What is an SES URL?

SES is an acronym for Search Engine Safe. SES URLs use a modified URL query string, making it appear to be a static URL (ie no url variables). For example, take the following URL:

index.cfm?fuseaction=examples.testLink&sky=blue&dirt=brown&grass=green

A possible SES equivilant URL would look like:

index.cfm/fuseaction/examples.testLink/sky/blue/dirt/brown/grass/green.cfm

That's it, in a nutshell. So how is this done? With a file called sesConverter.cfm, written for and in ColdFusion. sesConverter.cfm was written by Erik Voldengen and Bert Dawson. It can be invoked by CFINCLUDE, CFMODULE, or as a custom tag -- CF_sesConverter. Just drop the following code into the <HEAD> section of your templates:

<cfif isDefined("variables.baseHref")>
    <cfoutput><base href="#variables.baseHref#"></cfoutput>
</cfif>
And the following code in your index.cfm or Application.cfm files:
<!--- ses stuff --->
<cfset SESdummyExtension = ".cfm">
<cfset SESrBaseName = "baseHREF">
<cfinclude template="sesConverter.cfm">

Download sesConverter

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sesConverter FAQ

Troubles? The sesConverter FAQ should help.

sesConverter Demo Application

Here's a simple demo appication showing example usage of both SES URLs, and the sesConverter module. It is a Fusebox application, but keep in mind you don't need to use Fusebox to use sesConverter. You can see it in action here