The .htaccess file is a web server configuration file. It lives on the web server machine and can be used for quite a few different things, including your store URLs. Pinnacle Cart occasionally needs to write to your .htaccess file. Historically, however, people would also manually edit the .htaccess file, and that is where the trouble started. Sometimes, the Pinnacle Cart software would over-write a change that you had manually made to the file. Sometimes people would edit or delete changes that the Pinnacle Cart software had made, and in either case, your store would not behave as expected.


To make life a little easier, Pinnacle Cart added the .htaccess overrides area in the cart admin area. This section is an interface to your store's .htaccess file for managing how URLs behave.


Applies to Version(s): 3.9.x Series

Complexity Level: Easy


In this article, you will learn:

What is an htaccess file?

How to Manage Your Carts' URLs


Note: You can continue to manually edit your .htaccess file, as long as you do not make changes within the Pinnacle Cart Search Engine Optimization page.


How to Manage Your Carts' URLs

SEO Cart URL settings

  • Enable search engine-friendly URLs – This setting allows you to have cleaner URLs like /productname.html instead of /index.php?p=product&pid=23. It is highly recommended you keep this on.
  • Use lowercase letters in URLs – This setting forces all URLs to be lowercase in the event you have pages with capital letters in their names.
  • Enable meta title and description auto-generation – Automatically generates meta information based on the content of the page.
  • URL preference - Force either the www or non-www version of the site to display in the visitor's browser. No immediate effect: save and click the button "Generate .htaccess" at the top to apply changes
  • Category URL Template - %CategoryKey%, %CategoryName%, %CategoryDbId%, %CategoryPath% - at least one variable required
  • Category Pagination- %PageNumber%- required Template Variables:
    • Will be added before the extension (if exists) or closing slash symbol. The resulting URL will look like this:
      [category-url][page-number].html
      [category-url][page-number]
      [category-url][page-number]/
    • Manufacturer URL Template - Template Variables:
      %ManufacturerKey%, %ManufacturerName%, %ManufacturerDbId% - at least one variable required
  • Manufacturer Pagination - %PageNumber%- required Template Variables: 
    • Will be added before the extension (if exists) or closing slash symbol. The resulting URL will look like this:
      [manufacturer-url][page-number].html
      [manufacturer-url][page-number]
      [manufacturer-url][page-number]/
  • Product URL Template - Template variables: %CategoryKey%, %CategoryName%, %CategoryDbId%, %CategoryPath%, %CategoryURL%<br>%ProductId%, %ProductName%, %ProductDbId% - at least one of product variables is required
  • Page URL Template - Template variables: %PageName%, %PageTitle%
    Order Form URL Template - Template Variables: %OrderFormName%, %OrderFormDbId% - at least one variable required
  • .htaccess Overrides - This is where you can do things like 301 redirects (see kb article on this here).
  • robots.txt - This is where you can generate code to block or throttle those search bots. You can use a site such as here.



301 Redirects

Search Engine Optimization


If you didn't get your question answered, please contact the Pinnacle Cart Support Team. To submit a ticket, go to the My Account drop-down menu at the top right of the admin area and select Support.