Help with parsing URL

[LotsOfZeros]

I would like to clean up my links like this:
hxxp://www.site.com/user

instead of doing this:
hxxp://www.site.com/index.php?id=user

My assumption is that I would have to code my index.php file to parse the URL and redirect to the second one but I don't actually have a folder named 'user' so how do I make this work dynamically without it giving a 404?

 

[coffeebean]

One way would be to put a couple rules like this in your htaccess file:

RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?id=($1)

That internally rewrites /user to /index.php?id=user (no redirect occurs). Then you can change all your internal links to use the /user format.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=(.+)
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ http://www.site.com/%1 [R=301,L]

And that 301 redirects the old URLs to the new ones.

Untested, but that's the general idea.

 

[kblessinggr]

mod_rewrite in an .htaccess

Like how wordpress does it using friendly urls:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

note how if the file or folder does not exist it sends everything to the index.php where it can then parse the $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];

 

[kblessinggr]

One way would be to put a couple rules like this in your htaccess file:

RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?id=($1)

That internally rewrites /user to /index.php?id=user (no redirect occurs). Then you can change all your internal links to use the /user format.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=(.+)
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ http://www.site.com/%1 [R=301,L]

And that 301 redirects the old URLs to the new ones.

Untested, but that's the general idea.

Won't work unless you put RewriteEngine On at the top and maybe a few other commands such as the base location. Also without checking to see if the file/folder already exists you run the risk of javascript, images, css, etc failing because everything keeps being sent to the index.php

 

[coffeebean]

Yes, thanks. These conditions make it so it only rewrites if the file or directory doesn't exist.

RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?id=($1)

I didn't mention RewriteEngine On and RewriteBase b/c everyone's set up is different and they might already be in there. But he's right you may need them.

 

[LotsOfZeros]

The person I am working on this site for is using Godaddy hosting which is a Windows machine with php installed - not sure it would have .htaccess or not.

 

[coffeebean]

ISAPI_Rewrite 3 - Apache .htaccess mod_rewrite compatible module for IIS

Now the problem is getting Godaddy to install it. If they refuse then switch to one of these: Shared hosting services

 

[LotsOfZeros]

Believe me, I tried telling him Godaddy hosting sniffs sweaty balls but he's one of those n00b webmasters that thinks they're the best.

 

[coffeebean]

If you do need to switch hosts, avoid the first one on that list (appliedi.net).

One that's not on the helicontech list, but I can recommend based on my experience them, is hxxp://infosaic.com/