How to find the non-SEF URL whilst SEF is enabled (Joomla 1.5)?

Question

I know you probably don't get many questions like this...

I am working on a component that I want to be able to deal with the non-SEF URLs whilst SEF is enabled, whether it be the built-in SEF or something like sh404sef.

Does Joomla store the ORIGINAL non-SEF URL anywhere ie. index.php?com=com_fred&view=homepage?

I've found that any SEF activated, changes the JURI::getInstance() value to the SEF equivilant. I've also found the the $REQUEST['URI'] value does not work on all platforms/servers etc.

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

For menu items, it's stored in the 'jos_menu' table, in the 'link' column (but the itemid is not in this string - it's the 'id' column).

For anything else, it's probably not stored in the database, but can normally be worked out pretty easily, especially with core components. It can be a little bit of a pain with third party components, but you can look through the MVC architecture of most components to figure it out.

Otherwise, you could always turn off SEF on your dev site/create a dev site for this.

Is there a specific component that you're curious about?