php pagination with mysql htaccess

[asgsoft]

Hey Everyone!

 

I am trying to figure out this problem and I can't seem to find much in terms of resources online!

 

So I have set up a pagination system which produces URL's like this:

 

http://www.sitename.com/index.php?cat=cat_name&sort=sort_by&page=page_number

 

However, I want them to look like this:

 

http://www.sitename.com/browse/cat_name/sort_by/page_number

 

Is there a way I can do that via the .htaccess?

 

At the moment, for each category, I am using something like this:

 

RewriteRule ^browse/eating-out/9/(.+)/(.*)/$ browse_coupons.php?cat=9&sort=$1&page=$2

 

That way, I have the category name in the URL, but also the id which I use to look stuff up with in the table.

 

This is working OK so far, however.. what if it's something like: http://www.site.com/browse/eating-out/10/id/1 or http://www.site.com/browse/eating-out/10/id that just causes a 404...

 

Is there anyway to make it such that the variables are not compulsory??

 

[cags]

Placing a question mark after a capture group should make it optional, but obviously bare in mind if it isn't the last one this will cause problems.

[asgsoft]

What do you mean?

 

So something like this:

 

RewriteRule ^browse/eating-out/10/(.+)$/(.*)$/$ browse_coupons1.php?cat_id=10&sort=$1&page=$2