Links checkbox.

    2.3. Click Update if you make any changes.

  3. Go to Menu> URI Management > .htaccess tab. Click Update.
  4. Go to Menu> URI Management > URIs tab. Click Generate.

From URI Management Style URLs to Legacy SEO Settings

Follow these steps if you are currently using URI Management Style URLs and you want to switch to Legacy SEO Settings style URLs.

  1. Go to Menu> URI Management > Settings tab > Runtime section.

    2. 1.1. Change the Link Source to Legacy SEO Settings and click Update.

  2. Go to Menu> URI Management > Legacy SEO Settings tab.

    3. 2.1. Optional: check the Enable SEO-Friendly Store Front checkbox.

    2.2. Required: check the Enable Short Links checkbox.

    2.3. Click Update.

  3. Go to Menu> URI Management > .htaccess tab. Click Update.

Looking for Developer Docs?

We have a whole section for that, including: Developer Training Series, Template Language docs, Module Development tutorials and much, much more.

Head to the Developer Section

Copyright © 1997 – 2024 Miva®, Miva Merchant®, MivaPay®, MivaCon®, Camp Miva®, Miva Connect®, Miva, Inc. All Rights Reserved.