phpBB SEO Framework

Modern, enterprise-grade Search Engine Optimization infrastructure for phpBB.

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Overview

phpBB SEO Framework (Lite Edition) is the official search engine optimization extension for phpBB 3.3.x communities. Architected for speed, clean software design, and strict standards compliance, it delivers a zero-SQL hot-path URL rewrite engine, automated metadata generation, dynamic keyset-streamed XML sitemaps, built-in migration from legacy SEO systems, and a high-performance bulk slug backfill engine.

• Official Website: https://www.phpbbseo.com/
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/phpbb-seo/seo-framework
• Latest Release: v1.1.0

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What's New in Version 1.1.0

🚀 Persistent Slug Backfill Engine

• High-Throughput Keyset Bulk Indexing: Built specifically for large boards with tens of thousands to 500,000+ topics. Uses zero-offset cursor pagination (topic_id > :last_id ORDER BY topic_id ASC LIMIT :batch_size) to eliminate SQL OFFSET performance degradation.
• Strictly Bounded Memory: Streams batches with predictable, flat memory consumption (< 3 MB peak overhead), preventing PHP memory exhaustion on any hosting environment.
• Missing-Only Indexing Mode: Automatically detects and processes only topics lacking an indexed slug via database anti-joins.
• Multi-Row Atomic Insertions: Batched inserts executed within transactional boundaries for maximum integrity and throughput.
• Concurrency Mutex Locking: Utilizes phpBB core's database lock provider (\phpbb\lock\db) to prevent race conditions between simultaneous background or web executions.
• Deferred Sitemap Cache Invalidation: Intelligently invalidates XML sitemap caches only once upon 100% completion of the backfill run.

⚡ Interactive ACP AJAX Runner

• Smart Notice Card: Automatically detected and displayed in the ACP XML Sitemap section whenever missing topic slugs exist.
• Stepped Progress Bar: Displays real-time percentage, processed topic counts, and status indicators without reloading the page.
• Pause & Resume: Gracefully handles network drops or server timeouts with one-click resumption from the exact last processed ID.
• In-Place Completion: Real-time counter synchronization immediately updates missing slug statistics to 0.

🖥️ Enhanced CLI Rebuild Suite

• Full Symfony Console support via php bin/phpbbcli.php seo:rebuild-slugs (and alias phpbbseo:rebuild-slugs).
• New --all flag to force rebuild all topic slugs from scratch.
• Configurable --batch-size parameter (1 to 1,000 topics per batch).
• Real-time terminal progress indicators displaying batch IDs, remaining counts, and elapsed execution timing.

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Core Features (Lite Edition)

🔗 Zero-SQL SEO URL Engine

• Zero Database Queries on Hot Path: Runtime outbound link rewriting through append_sid() operates in-memory with 0 SQL queries.
• Configurable Permalinks: Flexible URL pattern templates for Forums, Topics, Member Profiles, and Usergroups with customizable tokens.
• Persistent Slug Read-Model: Authoritative slug index ensuring stable, deterministic URL resolution without altering phpBB core database tables.
• Automatic 301 Canonical Redirects: Automatically redirects legacy native URLs (viewtopic.php?t=123, viewforum.php?f=4), altered slugs, and outdated URLs to current canonical structures.
• Pre-Bootstrap Router: Dedicated standalone routing handler (rewrite.php) intercepting inbound requests before full application initialization for blazing fast responses.

🔄 Legacy Ultimate SEO URL (USU) Migration & Compatibility

• Full Backward Compatibility: Seamlessly resolves and 301-redirects legacy Ultimate SEO URL structures across topics, forums, members, and posts.
• Universal Format Support: Handles .html, .htm, extensionless, underscore-based, and nested directory legacy patterns.
• Approach A Router Collision Guard: Pre-checks candidate legacy URLs against phpBB's Symfony route collection to prevent shadowing core routes or third-party extensions.
• Configurable Admin Toggle: Easily enabled or disabled from the ACP Permalinks settings.

🛡️ ACP Safe Uninstall Suite

• Pre-Flight Diagnostics: Inspects server rewrite capabilities, active slug counts, and system states before deactivation.
• Automated .htaccess Fallback Preview: Generates clean fallback rewrite rules and allows reviewing removal steps with automatic backup recovery.
• Clean Deactivation: Automatically unlinks compiled route caches and temporary stores upon deactivation.

📝 Dynamic Titles & Meta Engine

• Pattern-Based Templates: Define custom meta titles and descriptions for Home, Forum, Topic, and Profile pages.
• Intelligent Text Normalization: Automatically strips BBCode, smilies, nested quotes, and HTML entities to produce clean plain-text Unicode snippets.
• Canonical Link Tags: Injects authoritative <link rel="canonical"> elements to eliminate duplicate content issues.

🗺️ XML Sitemap Suite

• Sitemaps Protocol 0.9 Compliant: Fully compatible with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Yandex.
• Scalable Keyset Streaming: Capable of indexing massive forum catalogues with zero offset slowdowns.
• Strict Anonymous ACL Guard: Strictly restricts sitemaps to public guest-accessible forums; private, hidden, or staff forums are never exposed.
• Human-Readable XSL Stylesheet: Interactive browser presentation (/sitemap.xsl) transforming raw XML feeds into styled dashboards.

🌐 Universal Multilingual & Unicode Support

• Full native UTF-8 slug generation across Persian, Arabic, Cyrillic, Latin, and CJK alphabets.
• Graceful fallback transliteration for non-Latin character sets.

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Lite vs Pro Edition

phpBB SEO Framework is designed with a unified, extensible architecture. The Lite Edition delivers the complete foundational SEO infrastructure, while the Pro Edition unlocks advanced search engine automation, real-time analytics, and rich data integrations.

Feature / Capability	Lite Edition	Pro Edition
Zero-SQL SEO URL Hot Path	✅ Included	✅ Included
Persistent Slug Read-Model	✅ Included	✅ Included
Canonical 301 Redirections	✅ Included	✅ Included
Configurable Permalinks	✅ Included	✅ Included
Legacy USU 301 Migration Resolver	✅ Included	✅ Included
Safe Uninstall Suite	✅ Included	✅ Included
Persistent Slug Backfill Engine (CLI & ACP)	✅ Included	✅ Included
XML Sitemap Engine & XSL Styling	✅ Included	✅ Included
Dynamic Titles & Meta Engine	✅ Included	✅ Included
On-Page SEO Analyzer	❌	✅ Included
Titles & Meta Pro (Advanced Rules)	❌	✅ Included
OpenGraph & Twitter Card Metadata	❌	✅ Included
JSON-LD Schema & Rich Data Generator	❌	✅ Included
Google Search Console (GSC) Integration	❌	✅ Included
Automated 404 Error Monitor	❌	✅ Included
Dynamic 301/302 Redirect Manager	❌	✅ Included
Robots.txt & Advanced Indexing Rules	❌	✅ Included
IndexNow Instant Search Submission	❌	✅ Included
Forum Social & OpenGraph Fallbacks	❌	✅ Included

Learn more about the Pro Edition at https://www.phpbbseo.com/.

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Requirements

• phpBB: 3.3.0 – 3.3.17+
• PHP: 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, or 8.3 (tested and verified on PHP 8.2 & 8.3)
• Supported Web Servers:
  • Apache 2.4+ (with mod_rewrite enabled)
  • LiteSpeed / OpenLiteSpeed
  • Nginx

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Installation

1. Download the latest release package (phpbbseo_framework_1.1.0.zip) from the Releases page.

2. Extract the archive and upload the files to your phpBB installation so the directory path is:

   ext/phpbbseo/framework/
   

3. Configure your web server rewrite rules:

   Apache / LiteSpeed

   Add the following directives to your phpBB root .htaccess file:

   <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
       RewriteEngine On
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
       RewriteRule ^(.*)$ ext/phpbbseo/framework/rewrite.php [QSA,L]
   </IfModule>

   Nginx (Domain Root)

   Add the following directive inside your server configuration block:

   location / {
       try_files $uri $uri/ /ext/phpbbseo/framework/rewrite.php?$query_string;
   }

   Nginx (Subdirectory, e.g. /forum/)

   location /forum/ {
       try_files $uri $uri/ /forum/ext/phpbbseo/framework/rewrite.php?$query_string;
   }

4. Open the Administration Control Panel (ACP) and navigate to:
   Customise » Manage Extensions

5. Locate phpBB SEO Framework under Disabled Extensions and click Enable.

6. Navigate to the new SEO Framework tab in the ACP to configure your settings.

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CLI Command Reference

The framework includes a powerful Symfony CLI command suite for server administrators:

# Rebuild missing topic slugs (default safe mode)
php bin/phpbbcli.php seo:rebuild-slugs

# Rebuild all topic slugs from scratch
php bin/phpbbcli.php seo:rebuild-slugs --all

# Rebuild with a custom batch size (1 to 1000)
php bin/phpbbcli.php seo:rebuild-slugs --batch-size=500

# Using the alternative namespace alias
php bin/phpbbcli.php phpbbseo:rebuild-slugs --all

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Documentation & Community

• Official Website & Docs: https://www.phpbbseo.com/
• Knowledge Base: https://www.phpbbseo.com/knowledge
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/phpbb-seo/seo-framework
• Issue Tracker: https://github.com/phpbb-seo/seo-framework/issues

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License

phpBB SEO Framework is open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 (GPL-2.0-only).

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Credits

Developed and maintained by the phpBB SEO Team.
Copyright © 2026 phpBB SEO. All rights reserved.