In the Primary Settings section of my Control Panel, it says, "Note: The PATH_INFO environmental variable must be available for this feature to function properly."

Could someone please explain to me how to make this variable available (or active) so Google can spider my forum.

I host on godaddy.com using Apache OS, PHP 4.3.11 and SQL 5.0.

I have a php.ini file in my root folder, but don't have any .htaccess file.

Thank you very much!

Daniel

i'll bet its available already for you.

just create a 1 liner program called : muhaha.php


and upload to your root.. then point to it like http://yourdomain.com/muhaha.php

it will --probably-- echo a unix-ie path like /home/bla/public_html or whatever..

if so, you can do the happy dance. then you just turn on spider friendlies in your cpanel and let it rip.

keep in mind that google can only spider your forums that are OPEN to guests as readable.. any private forums can't be spidered, since a login wouild be required

ps: phpinfo(); also tells you about this and MORE.. so choose your poison

You can do the same from the CP [7.2]:

CP / Tools & Info / PHP Info

Hi,

Thanks for the help.

When I activate the checkbox for spider friendly URL's, the forum crashes. I created the php file as you instructed and it doesn't echo anything. Just a blank page at http://www.onelung.net/muhaha.php .

Is there a way I can activate the PATH_INFO variable in Apache?

Thanks,

Daniel.

^^ better idea than mine

as to activating it, i usually slam it into my .htaccess file

"AcceptPathInfo On"

your mileage may vary with your flavor of apache though.

BTW, the path info on a blank phpinfo will show nothing of value, you must access it as:
file.php/this/is/a/test

Then search the output for "this/is/a/test"

As for enabling the option if it isn't available, this must be done through your webhost and is a simple update for them to do, however will prove impossible if they're not willing to update it for you.

(all they have to do is add 'AcceptPathInfo On' to the apache configuration for your website)

You can sometimes get away with adding the variable to a .htaccess file, though that assumes several things:
1. The webhost has granted you access to do so (which if they don't grant you access to have AcceptPathInfo on in the first place, it's doubtful they've given your account the override "FileInfo" permission.
2. you how how to edit an existing .htaccess file without b0ging it.

BTW, I doubt this is enabled on your server, as I get a "not found" error (no input file specified), when I access it as such:
http://www.onelung.net/muhaha.php/this/is/a/test

It should just show:
/this/is/a/test

You can see what it SHOULD look like http://home.corthell.net/path_info.php/this/is/a/test

I've done this and get the following:

/muhaha.php

Does that mean that Path_Info is enabled?
I ask because the host says it is, but when I turn on the Spider-Friendly setting the Forum links produce 404 errors.

Some History:
The Forum was originally on another server, and the spider-friendly setting worked fine. My previous Host moved the website w/forum to a new host/server for me. After a few days I noticed that some Bookmarks and links didn't work and found the setting was off.

Are there any other reasons why the spider-friendly urls wouldn't work?
Or is there something additional that might have to be done?

Bill