dash (hyphen) in page alias

[kermit]

dash, hyphen, whatever you call it. i think it's technically called a hyphen-minus. at any rate, they don't seem to be allowed in page alias field. it converts them to underscores. (0.12.final)

[netfast]

yeah I noticed that as well.

I want a '-' not a '_' for seo purposes. Se's apparently (according to some debate over at an seo forum where it was tested) prefer the '-' instead. Now it will be a negligble but a couple of sites I have set up have the '-' instead of '_' as a page alias and I would be hesitant in converting those sites over to future cmsms if this is right.

I will post here when I have found a fix if you want kermit.

http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 850.0.html for why it is probably happening.

[netfast]

Ok got a temporary fix for it. Rough and if I get a chance can work on a config control option but this probably should be handled by core code as there will be people who have sites with page aliases using a hyphen instead of an underscore.

for my temporary fix see my post at:
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 850.0.html

[kermit]

my issue is with not allowing an acceptable character when manually editing a page alias, the dash (aka minus-hyphen or ascii 45); not with how the system uses underscores to replace spaces when auto-generating an alias, which i don't mind at all, and actually makes sense to me (consider dashes appearing in the 'menu text', from which an auto-generated alias is made).


imho, the current hype about using dashes instead of underscores, purely for a search engine's benefit, is a bit overrated. either one is just as accessible and easy to parse as the other...


it is, however, of a benefit to PEOPLE, to use dashes instead of underscores in many cases. dashes are easier to type and to relay (as part of a url) verbally. underscores are also prone to being overlooked or mistaken for spaces, visually, when part of an underlined link.

[Ted]

Ok, so here is what I did for 0.12.1.  Hypens will not be replaced, but, all other characters will still be changed to _.  I just wanted to keep the same basic functionality but allowing - does make a lot of sense.

Thanks!