If you’ve used sh404SEF® in the past, you will immediately notice that the backend dashboard of version 2 has been completely refactored and now sports three distinct areas: Configuration, Management and Quick Start/Notifications.

sh404SEF® Configuration

By combining related tasks into each of these panels, using sh404SEF® becomes faster and more intuitive. 

For example, enabling and disabling sh404SEF® can now be performed in the Quick Start area along with choosing a rewrite mode (i.e. with .htaccess).

In addition, we’ve uncoupled the security features and URL rewriting features that can now be independently activated/deactivated with a simple click.

These Quick Start features really come in handy when configuring and troubleshooting your sh404SEF® installation.

The Configuration area is now organized into five groups: General, Extensions, SEO, Security and Error page. This layout showcases the configuration areas in sh404SEF® and makes locating a specific parameter (among the hundreds available) a lot more obvious. 

sh404SEF® Management

The Management area has also been overhauled to maximize efficiency during your day-to-day URL maintenance. The new layout makes it very clear that URLs, aliases, pageIds and meta data can be managed separately.

Importantly, each manager now utilizes the modal popups of Joomla 1.5 to speed up usage and reduce page refreshing.

In the next post we’ll dive into the mangers themselves, especially the URL manager, which have been streamlined for maximum performance.