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Background 

JPromoter was launched in October 2006 and is developed by Sergey Romanov and Danil Chernyshev from Kyrgyzstan. JPromoter is one of three main products that they develop, the other two being JContentSubscription and JXplorer.

Compared to other SEF URL extensions, it takes a completely different approach to solving Joomla's URL problems. Instead of relying on sef_ext.php files for each component, it uses .xml files in a similar manner to Joomlatwork.com's SEF Patch. This also allows JPromoter to do more than just rewrite URLs - its also able to control Joomla's metadata in a very similar way to the SEF Patch.

What Do the URLs Look Like?

• /news.html
• /links/index.html
• /faq/examples.html
  

How Do I Set Up This Option?

1. You need to install the componentn and a mambot
2. Apply a hack to includes/frontend.php
3. Make the neccessary changes to .htaccess
   

Support

Personally, I've found that support for JPromoter is at two extremes. On the one hand there is little or no documentation, but on the other Sergey is remarkably helpful. Support emails are answered quickly and fully.

Development

Has been rapid in recent months. We've seen an update every month and are currently at version 2.5.

Supported Components 

Advantages

• Covers the same ground as Joomlatwork's SEF Patch. It allows users to add unique metatitles and pagetitles to each page.
  
• Produces a list of all your URLs. This is a great bonus, because you can easily sort through all the URLs on your site and diagnose potential problems. I still prefer WebCEO for this task, but if you don't want to buy that, JPromoter works as wel..
  
• Ability to generate Google XML Sitemaps.
• Consider it be a powerful SEO tool rather than just a SEF URL component. It also includes a Search Engine simulator which analyses your site in various ways, including which images are too large, which pages produce a 404 error and which pages have moved.
  
• Great Support. Their site promises, "If you do not find the desirable component in the list, request integration and we will develop it within 2-3 working days absolutely for FREE." Having dealt with Sergey, I believe it.
  

Disadvantages

• Its not free. Its $40 cheaper than it used to be but still costs $25.
  
• Scanning. Each time you want to update the site, you need to set a scan in motion. This can often time out although in recent versions, you can limit the size of the scan.
  
• Hard work. Although JPromoter does produce good URLs automatically, to get great URLs, you need to go in an edit them by hand. The same is true of metadata.
• No debug option.
  
• Lacks a lot of the extra fuctionality of Artio, Open SEF and SEF Advance. For example, its not possible to add date to the URL to make the site Google News friendly or to append  query strings for Google Analytics.
  

Overall Impression

JPromoted is very different from any of the other SEF URL components. It takes an almost completely different approach to creating good URLs.

Does it work? Yes - to an extent. Using JPromoter can sometimes be a slow process and the need to run a new scan everytime you update the site can get frustrating. On the other hand, the sheer number of components compatible with JPromoter leads me to think that by approaching the problem from a novel angle, Sergey may have come up with a good solution. Because its so unique, my advice would probably be to head over to the demo site and try it for yourself.

Further Information

• Buy JPromoter
• Support Forum
• Joomla.org Reviews
  

Screenshots 

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