How to modify a SEF URL including an arbitrary text

Question

I develop a component that has a list view: index.php?option=com_mycomponent&view=listview&catid=1

I have published several menu elements of this component pointing to different categories;

• cat1
• cat2
• cat3

As they are menú items, the SEF URL are:

• www.myweb.com/cat1

• www.myweb.com/cat2

• www.myweb.com/cat3

So far so good, normal behaviour.

Also, I got a cookie with a location text. My customer want the URL to be diferent according to the value of the cookie.

If the cookie value is "madrid" the urls should be

• www.myweb.com/madrid/cat1

• www.myweb.com/madrid/cat2

• www.myweb.com/madrid/cat3

If the cookie value is "barcelona" then, they should be

• www.myweb.com/barcelona/cat1

• www.myweb.com/barcelona/cat2

• www.myweb.com/barcelona/cat3

and so on.

Beside that, there is nothing, the lists are exactly the same in every case is just a mather of changing the URL.

Any ideas how I can achieve this?

Answer 1

Check Language Filter system plugin, you'll see how they manipulate the url to add language prefix to links. You could use the same method to add location prefix based on cookie value.

Here is what I did, but bear in mind that I had a tricky request, I had to make it work together with language filter plugin AND make the country appear before the language code. Different countries can show the same item and languages are shared accros countries. It works in pair with a custom country extra field plugin for K2, but it's irrelevant for this. What I did is possible only from Joomla 3.4 and higher

defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\Registry\Registry;

class PlgSystemCountryFilter extends JPlugin
{
   protected $app;

   public $countries = array('austria', 'belgium', 'czech-republic', 'poland', 'slovakia', 'ukraine');
   public $country;

   public function __construct(&$subject, $config)
   {
      parent::__construct($subject, $config);
      $this->app = JFactory::getApplication();
   }

   public function onAfterInitialise()
   {
      if ($this->app->isSite())
      {
         // country/fr/menus
         $path = str_replace(JUri::root(), '', JUri::current());

         $parts = explode('/', $path);
         if(!empty($parts[0]) && in_array($parts[0], $this->countries)) {
            $this->country = $parts[0];
            $router = $this->app->getRouter();

            $router->attachBuildRule(array($this, 'buildRule'), JRouter::PROCESS_BEFORE);
            $router->attachBuildRule(array($this, 'postprocessSEFBuildRule'), JRouter::PROCESS_AFTER);
            $router->attachParseRule(array($this, 'parseRule'), JRouter::PROCESS_BEFORE);
         }
      }
   }

   public function buildRule(&$router, &$uri)
   {
      if(!empty($this->country)) {
         $parts = explode('/', $uri->getPath());
         $lang = array_shift($parts);
         $uri->setPath(implode('/', $parts) . '/' . $this->country . '/' . $lang . '/');
      }
   }

   public function postprocessSEFBuildRule(&$router, &$uri)
   {    
      $uri->delVar('sitecountry');
   }

   public function parseRule(&$router, &$uri)
   {
      $path = $uri->getPath();
      $parts = explode('/', $path);
      if(!empty($parts[0]) && in_array($parts[0], $this->countries)) {
         $country = $parts[0];
      }

      $array = array();
      if(!empty($country)) {
         array_shift($parts);
         // if we are supposed to be on the root page /fr, then make it be like /fr/country so that per country homepage can be displayed
         // for this to work hidden menu with aliases /country must be created
         if(count($parts) == 1) {
            $parts[] = $country;
         }
         $uri->setPath(implode('/', $parts));

         $this->app->input->set('sitecountry', $country);
         $array = array('sitecountry' => $country);
      }
      return $array;
   }

}