Established html files and CMS

[claimsweb]

We are currently looking at a re-design for a static site and intend to use Drupal cms.

The worry I have is that the site is well established with static url's widget-one.html / widget-two.html style file structure that ranks really well.

My worry is that were we to revert to cms the urls's become widget-one, widget-two with no html suffix. Does this affect the url to the extent that Google will see a "new" file and consider anything else a duplicate copy? Or is it the case that the file name (if the words and hyphens remain exactly the same) will not be disregarded simply because the .html has been dropped?

How does this work when making a switch to cms?

Any help greatly appreciated

Regards

C

[ergophobe]

Are you on Apache? If you're on Apache (or IIS with some addons), you can easily use mod_rewrite to rewrite widget.html to widget

So no, this is not a problem.

[edited by: ergophobe at 5:55 pm (utc) on Oct. 25, 2009]

[claimsweb]

Hi Ergophobe

Thank you for your response

Yes the server is Apache on a Linux OS.

So provided that we install the "re-write" add-ons we can basically generate pages thru the CMS that can convert to html on publishing.

What is the best CMS system for ths type of process? Drupal has been recommended but what do you think?

Regards
C

[ergophobe]

You don't really need "add-ons" with Apache since it normally ships with mod_rewrite and if it's not already enabled, you just need to activate it.

You are not "converting" pages to HTML on publishing. The pages are HTML pages no matter what, the question is at what address they appear. mod_rewrite simply translates one address to another.

Think of having call forwarding on your phone. If you have your home phone forward to your cell phone, I as the caller don't know that. I just dial the old number (in this case "widget.hmtl") and it takes me to the new number (in this case "widget").

Any CMS will work with this process (as will any static page). It's like asking "what phone should I use with call forwarding?" It doesn't really matter. It's happening at the switching level, not the phone level. So to this is at the server level, not the CMS level.

So, I like Drupal, but there are many others and some of those might suit your needs better.

[claimsweb]

Ok
great advice Ergophobe

Thanks again

[ergophobe]

No problem. If you have trouble with the rewrites, head over the Apache forum. Jim over there is a wizard. I think he might have mod_rewrite running natively in his head.