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Need help with Joomla 404 error

by Becky Holmes
3 replies
I have created a page in Joomla 1.5.14 that I don't want anyone to see but the search engines. I am getting a 404 error and can't get to the page by typing in the URL. (http://mydomain.com/my-new-page)

Here is what I did:
1. Created my article and put it in "Uncategorised"
2. Enabled Search Engine Friendly URL's in Global Config, then saved.
3. Changed htaccess.txt to .htaccess and checked "yes" to Apache Mod_rewrite in Global Config, then saved.
4. Add suffix to URL's is checked "no" in Global Config

When I type in the complete URL, I get the 404 page telling me it doesn't exist. I have also tried adding the article to a section and a category, but I still can't get to it by typing in the URL. I know very little about PHP. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be appreciated. []

Thanks!
#404 #404 error #error #joomla
  • Profile picture of the author ZorroCat
    Joomla's way of building URLs is very quirky, to say the least. The URLs are tied to the menu system.

    That means you don't get a valid URL unless your content item is reachable through a menu.

    Now I understand you don't want your human visitors to access the page directly. Okay, there's a way around it without getting your hands dirty with PHP.

    1) Create a new menu in Joomla's menu manager. Call it "hiddenmenu" or something like that. Add your super-secret content item to this menu.

    2) Go to the corresponding menu module in Extensions -> Modules, set it to inactive. (That means it won't be displayed on the site, but Joomla will still know that your page now has a "menu item" because you put it there.)

    3) Now you should see your page when entering the URL.

    If it doesn't work, try enabling the hidden menu module for a moment, go to your site's frontend, and click on the page's entry in the module. That will give you the page's URL as Joomla thinks it should be.

    URL management is something that sucks big time in Joomla. This crap dates back from the old Mambo days (I'm talking 2002 here), and they still haven't god rid of it.

    HTH.

    Kind regards,
    Zorro
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    • Profile picture of the author Becky Holmes
      Zorro,

      Excellent! This worked just as you said, on the first try. Thank you so much. I knew I should be able to do this but there was something I was leaving out, so thanks for your expertise! Btw, the page being hidden so only the search engine can see it is for an SEO technique.

      Thanks again!
      Becky
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      Houston Web Design
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  • Profile picture of the author JesseT
    I had this same issue. My issue actually came from Setting the SEF feature after I created my article. The link I had created previously was still going to the non SEF version. I just went back in to the link saved it again with the new URL and was able to access it.
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    Short Sale Extraordinaire!

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