Bug 'Always use Forum URL as Base Path' causes errors on load

[Clarice]

Worth noting that we're running the pro version, I'm just not the site owner and as such don't have paid-section account access here.

This is an issue I started to notice yesterday after installing vBSSO, and I'm pretty sure it has to do with needing to turn on an option in vB's settings called "Always use Forum URL as Base Path". For reference, this is found in AdminCP under Settings > Options > Site Name / URL / Contact Details.

Our forum is set up so that going to the base URL of the site (Equestria Forever) loads the vB forum index that by default is at ./forum.php. I first noticed this issue when going to http://[b]www.[/b]equestriaforever.com caused the shoutbox to fail to load. The rest of the page loaded perfectly fine, but vBShout was stuck with just the "Loading..." text at the top-left corner.

I managed to work around this issue with a redirect/rewrite rule in our site's .htaccess, basically just shaving off the 'www.' automatically when a user would input that URL. I realized earlier, however, that this wouldn't fully fix the issue, which is why I came here.

In addition to the regular site domain, we have a direct-connection set up as Equestria Forever that circumvents Cloudflare's caching services, which we also use. This is not normally an issue, but for testing purposes and the occasional times where Cloudflare has issues, having this work properly is critical. Much as was observed when adding the 'www.' before, the shoutbox fails to load properly when the site is accessed through this URL. In this instance, I cannot have the server simply rewrite the URL and remove the 'direct.', as that is there for a specific reason.

I feel like this is probably just a simple coding issue where something is hard-coded that can't be when using the "Always use Forum URL as Base Path" feature, but I'd have no clue as to where to start. With this being an issue for vBShout and not the site as a whole, I'm assuming the error is somewhere in the addon's code. Would you happen to know anything about what might cause this?

 

[Fillip H.]

For some reason, my post in this thread seems to have vanished.

The issue is that AJAX technology treats www and non-www domains as different domains for security reasons. You need to enforce either www or non-www access to your site via .htaccess in order to resolve this issue.

 

[Clarice]

The issue is that AJAX technology treats www and non-www domains as different domains for security reasons. You need to enforce either www or non-www access to your site via .htaccess in order to resolve this issue.

I've already done that. The issue I'm having is with any sort of subdomain being attached before the main site name.

 

[Fillip H.]

You need to ensure that the only possible way of accessing your forum is for instance www.domain.com/forum even if you have set up a subdomain like forum.domain.com that points to the same files.

The reason you have to do this is because the base path tells the security measures that the correct access domain is www.domain.com/forum - forum.domain.com is not identical to www.domain.com/forum and is therefore blocked.