SSL and Sitemap

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2/7/2010 11:53:17 AM
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SSL and Sitemap

version: 2.3.3.5 MSSQL 

I have some pages that require SSL, but when they show up in the Sitemap.aspx or .ashx they do not include https. When you click on their links from sitemap the friendly url is changed to default.aspx with the pageid. The main issue is when google tries to index the pages it gives a warning about un-necessary redirects. Any suggestions?

2/8/2010 7:31:05 AM
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Re: SSL and Sitemap

Hi Ryan,

I confirm this as a bug, I am able to reproduce the problem. I will fix this for the next release. The fix will be in svn trunk by late tonight.

Thanks,

Joe

2/8/2010 8:41:20 AM
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Re: SSL and Sitemap

Hi Ryan,

I just fixed this in my copy.

However, I would like to point out that it is a strange scenario to use SSL on a page that is public. The idea of SSL is to have a page secured by roles and then use SSL to encrypt the content over the wire so it cannot be packet sniffed. This way sensitive content is not leaked to unauthorized users. Using SSL when it is not needed is just putting extra load on the server.

So typically a page secured by SSL is also going to be secured by roles in which case it won't be crawled by google anyway and there is no SEO concern for a secured content page. Both SiteMap.aspx and SiteMap.ashx filter by role, so if you view them logged in as admin you will see urls that will not be seen by google because they are not logged into the site. If you log out then you will see them the same as google does.

Best,

Joe

2/8/2010 8:53:20 AM
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Total Posts 7

Re: SSL and Sitemap

Joe,

Thanks for the fix.

The site I am working on is for an Insurance Agency and the pages in question are for user to request a quote. Since we do not require users to register before requesting a quote we don't want them to submit some personal information without the SSL. I basically created a custom version of the survey feature to provide a little more functionality for the quote request forms. And just like the survey feature you can add HTML/text that displays before the start survey button and I wanted this to be indexed. Since there are no links taking you through the survey just next/back buttons, the engines do not follow.

My workaround was going to be create a page for indexing that has a link with "no follow" that then goes to the modified survey feature page that is SSL.

Thanks again!

Ryan

2/8/2010 8:58:26 AM
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Re: SSL and Sitemap

Ahh, I see, it makes sense in your scenario because you need a secure form post even though the content on the page itself is not sensitive.

Best,

Joe

11/19/2010 8:18:16 AM
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Total Posts 23

Re: SSL and Sitemap

I am also seeing a problem with a SSL site and SiteMap.aspx.

My setup is Windows 2003, IIS6 with Standford WebAuth SSO add-on to IIS 6 (http://www.adunar.com/webauth/) to provide SSO authentication, I then have a authorization database which allows users on to the website. I need this approach since the SSO and LDAP service are provided by others and the LDAP service for mojoportal I don't think will talk to the external LDAP service. 

To make this all happen I have added the following to the layout.master, at top:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="KNH" tagName="WEBAUTH" src="~/MyControls/databasecheck.ascx" %>

..... then lower down

<KNH:WEBAUTH id="webauthcheck" runat="server" />

This all works great, but for the SiteMap.aspx

When I press on the link the url changes from

https://intranet.chem.ox.ac.uk/SiteMap.aspx to https://intranet.chem.ox.ac.uk:443/SiteMap.aspx and Safari display the message:

"Safari can’t open the page.
Too many redirects occurred trying to open “https://intranet.chem.ox.ac.uk:443/SiteMap.aspx”. This might occur if you open a page that is redirected to open another page which then is redirected to open the original page."

Firefox says:

"The page isn't redirecting properly
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

    * This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept
          cookies.

If I turn off SSL and remove my changes to the layout.master the SiteMap works fine.

Everything else I have tried witht he site works in the SSL mode, for example Administration Menu > Add/Edit Pages show the whole site without issue.

Many thanks, for considering this. Karl

11/19/2010 8:29:59 AM
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Total Posts 18439

Re: SSL and Sitemap

Hi Karl,

I'm not sure about all that other stuff you are doing and how it affects things, but you might try adding one or both of these settings in your user.config file:

<add key="ResolveFullUrlsForMenuItemProtocolDifferences" value="false" />

<add key="UseSslFoSiteMap" value="true" />

I know there is a typo in that second setting but that is the actual setting, I apparently made a typo when I created it. If that setting does help, then add it to your user.config and also add the correct spelling version because I will fix this for the next release.

Maybe one or both of those settings will solve it, if not I'm not sure what to tell you. Note that changes to user.config are not automatically detected so you have to touch web.config after that to make it reload settings.

Hope it helps,

Joe

11/20/2010 4:45:50 AM
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Total Posts 23

Re: SSL and Sitemap

Dear Joe,

Excellent news now all fixed. Many many thanks for your very efficient help and of course great software.

Regards, Karl

 

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