URL Rewrite - Can't get the hang of it.

[ultigma]

I'm having troubles getting this to work/understanding it.

 

my httpd.conf is set to:

"LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so"

 

Quick overview of the site:

 

I have a category database | category_id | category |

                                            |         1         |     dogs   |

                                            |         2         |     cats    |

 

 

and a navigation menu,         Home    |    Dogs    |    Cats    |

 

the links are set to 

 

index.php?category=['category_id'] so [category_id] equals either 1 or 2 as home is explicitly declared

 

What I am getting is localhost/testblog/index.php?category=1

but what i want the url to look like is

localhost/testblog/dogs/ so that it uses the category_id to display posts from only that category.

 

Here is my htaccess code:

RewriteEngine On    # Turn on the rewriting engine
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule   ^dogs/$		index.php?category=1 [NC,L]
RewriteRule   ^cats/$       index.php?category=2 {NL,L]

Is this COMPLETELY Wrong? Something worth mentioning, I DO NOT have a directory called dog or cat. I was trying to avoid using it. Is it a must to have a directory?

 

Thanks for any help 

Edited August 12, 2013 by ultigma

[requinix]

Try to avoid using RewriteBase - you generally don't need it anyways.

 

The best way to do this is to make index.php accept the name of a category instead of the ID number. That way you can say "any directory that doesn't exist is going to be a category and should go through index.php".

On that note, you should avoid polluting the root with fake directories: how about making it like "/category/dogs"?

RewriteEngine on
# Add a trailing slash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?category/(\w+) $0/ [L,R]
# Category
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?category/(\w+)/ index.php?category=$1 [L]

Edited August 12, 2013 by requinix

[ultigma]

thanks for the reply. I can't seem  to get my head round it atm.

 

Because of that I want to just plow on to other things.

 

Is there any structure I should follow to allow for easy integration when I am ready to try tackle .htaccess again?

 

the blog will follow a simple structure such as 'website.com/animal-type/post-about-animal' where 

 

website.com/animal-type/ would display only the posts about that animal?

 

Would "website.com?category=category_name&post=post_id" be the right way to implement 

"website.com/animal-type/post-about-animal/" in the future?

 

Thanks

Edited August 12, 2013 by ultigma

[requinix]

Keeping in mind what I said about making your scripts work with names (since that's what you have in the URL) and not numbers (since you don't have that in the URL),

 

Yes that'd be about right.

[ultigma]

Thanks again Requinix! I'll use post_title perhaps as they'll all be unique =)

[ultigma]

I've figured out how Mod rewrite works now however I've come across a new problem. 

htaccess code

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/$ http://localhost/testblog/index.php?category=$1

I now know that this: localhost/testblog/dogs/

is equal to              : localhost/testblog/index.php?category=dogs

 

however, when i put a link on the index.php file; <a href="dogs/"> Dogs </a> that page (localhost/testblog/dogs/) now has the stylesheet prefixed with dogs/ so the stylesheet looks like 'localhost/testblog/dogs/stylesheets/style.css'

 

but when I link with ahref="index.php?category=dogs" Dogs </a> everything works just fine; 'localhost/testblog/stylesheets/style.css'

 

I find it confusing because I thought that they now equaled the same thing using the .htaccess file? 

 

how can i rectify this problem with the prefix?

Hopefully I've explained properly

Thanks

Edited August 14, 2013 by ultigma

[ultigma]

Problem was I needed to explicitly declare the root url. 

Before: <link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheets/style.css" type="text/css" />

After: <link rel="stylesheet" href="/testblog/stylesheets/style.css" type="text/css" />

 

by putting /testblog/ it solved the problems

Edited August 14, 2013 by ultigma