Reducing Number of parameters in Dynamic URL

[Nitin]

Is it possible to reduce number of parameters in dynamic URL.I mean to say what type of changes in perl script are needed to reduce number of parameters.

For Example:
For one of my discussion post URL is
http://www.sitename.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=17&t=000003

I want to reduce it to two only.

I am not sure whether this is possible or not.If Yes - how.

Thanks for your time.

[edited by: engine at 1:25 pm (utc) on June 10, 2003]
[edit reason] de-linked [/edit]

[irock]

I doubt that would be possible since the three variables in your URL seem like crucial for a proper page display.

May I ask why you want to reduce the number of parameters?

[Robber]

I guess if you really had to you could combine three parameters in one by delimiting them in some way and then send the delimited string as a single parameter.

Can't really see why though.

[DaveN]

you could use a mod rewrite

[webmasterworld.com...]

irock google only index Up to 2 variables in dynamic pages

Dave

[Woz]

>Can't really see why though.

Helps with spidering, I do it all the time.

KISS = Keep it Short and Simple.

I use double letter parameters and try to limit to numeric criteria where possible, then, as Robber suggests, combine them into one string. They are then split in the destination page and dealt with accordingly.
Eg., Category=dogs&page=3&display=print would become Ct=45Pg3Ds2 where
45 = dogs
3 = page number
2 = Display Print Mode

As long as you always have them in the same order it is simple to split them. Even if they are not always in the same order it is still possible to parse the string and extract the criteria, it just takes a little more effort and hence delays the page rendering a fraction.

Onya
Woz

[Robber]

If its for search engine spidering fair enough - I guess that was obvious!

Is there any evidence/threads/research on the number of parameters before the spiders will spit it out? A quick search and I didnt find anything more than one parameter but something concrete would be good.

Cheers

[trillianjedi]

Is there any evidence/threads/research on the number of parameters before the spiders will spit it out? A quick search and I didnt find anything more than one parameter but something concrete would be good.

I can't recall ever having seen anything official, but generally the opinion seems to be 2 or more is no good.

That also reflects my own experience - we have many dynamics in the google index, but all of them have only one variable.

We have many pages with 2 variables which the spiders would easily find, but none of them are in the index (we deliberately left it like that as these pages link out).

TJ

[Robber]

Without wanting to hijack the thread, have you found the name of parameters making a difference - eg a parameter with 'id' in it somewhere might get ignored as a spider may think it has something to do session IDs?

Cheers

[DaveN]

Woz I thought KISS was Keep It Simple Stupid ;)

thats what i tell myself when thing start getting out of hand

dave

[Nitin]

Thanks to all of you.I think I will solve my problem now.

Nitin