Prevent "renaming" of knowledgebase URLs

[DennisHermannsen]

Let's say you have a knowledgebase article with the following URL: https://example.com/whmcs/knowledgebase/1/Create-a-backup.html
Nothing prevents anyone from linking to that page with any text, which can cause problems. Anyone could link to https://example.com/whmcs/knowledgebase/1/WHMCS-should-fix-this.html, and it would show the correct knowledgebase article, but the URL would show as "https://example.com/whmcs/knowledgebase/1/WHMCS-should-fix-this.html" instead of redirecting to the correct URL.

I made this hook a while back and thought that other people might find it useful.

<?php

add_hook('ClientAreaPageKnowledgebase', 1, function ($vars) {

	// Get the current URL and create the URL that should be redirected to
	$url = 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; 
	$trueURL = $vars['systemsslurl'] . 'knowledgebase/' . ($vars['kbcurrentcat']['id'] ? $vars['kbcurrentcat']['id'] : $vars['kbarticle']['id'] ). '/' . urlencode($vars['kbcurrentcat']['urlfriendlyname'] ? $vars['kbcurrentcat']['urlfriendlyname'] : $vars['kbarticle']['urlfriendlytitle']. '.html') ; 
	
	// Only redirect if visitor is viewing a knowledgebase category or an article
	if (($vars['templatefile'] === 'knowledgebasecat' || $vars['templatefile'] === 'knowledgebasearticle') AND strpos($url,'search') === false AND strpos($url,'tag') === false) {
		if ($trueURL !== $url) {
			header('Location: ' . $trueURL);
			exit();
		}
	}

});

Feel free to use it or modify it how you'd like.

[Newton]

Thanks for this hook. I cannot believe WHMCS hasn't fixed that yet 😕

[rockhost]

Wow, thanks! That was easy. Is there anything similar for /announcements? It has the same flaw. It really is insane this isn't fixed yet.

[DennisHermannsen]

@rockhost I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

[DennisHermannsen]

@rockhost An updated version of the hook can be found here: https://github.com/DennisSkov/WHMCS-Hooks-and-Modules#prevent-spoofing-url-for-knowledgebase-and-announcement-articles

[rockhost]

That did the trick, nice work! THANKS!