SEF Extended

Description

SEF Extended extends the functionality of Joomla's standard System - SEF plugin without replacing it. The standard plugin must remain enabled.

The plugin adds advanced tools for Canonical URL generation, URL normalization, custom 404 page handling, and management of selected settings of Joomla's standard SEF plugin.

Canonical

SEF Extended generates and adjusts Canonical URLs using the Joomla router. It takes menu structure, current route parameters, and component settings into account.

• adds a Canonical URL when one is missing;
• replaces technical or duplicate Canonical URLs;
• can preserve Canonical URLs generated by other extensions;
• removes GET parameters from Canonical URLs;
• provides separate handling for tracking, pagination, and search parameters;
• supports a configurable list of additional GET parameters to exclude;
• supports exclusions for selected components and page types;
• supports pages without a menu item and technical /component/ URLs;
• when a matching menu item exists for a technical URL, the Canonical URL is generated using the menu item's SEF route.

For excluded components and page types, SEF Extended does not generate its own Canonical URL and does not remove a meaningful Canonical URL created by a specialized extension. Only a technical self-canonical matching the current URL is removed.

Redirects

The plugin performs 301 URL normalization. Domain redirects are based on the Site Domain value configured in Joomla's standard System - SEF plugin.

Redirects can be enabled independently for:

• protocol mismatch;
• www or non-www mismatch;
• domain mismatch;
• the presence of the .html suffix when Joomla suffixes are disabled;
• duplicate slashes in the URL.

When multiple URL corrections are required at the same time, SEF Extended combines them into a single final 301 redirect, avoiding unnecessary redirect chains.

If domain redirects are enabled while the Site Domain setting is empty, the plugin displays a warning in the configuration.

404 Page

Instead of Joomla's standard error page, any published menu item can be selected and its content used as the custom 404 page.

In this mode:

• the original non-existent URL remains in the browser address bar;
• the HTTP status remains 404 Not Found;
• the template, modules, and other settings assigned to the selected menu item are used;
• the Canonical URL is removed from the 404 page;
• error page caching is disabled.

On multilingual sites, SEF Extended uses language associations of the selected menu item. When switching languages, the original non-existent path is preserved and only the language prefix changes. If no suitable language association exists, Joomla displays its standard error page.

The custom 404 page does not interfere with Joomla's standard Redirects component. If a published redirect exists for the original URL, it is processed first, and the custom 404 page is used only when no matching redirect is available.

Compatibility is also provided for components that perform additional route processing, including OSDownloads.

System - SEF

A dedicated tab provides access to selected settings of Joomla's standard System - SEF plugin. These settings are not duplicated in SEF Extended: the plugin reads and saves the corresponding parameters directly in the standard SEF plugin.

This makes it possible to manage related SEF settings from one interface while preserving Joomla's standard architecture.

SEF Extended is designed for websites that require more precise control over Canonical URLs, URL normalization, and 404 handling without replacing Joomla's standard router or System - SEF plugin.