Store finder pages on Apache

Search engines and AI assistants often cannot see your store finder. When they visit the page, your stores are not on it yet: they only appear later, on the visitor's screen. So your stores can be missing from search results and from the answers AI assistants give.

After these steps, every store finder page arrives with its stores already on it, with names, addresses and opening hours. Search engines and AI assistants can find each of your stores and show it. Your visitors see the same store finder as before.

It takes four steps.

What you need

Access to your Apache configuration, or someone who has it. A .htaccess file is not enough

Your render token, from Uberall

Your locator key: the data-key of the store finder snippet already on your page

<div id="store-finder-widget" data-key="YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY"></div>

Step 1: Connect your server to Uberall

These Apache modules must be on: include, proxy, proxy_http, ssl and headers. Most servers have them already. If not, your hosting provider can turn them on.

Open your site's configuration, the file with your <VirtualHost>, and paste this inside the <VirtualHost> block. Replace YOUR_RENDER_TOKEN with your token:

SSLProxyEngine on
SSLProxyVerify require
SSLProxyVerifyDepth 10
SSLProxyCACertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
<Location "/api/locator-fragments/">
    Require expr %{IS_SUBREQ} == 'true'
    RequestHeader set x-uberall-render-token "YOUR_RENDER_TOKEN"
    RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
    RequestHeader unset Cookie
    RequestHeader unset Authorization
    RequestHeader unset Proxy-Authorization
    RequestHeader unset Via
    ProxyAddHeaders Off
    ProxyPass "https://uberall.com/api/locator-fragments/" connectiontimeout=2 timeout=6
    ProxyErrorOverride On
</Location>

The token stays on your server. Visitors never see it.

The certificate file lists the authorities your system trusts, and where it is depends on the system:

If yours is not there, openssl version -d shows the folder where OpenSSL keeps it.

Step 2: Turn on includes for the store finder

In the same <VirtualHost>, paste this. Replace /var/www/site/store-locator with the folder that holds your store finder page:

<Directory /var/www/site/store-locator>
    Options +Includes
    AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .html
    SSIErrorMsg "<!-- -->"
</Directory>

Step 3: Add two lines to the store finder page

Open the HTML of your store finder page and add the two include lines shown below. Replace YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY with your locator key.

<head>
  <!-- ... your head stays as it is ... -->
  <!--#include virtual="/api/locator-fragments/head?key=YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY&path=${REQUEST_URI}" -->
</head>
<body>
  <!-- ... -->
  <div id="store-finder-widget" data-key="YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY">
    <!--#include virtual="/api/locator-fragments/body?key=YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY&path=${REQUEST_URI}" -->
  </div>
  <script src="https://locator.uberall.com/locator-assets/storeFinderWidget-v2.js"></script>
</body>

The first line goes just before </head>. The second goes inside the store finder's div. Keep path=${REQUEST_URI} at the end of each line.

If your snippet has data-language or data-widgetoriginurl

Add the same values to both include lines, before &path=:

With both, the first line reads:

<!--#include virtual="/api/locator-fragments/head?key=YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY&lang=en&widgetOriginUrl=https://www.example.com/store-locator&path=${REQUEST_URI}" -->

Without them, the store finder uses the language and address set up for it at Uberall.

Step 4: Restart and check

Restart Apache:

sudo apachectl configtest && sudo apachectl graceful

Open your store finder in the browser, right click, and choose View page source. Search the source for __ubSfSsr. If you find it, it works.

If it does not work

To send the store finder page for every address under it, paste this in the <VirtualHost>, with your own folder and page:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/store-locator/. /store-locator/index.html [PT,L]

The store finder keeps working in every case. If Uberall cannot send the content, because it cannot be reached, does not answer in time or answers with an error, the page loads as it did before.