Catalog Install Folder & Redirect Question?

**srq** · 12-17-2009, 11:48 AM

I have installed OscMax in mydomain.com/catalog folder.

Is there away to make my store accesible from my root domain without having to copy/move the catalog folder to my domain root. Maybe using some redirect rule in htaccess. (I do not know much about htaccess redirect)

Is this something commonly done with OscMax installs?
Any pitfalls in doing this?
Any problems with SEO or SSL when using redirects?
Any suggestions or comments?

Thanks ...

**met00** · 12-17-2009, 11:56 AM

all paths in OSCMax are soft-linked via the /includes/configure.php file. Therefore, if you move everything to the root "/" instead of "/catalog" then all you have to do is change the path on the /includes/configure.php to use the root "/" insted of "/catalog/"

There is no need to mess with .htaccess

**ridexbuilder** · 12-17-2009, 12:14 PM

The simpler way, IMO:
Create index.php in /public_html, with

Code:

<?php 
header( 'Location: http://mydomain.com/catalog' ) ; 
?>

that way should you need to install any complimentary package eg. forum, then the systems remain isolated.

**srq** · 12-17-2009, 01:56 PM

Thanks Met00 & Ridex for you responses.

Ridex - That was the main reason why I wanted to keep the catalog isolated from the root since I will be adding a blog to the site in the future. I think what you are proposing will work the same as redirecting to the catalog folder from the root domain. Is there any SEO issues in this implementation? Is this considered a permanent redirect from the point of view of SEO?

**michael_s** · 12-17-2009, 02:11 PM

Or using .htaccess works.

Add this to .htaccess in your document root :

DirectoryIndex catalog/index.php index.php

**ridexbuilder** · 12-17-2009, 02:17 PM

I guess either method works.

Certainly I've noticed no odds in SEO performance and tell Google to look in catalog/ for example.
What I like about my method, is that you can create an index.html.closed which you can rename to index.htm (along with renaming index.php to index.php.open). This way it's simple to produce a 'cover page' if the whole shopping site needs to go down.
In addition, the index.php can be replaced by index.html, if you wish to create a 'portal' for other parts of your site. In your case an index.html with a site introduction, with links to the 'shop/store' and blog.