Ultimate SEO URL (USU) — Legacy Project

Important

This repository is maintained for existing installations and backward compatibility.

For NEW phpBB installations, do not install USU.

Use the new phpBB SEO Framework instead:
🔗 https://github.com/phpbb-seo/seo-framework

• Legacy / Maintenance Status: USU remains available as a stable compatibility project for existing websites that depend on its historical URL structure.
• Existing Installations: Existing USU users should NOT uninstall or attempt automatic migration.
• New Installations: New phpBB 3.3.x boards should install phpBB SEO Framework, the actively developed next-generation SEO platform.

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Successor: phpBB SEO Framework

phpBB SEO Framework is the modern successor to Ultimate SEO URL for new phpBB installations.

Key features of phpBB SEO Framework (Lite Edition):

• SEO-Friendly Permalinks: Customizable URL pattern templates for forums, topics, members, and usergroups.

• Persistent Slug Index: Framework-owned persistent slug storage providing fast and deterministic URL resolution without modifying phpBB core tables.

• Canonical URLs & Automatic 301 Redirects: Seamlessly normalizes legacy native URLs (viewtopic.php?t=123) and historical stale slugs.

• Titles & Meta Engine: Pattern-driven meta titles and clean plain-text description normalization.

• Scalable XML Sitemap Suite: Keyset-based streaming architecture with strict Anonymous ACL protection and zero deep SQL offset overhead.

• Multilingual / Unicode Support: Native UTF-8 slug generation for Persian, Arabic, Cyrillic, Latin, and CJK alphabets.

• Modern ACP Interface: Responsive administration dashboard with live crawl statistics and preview tools.

• Zero-SQL append_sid Hot Path: Zero database queries during runtime outbound link rewriting.

• Official Website: https://www.phpbbseo.ir/

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/phpbb-seo/seo-framework

(Note: USU and phpBB SEO Framework use different internal architectures and are not drop-in compatible).

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Features (Historical USU)

• Full SEO-friendly URL rewriting preserving original USU URL patterns
• Canonical URL generation
• Automatic duplicate URL detection and 301 redirects
• Forum, Topic, User, and Search URL rewriting
• Advanced, Mixed, and Simple rewrite modes
• High-performance URL caching
• Compatible with phpBB 3.3.x and PHP 8.4

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Compatibility

Component	Version
phpBB	3.3.x
PHP	8.4
License	GNU General Public License v2.0

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Existing Installations

Note

USU is no longer recommended for new phpBB installations. The documentation below is provided solely for administrators maintaining an existing USU-powered board.

For new installations, please install phpBB SEO Framework.

Upgrading / Maintaining Existing Boards

1. Back up your database and existing extension files.
2. Unpack the extension into:

   ext/phpbbseo/usu/
   

3. In the phpBB Administration Control Panel (ACP), navigate to Customise » Manage Extensions.
4. Ensure Ultimate SEO URL is enabled.
5. Purge the phpBB cache.
6. Verify that your URL rewriting rules in .htaccess remain active.

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Development & Maintenance Philosophy

This repository represents the compatibility and maintenance branch of the classic Ultimate SEO URL extension.

Its primary objectives are:

• Preserve backward compatibility for historical URL formats
• Maintain stable URL generation on modern PHP versions
• Provide long-term stability for existing communities

Active development of new features (XML Sitemaps, Metadata engines, OpenGraph, Schema.org) is conducted exclusively on the phpBB SEO Framework platform.

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Maintained by phpBB SEO

• Official Website: https://www.phpbbseo.ir/
• Modern SEO Framework: https://github.com/phpbb-seo/seo-framework

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License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 (GPL-2.0).
https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-2.0