Is this feature ever going to be included in the core of MyBB? I'm new to MyBB and I've decided to use it for one of my projects. I find that there are basically only two things that MyBB is clearly missing: a responsive layout (but I know it's going to be responsive soon, in 1.9) and "pretty" URLs. By pretty URLs I mean those like
www.example.com/whatever/title-with-keywords-here/. I know some people say there are not really important for SEO, but the truth is that they are a ranking factor and every SEO professional has always taken this into account. More importantly, they make the URL semantic, so they can be read by humans and they definitely make a lot more sense. Even if all this was arguable, it seems to me that virtually every web application nowadays has "friendly" URLs, including all the popular CMSs, online communities, etc. I believe most people expect to see semantic URLs in modern web applications, so why not thinking of implementing it in MyBB? By the way, I know there is a plugin/mod/extension that is supposed to do this already, but I don't like to rely on extensions for delicate matters (URLs are "delicate", they should not break or change unexpectedly). You know, extensions might stop being maintained, might break during updates and bugfixes might have longer delays than the core... so my philosophy is that extensions should provide simple features that are not vital (if they break nobody dies), while important and complex features should be part of the core, if they make sense.
So what's your opinion on this? Is it difficult to implement this feature in the core? Any chance of seeing it in 1.x, or 2.x?
Friendly URLs was planned for MyBB 2.0 when there was going to be a complete rewrite. I believe it's yet to be discussed as there's no current milestone to it yet. IMO friendly URLs isn't a matter of urgency as there's a pretty much established plugin out there already, but I wouldn't expect to see this in 1.9 at all.
(2018-06-25, 06:32 PM)reed Wrote: [ -> ]Is this feature ever going to be included in the core of MyBB?
Who knows?
(2018-06-25, 06:32 PM)reed Wrote: [ -> ]it seems to me that virtually every web application nowadays has "friendly" URLs
MyBB has had them too, since forever. It goes back to MyBB 1.2? Not sure. Long before my time in any case.
(2018-06-25, 06:32 PM)reed Wrote: [ -> ]I don't like to rely on extensions for delicate matters
Quite frankly, that's your problem then.
(2018-06-25, 06:32 PM)reed Wrote: [ -> ]extensions might stop being maintained, might break during updates and bugfixes might have longer delays than the core
Sometimes, it's an unmaintained extension that gives birth to something new.
When I started using MyBB, the Friendly URL plugin (spicefuse's) was unmaintained, buggy and simply didn't support the things I wanted. And around the same time, Google released some guidelines regarding Friendly URLs and other best practices (Google's SEO Starter Guide). So I rolled my own plugin, based on that documentation. With an existing, "good enough" solution I'd never have made the effort.
I will likely keep using my own solution even if MyBB decides to add this into core. Unless of course they follow my own design choices (support UTF-8 characters, and get rid of ugly random ID numbers in the URLs whenever possible).
I fully admit that my plugin could be better maintained (I'm still on MyBB 1.6 for various reasons, and some changes regarding latest PHP 7.x compatibility are only in my GitHub), but then: it's Open Source, anyone could contribute (and regarding PHP compatibility issues, anyone could contribute even without understanding the code in detail), or even take over entirely, or support development in other ways like donating, yet no such support is forthcoming.
Instead you get people who complain about this being a plugin rather than a core feature, as if the core wasn't overladen with features that are barely maintained either. For over a decade now there is discussion to rewrite MyBB from scratch for a reason.
(2018-06-25, 06:32 PM)reed Wrote: [ -> ]Is it difficult to implement this feature in the core?
It's difficult if you want to do it right in any case.
(2018-06-27, 09:14 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]Quite frankly, that's your problem then.
Thanks everyone for the answers. I don't think it's just "my" problem. It's going to be everyone's problem when you need to rely on code that is maintained separately from the core. When a feature is included in the core, the updates will be in sync with the core and hopefully tested before the main release. When you need to rely on separate plugins/extensions, everyone knows what is going to happen: sooner or later (or if you are unlucky, every time) something will break and you will have to wait for the plugin dev to fix it, or the plugin will stop being maintained even for no reason (the only dev moves to another platform, etc). This is going to be a problem for security too, because it makes patch management harder: what are you going to do if you need to upgrade the core quickly for security reasons, and a "vital" plugin can't be updated at the same time? Either you delay the security patch indefinitely, or you break a vital feature, so it's going to be a problem. Now this is ok if the extension provides no "vital" features, like some graphical customization or a chat or whatever you can live without, either temporarily or for longer periods. URLs on the other hand should always work and can never break or change without carefully planning it in advance.
I understand I can't demand this to be included in the core of course, this was just a suggestion and why I think it would be important and would make sense. So I'll be building my forum without the pretty URLs plugin, to avoid the kind of problems I mentioned above. I hope pretty URLs will be included in the core in some future release, and I'm sure it will at last, since if MyBB wants to become a modern web application the lack of pretty URLs is hardly justifiable in the long run IMO.