user directories management

[keenk]

this is a slightly more general question but as i am programming it in php, it is related.

i am wondering what is the best way to create clean user-specific urls for each user registered on a website.  i explain.  take del.icio.us for example.  a user's main url is 'http://del.icio.us/username' and match with its rss feed 'http://del.icio.us/rss/username'.  i am wondering if when the user registers, different folders are created (/username, and /rss/username) with files in them.  how does it work?

[micah1701]

I'm not sure exactily how that site does it, but its probably not individual directories.
check out this article at sitepoint

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/search-engine-friendly-urls

[Kurt]

They probably use .htaccess to do this.

[keenk]

thanks that's exactly what i needed.

if del.icio.us use .htaccess by redirecting error pages, they must have one hell of an error log.

[ShogunWarrior]

Nope, they probably use [url=http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html]mod_rewrite[/url], an addon for Apache which allows for rewriting of URLs to the backend.

Note that when you rewrite a URL e.g: [b]/user3/[/b] to backend [b]?user.php?id=3[/b] that the browser will look for images etc. in www.site.com/user3/ so you have to hardcode your resources. It's handy to know before you start.