so just to rule out a few things, can you run a few tests?

we have quite a few folks using suffusion (including our upcoming demo site) so not likely the issue, but you could you do a temp switch to the default wp theme and see if it still occurs?

if so, then deactivate all other wp pluigns and try again…  and if it works, then re-enable one by one until it breaks…

just trying to narrow down potential issue list…  and not familiar with some of those plugins…

Thanks for the prompt response.

I follow your logic in trying the tests you describe; however, the fly in the ointment is that I don’t have a consistently reproducible problem.  That’s why I was trying to get a handle on what factors might be relevant.  If I could make it break consistently, I could test it as you describe.

Barring that, I guess I can wait until it happens to break, then instead of doing my usual hail mary with the Update WP Integration button, I’ll try switching themes and disabling plugins to see if I can isolate a factor that way.

I don’t have enough background knowledge to guess at the source of the problem, but if I had to hazard a guess it would be that some change to a permalink on an individual post outside of the forum is affecting the way links to the forums are being handled.  My reason for thinking that is that when the problem has occurred it has been after I have made no changes within the forum but have made changes to posts outside the forum, including adding custom posts and changing individual post permalinks.

If I get the opportunity of the problem manifesting again, I’ll try testing as you describe.  If you think of anything else please let me know.

Thanks.

Brad

1 – What is your WordPress permalink set to? I am puzzled by that index.php in the forum urls…

2 – When you say ‘hitting the Update WP Integration button on the Integration – Page and Permalink settings’ do you mean without changing anything?

This looks like a permalink problem to me so question 1 is probably the important one… But I am not that familiar with the Zeus server so I also wonder if that imposes something specific it needs – perhaps you can fill me in…

Thanks for sticking with me on this. I chose Simple:Press not only for its feature set but also for its support model.  I’m happy on both counts.

1. My permalink settings are set to the third list item under Common Settings, that being “Month and name.”  The example format shown is

.  All of the Common Settings other than “Default” include “index.php.”

2. Correct, I have been successful in resolving the problem by doing nothing more than hitting the Update WP Integration button on the Integration – Page and Permalink settings.

As far as Zeus goes, I’m afraid I can’t shed any light there.  It’s what my hosting company uses and has used for years.  If there is a particular configuration setting that you want me to find out, let me know.

Thanks.

Brad

those types of permalinks are rare these days and are called pathinfo (almost pretty permalinks)…  usually when your server is incapable (or by choice) of running apache mod_rewrite, the gold standard for wp…  shouldnt really matter, just a bit dated style of permalinks…

if its random, then my suggestions probably will not help – will be too late and already occurred…

after it occurs, but before you hit the update permalink button, what is the permalink shown in the sp integration page?

Progress!

I managed to reproduce the problem.  I went to my site’s WordPress Settings>Permalinks page WITHOUT clicking anything, then went to the SP Integration page, again WITHOUT clicking anything.  I then opened a new tab, went to a page from which I have a link to a forum.  I clicked the link and was sent not to the forum but to the corresponding unit page as described in my original post.

The current permalink on the SP Integration page is http://wilmington.crimeboard.org/index.php/forum/.

I tried to access a different forum from a different link; same type of result.  I landed at a unit page instead of the forum for that unit.

This is my .htaccess from the root directory of this site:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

However, based on what I found at http://www.names.co.uk/support/new/528-zeus_rewrite_rules_user_guide.html I think these rules are not used because Zeus does not use mod_rewrite.  So far, the only place that I have seen a problem manifest is when I try to follow a link to a forum.

Two questions then:

1. Is there any other troubleshooting information I should gather before I try to resolve the problem for now by clicking the Update WP Integration button on the SP Integration – Page and Permalink settings?

2. Do you have any suggestions as to what I can do to prevent the forum links from breaking while I research rewrite rules for Zeus?

I’m starting to read up on implementing rewrite rules for Zeus.

Thanks.

Brad

per my earlier question, what does the permalink look like before and after clicking the update sp permalink button?

not sure what your steps would have to do with it… viewing either page does not update any permalink stuff… wondering if the real issue here is a 404 causing it… after resetting to working… can you on the front end go to a fictitious page on your site… and see if that causes the issue to manifest itself afterwards…

per my earlier question, what does the permalink look like before and after clicking the update sp permalink button?

not sure what your steps would have to do with it… viewing either page does not update any permalink stuff… wondering if the real issue here is a 404 causing it… after resetting to working… can you on the front end go to a fictitious page on your site… and see if that causes the issue to manifest itself afterwards…

I didn’t want to click the button before gathering any additional troubleshooting information that you might want at that point.  Here are the results of clicking.

Per your earlier question:

after it occurs, but before you hit the update permalink button, what is the permalink shown in the sp integration page?

Before:

http://wilmington.crimeboard.org/index.php/forum/

Per your last question:

and after clicking the update sp permalink button?

After:

http://wilmington.crimeboard.org/index.php/forum/

The permalink was the same before and after.  After clicking the Update Forum Permalink button, I was able to access forums again.

I then went to a fictitious page, which produced a 404 page with search dialog.  I then went to a page with a link to a forum.  I followed the link successfully to the forum.  So, no problems there.

As I understand it, rewrite rules are flushed whenever the admin visits the Settings>Permalinks page, even if no changes are made or saved.

Problem: The simple act of visiting this Settings>Permalinks page does in fact break all forum links.

Workaround: Resolving this requires clicking the Update Forum Permalink button OR the Update WP Integration button. 

This is now a reliably reproducible problem and workaround, so that’s progress.

Just visiting the SP Integration page doesn’t resolve the problem; I tried that also.

I’m sure the solution has to do with the lack of mod_rewrite on Zeus. I don’t know, and really didn’t want to know, anything about mod_rewrite or the Zeus alternative of rewrite.script.  But it looks like I’m going to start learning anyway.

Any tips that might save me time would be appreciated.  I’ll be sure to follow up here in hopes of helping the next person who uses both Zeus and Simple:Press.

It looks like the Simple:Press SP Integration page is creating some necessary rewrite rules that are being flushed whenever the Settings>Permalinks page is viewed.

Brad

first, not sure why wp would flush the rewrite rules on a page load like that – kind of pointless… but wouldnt be the first time for them…

second, when wp does flush the rewrite rules, we get notified and our rules are readded… and we force an update of the rewrite rules as if you had clicked the button on the sp integration page…

but does sound like you are narrowing it down…  will look through the rewrite stuff and see if there is a path that could be missed or something odd going on for these PATHINFO type permalinks vs standard rewrite rules…

good news is you should almost never have to visit the settings page, so it should remain stable for ever…  unless there is another path too…

There is quite a lot of ‘chatter’ about Zeus and rewrite rules if you search for it. This article may be of interest and it also references the WP forums:

http://www.adamchristie.co.uk/wordpress/seo-friendly-wordpress-urls-on-namesco-zeus-servers/

Thanks, I’ll try that script.

Meanwhile, I am sure that there is significance to the similarity of the forum URL and the unit page URL, but I’m not sure exactly how that similarity is affecting the redirection that appears to be happening.

The forum page: http://wilmington.crimeboard.org/index.php/forum/unit-182f/

The unit page: http://wilmington.crimeboard.org/index.php/2012/07/unit-182f/

To recap, after flushing the rewrite rules by visiting the Settings>Permalinks page, any attempt to follow the forum page link results in arrival at the unit page link.

This makes me think there is a conflict in the sequence of how links are being resolved, but I don’t have the background to know where this is happening.  It seems like a case of whoever updates the rules last, wins.

Any ideas on how that conflict might be eliminated without requiring a new rewrite.script?

Brad

Tried the script to no apparent effect.  (uploaded as rewrite.script to the root of my site)

The problem appears to be confined to the forum page and the way that individual forums on that page are resolved.

Once I click the SP Update WP Integration button, the problem is resolved for the moment.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Brad

Out of curiosity are you saying that script did not allow you to reset the wp permalinks without the index.php component?

And I suppose we perhaps should ask if you have any other plugins installed that create rewrite rules?