[SOLVED] Dynamic url handling at root level

[daanoz]

Hey ppl,

 

I've been working with dynamic urls on quite some projects now, and gotten quite used to it. To make clear what i do (because dynamic url handling might not be a good name), i'll give a short example :

 

Say, you have a page with a list of projects, and you want to offer visitors a info + download page to each project. To make a url look nice, we can do a simple trick.

 

so instead of:

- http://localhost/projects.php?id=1

- http://localhost/projects.php?id=22

- http://localhost/projects.php?id=34

- http://localhost/projects.php?id=4&ac=download

 

we get:

- http://localhost/projects/SearhApp

- http://localhost/projects/DownloadApplication

- http://localhost/projects/AnotherApp

- http://localhost/projects/SearchAppV2/Download

 

The trick behind this is renaming the "projects.php" to "projects" and making apache handling files with no extension as a php file (make sure you secure your application properly otherwise this might pose a security risk)

 

 

 

Right, my question...

 

I want to take this a step further, but i have no clue how. I want to remove the "projects" file as well. So I can have links like:

 

- http://localhost/SearhApp

- http://localhost/DownloadApplication

- http://localhost/AnotherApp

- http://localhost/SearchAppV2/Download

 

Without having actually having to create the files, i want to call the same php script everytime a url is requested. I think the same technique is used at www.php.net. Behind the domain you can put any php function your looking for, and you get redirected to the page you want (http://www.php.net/array_key_exists, http://www.php.net/fread, etc.)

 

So... how is it done?

 

Cheers

 

Daanoz

 

[wildteen88]

If you're using Apache as your HTTP server you can use mod_rewrite to achieve this, example

 

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule /([a-z0-9]+)/ /projects/$1/ [NC,L]

 

With that within a .htaccess file any url like

http://locahost/xyz/

 

will actually call

http://localhost/projects/xyz/

[daanoz]

Ok, i think i'm on the right track, but i'm missing something...

 

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule /([a-z0-9]+) /testsite/httpdocs/projects/$1/ [NC,L]

 

results in:

[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3046): [client 127.0.0.1] r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/projects/1/
[sat Mar 07 20:21:49 2009] [debug] core.c(3052): [client 127.0.0.1] redirected from r->uri = /testsite/httpdocs/test/1

 

whenever i call: http://localhost/testsite/httpdocs/test/1

 

my guess is that it also rewrites files that do exists (so i loops in a circle)

 

is there a good way to overcome this?

 

Cheers

[wildteen88]

Change the mod_rewrite code to

 

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule /([a-z0-9]+) /testsite/httpdocs/projects/$1/ [NC,L]

[daanoz]

works exactly as i meant, thanks for the help

[corbin]

Hrmmm I think that could still potentially make an infinite loop if a non existing URL were put in.

 

 

Or would the directory flag stop it if the parent directory existed?