Joomla RSS and SEF Bug Fix with .htaccess
Today we found a fixed a bug in Joomla 3.8.11. The problem was with the SEF (search engine freindly) url created for our RSS feed.
For example.
The non-sef url is this:
https://www.serr.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=1127&format=feed&type=rss
When url rewriting is turned on, the url becomes this:
https://www.serr.biz/blog.feed?type=rss
When clicked, we would just see the standard /blog.html page, even though the url was this: https://www.serr.biz/blog.feed?type=rss
This problem occurs with any page that is set to generate an RSS feed.
We probably could have hacked a core file to fix this issue, but then it would be undone in the next update.
Instead, we modified our .htaccess file to include this.
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \.feed(\S+)\sHTTP [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.serr.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=1127&format=feed&type=rss [L,R=301,NE]
What that rule does is looks for .feed in any url. If it finds it, it redirects the request to the default RSS feed url string.
Hopefully, Joomla will see this bug fix and correct the problem in the next update.
Image credit: Source image modfieid from https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-red-crew-neck-sweatshirt-photography-941693/
