UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 7 Version 7 Support Need pretty forum URLs,outgoing link control .....

I have a couple of wishes. I wonder if some of them have already been enabled, if it can be done easily, if it would be an easy customization that I could hack (or someone else for minor $$)

I already posted this on ubbdev but so far got no reply, so I am also posting this here.


========= 1 ======================
I see that urls already are getting "prettier" compared to what they were long ago. I presume that ubbcentral has spider friendly urls enabled, at least that is what it looks like to me.


https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/178189/Gizmo_s_UBB_Threads_7_x_Transf.html

I want it even prettier, mainly for search machines.

Ideally it would look like this
https://www.ubbcentral.com/<forumname>/<topicname>.html

or like this
http://HotelReviews.com/Africa/BeachResorts/Sheraton.html


Probably this is unrealistic to do? anyone could do this or other of my suggestions as a paid assignment (not much cash available though, and if it is not too hard I can try myself with the help of your input)

if this is not easy, can the following be done?

At least improve things by putting in some search machine key terms instead of meaningless terms>

Change ubbthreads.php for some keyword of my choice, etc, like this.

https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/<keyword1>.php/<keyword2>/178189/Gizmo_s_UBB_Threads_7_x_Transf.html

Would it be hard to change the filename of ubbthreads.php for another keyword? (just replace ubbthreads.php with <keyword1>.php in the entire code?

Probably would be harder to replace /ubb/ with /<keyword2>

================================== 2 ============
I am setting up a web site that discusses other websites, rates them, and if people go to these websites, I need them to use an affiliate link so I can get commissions.


Any way to do an integration with some link controlling click count software? which?

So I would know how many people click on which link? Or even better, that I can convert links, like automatically adding affiliate IDs to the Link?

I might also want to control link use. Maybe users would not be allowed to post links, or only links with my affiliate id. Does that look feasible?


========================= 4 ===================
Any way how to impose something like a searchable database structure on a board?

Basically, that every thread would have some rating and a few keywords automatically attached to it. Something that could be searched later on.

For example, if we were writing about Hotels, each post about a certain hotel and its site.


Can someone find out how to find a Hotel
in Africa
near a beach with
4 star category
that is dog friendly?


or find a ordered list of the highest rated dog friendly hotels for skying.

or find all hotels located in high mountain regions.

Or all beachfront hotels that have a safe in the room.


So basically, each post should have a few categories attached to it, like
number of stars (1-5),
type of location (mountain, city, beach ...)
type of hotel (large hotel, family run pension, ...)
allows pets (small pets, big pets, no pets)
allows children
has pool (with different pool sizes, pool heating or not etc)


(I am open to suggestions that I should use another software then ubbthreads for that site (which software would you suggest?). Wiki software? which?

But I know ubbthreads, know it is very powerful and allows free discussions, administrative control, etc and would rather try to adapt ubbthreads)

This could, of course, be integrated into a database. But it might just be added as a text into the posts and then found with a text normal text search, like this

Location: beach Pets:no Pool:midsize,unheated Stars:3 Country:Seychelles

Again, maybe it can be done easily with some templates or minor changes in the program?

You could shorten the urls a bit by putting the forum in the root folder, no major reason not too except for organization purposes. Other than that, doing what you are requesting really won't affect SE results that much, and may require some significant changes to the files in threads - Rick or SD might know a shortcut, but I think changing how the forum uses URL's will affect all links within the forum, including the index, each forum, links to new posts, replies, everything will need to be updated.