Overview
Vanity URLs in Active Forums are built using path options that are defined within the Active Forums Control Panel.  In order to provide the most flexible options that work well within DotNetNuke, we have split the Vanity URL options into three parts.  The first part is what we will call Path Prefixes.  Path Prefixes are the root path options that allow for proper navigation within the forum context.  There are four Path Prefixes that you can configure:

1. Base Path - optional - this is best used if you want all of your pages within Active Forums to begin with a specific path immediately following your domain name. For example, if we enter a base path of forums then all of our pages within Active Forums will begin with http://www.mydomain.com/forums
2. Category Path - required - this is a path prefix that will allow us to access a list of topics by a specific category name.
3. Tag Path - required - this is a path prefix that will allow us to access a list of topics by a specific tag name.
4. Views Path - required - this is the path prefix for all sub views within Active Forums that are not specific to a forum.  

The second part of the Vanity URL configuration is within Forum Groups and Forums.  Each Forum Group and Forum will need to have a vanity name.  The vanity name should represent the name of the forum group or forum but doesn't need to be the exact name.  We recommend keeping each vanity name segment less than 25 characters.

The third and final part of the Vanity URL is specific to each topic.  Each topic will be assigned a unique url based upon the subject of the topic when it is created.  Each topic url must be unique within the forum it is assigned.  If a duplicate url is found when the topic is created, the topic url will be prefixed with a numeric value that is unique.

Recommended Configurations

1. Simple - If you wish to keep configuration as simple as possible then we recommend the following settings for Vanity URL Options:
   
2. Advanced - If you wish to have greater control over the Vanity URL for each forum group and forum then we recommend the following settings for Vanity URL Options:
   

Special Note for DotNetNuke 5.6.0
DotNetNuke 5.6.0 includes a new featured called AutoAliasMapping.  There are few issues with this feature that can affect Vanity URLs.  You can follow the steps below to update the ErrorPage.aspx file to circumvent these problems until DotNetNuke 5.6.1 is released.

1. Open ErrorPage.aspx  with a normal text editor. 
2. Add the following code just below the form tag:
   
   < %

           If Request.QueryString("error").Contains("IX_PortalAlias") Then

               Response.Redirect("~/Default.aspx")

           End If

       % >
3. Save the file
   

Related Topics:
Installing Vanity URLs for Active Forums
Common Questions About Vanity URLs