Comments on: URL Masking (cloaking)

By: Damir-ElggFactory

Damir-ElggFactory — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:35:47 +0000

HI,
I know this is older topic but I’ve been wanting to cloak ebay item links from rss feed for a while with no success.
I’m using RSS2HTML parser on WordPress and php code for my search form.

I’m not understanding how to pass individual items from rss feed to (your example: http://www.money-code.com/ebay.php) . Won’t url need to be /ebay.php?item=165423 or something like that to redirect to that item page on ebay?

Is there an example of working code somewhere?

Thanks a bunch.

By: Bridgett Salle

Bridgett Salle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:04:02 +0000

Hey! Quick question! How would you code multiple links using the PHP page?? .-= Bridgett Salle´s last blog ..Google Profit System =-.

By: milch

milch — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:52:44 +0000

I only have access to the html docs folder, but none of the main apache configuration, hence my dilemma.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:54:35 +0000

Hmmm.. seems like you need to set server alias with handling in a vhost file. I don’t think you can do this via .htaccess level though. You would simply add the ServerAlias of milch.domain.com with the Directory directive pointing to the proper directory. Do you have access to server config? Or only .htaccess?

hanji

By: milch

milch — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:41:17 +0000

I am doing free hosting. a php script would not work because each user would have to have it, understand what it is and how to use it/not break it. I have to do it in a .htaccess file. let me be more specific. I want milch.domain.com to point to doamin.com/users/milch while still displaying milch.domain.com in the URL. the previous config i posted will redirect milch.domain.com to domain.com/users/milch and that is the new URL, so the subdomain was pointless.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:00:58 +0000

Hello milch

Are all the folders in /users owned by the same owner? If so, you can do a file_exists() or is_dir() using PHP as your condition. I might be misunderstanding your question. Is the index file going to be in milch.domain.com.. and you need to redirect to domain.com/users with a value?

If this is correct I would create my script similar to this (not tested and I’m just coding from the hip here):

< ?
$domain = $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];
$subdomain = explode('.',$domain);
if(is_array($subdomain) && sizeof($subdomain) == 2 && (isset($subdomain[0]) && $subdomain[0] != 'www')){
$user = $subdomain[0];
unset($subdomain);
$path = '/home/sites/domain.com/public_html/users/'.$user;
if(file_exists($path) && is_dir($path)){
header("Location:http://domain.com/users/“.$user);
eixt();
}else{
// directory doesn’t exist.. do something
}
}else{
// invalid domain.. do something
}
?>

hanji

By: milch

milch — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:27:33 +0000

Hey, i have a redirect setup right now like this:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.* [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^.]+)\.domain\.com
RewriteCond /home/sites/domain.com/public_html/users/%1 -d
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://domain.com/users/%1/$1 [L]

so if i type milch.domain.com, and the folder /users/milch exists, it changes the URL to domain.com/users/milch. So my question is, how can I make it still appear as the subdomain milch.domain.com while using the /users/milch folder and the index file in it?

By: admin

admin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:51:17 +0000

Hello pedro

The issue with url masking (also known lately as SEO redirects) is that Google will penalize you if you have too many external pointing links. So using tinyurl.com would be a link outside of the domain. By doing the mask, all the links appear to be going internally.

Second reason not to use tinyurl or other 3rd party URL shortening service, is that it’s now against EPN TOS to do this. Thanks for commenting!

hanji
.-= admin´s last blog ..0 Followers on Twitter is being addressed =-.

By: pedro

pedro — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:05:46 +0000

why don’t you just use the http://www.tinyurl.com

By: Suzanne of New Affiliate Discoveries

Suzanne of New Affiliate Discoveries — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for laying this trick out step by step. I thought of using the .htaccess that way, but guess I just needed to see it spelled out.

What are your thoughts about server directive vs. code?

It seems like the PHP option, if sent to a common directory like /reviews/ or /recommends/ or something less spammy sounding, would help you sort and organize easier than one long .htaccess file.

Thanks for the robot/spider tricks as well, this is the best I’ve seen it laid out, nice and simple.