mod_rewrite question

[punk_runner]

I am using Apache's mod_rewrite to create nice looking URL's with this pattern:

 

www.domain.com/controller/method/arg1/arg2/

 

using this:

 

RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z]*)/([a-zA-Z]*)/([a-zA-Z]*)/([a-zA-Z]*)/$ index.php?c=$1&m=$2&a1=$3&a2=$4 [L]

 

I want to be able to submit the URL to the index (front controller) even if all of the variables are empty, so I can error check, but

for example, when I enter www.domain.com/user into my browser, I get a 404 error... I want to parse the URL at the index and

throw an exception for "No Method Found"...

 

How do I set my regex so that it accepts empty values for any of the sections of my url, so that these all resolve to index.php?

 

www.domain.com/user

www.domain.com/user/view

www.domain.com/user/view/bobsmith

www.domain.com/user/view/bobsmith/friends

 

 

[johnny86]

You should just add three more rewrite rules:

 

 

RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z]+)/([a-zA-Z]+)/([a-zA-Z]+)/([a-zA-Z]+)/?$ index.php?c=$1&m=$2&a1=$3&a2=$4 [L]

RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z]+)/([a-zA-Z]+)/([a-zA-Z]+)/?$ index.php?c=$1&m=$2&a1=$3 [L]

RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z]+)/([a-zA-Z]+)/?$ index.php?c=$1&m=$2 [L]

RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z]+)/?$ index.php?c=$1 [L]

 

I modified your regex so that it will require atleast one character after every /. I also added ? at the end of the regex to make / optional at the end of the url. Your regex would not match www.domain.com/controller/method/arg1/arg2 because you have put / staticly there.

 

In that order, you have your routes to check if the most args are set and fall back down as the arguments are missing.

[punk_runner]

Okay, but in an effort to make this extensible, and assuming that the URL could present no bits, like just domain.com or eight bits like domain.com/controller/method/arg1/arg2/arg3/arg4/arg5/arg6/, is there a cleaner way that mod_rewrite can say apply [a-zA-Z]+) to as many URL bits as it needs to?

 

Then I could explode the URL in the front_controller and set the controller and method values to create a new object,and roll the remaining args into an array to be passed to the method, where the controller will decide what to do with them.

 

There has to be a simpler way that you can apply across an entire site and any length of URLs right?

[johnny86]

Well in that case you need to set your routes up in the front controller and direct all requests to your frontcontroller. I tought your idea was to route your application from apache to the right place in the first place.

 

I've been using this:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule .* index.php [L]

 

That will simply forward all requests to index.php. Then you can extract the args from your $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] in your php script