mod_rewrite for 1,000 products

[alh]

I'm a complete newbie with mod-rewrite, but I've been programming php and javascript for many years. I have a client with a store that has 1,000+ products with more being added/changed daily. each product page is generated dynamically using php & mySQL and looks like this:

 

http://www.mysite.com/store/?Page=18&Product_ID=3001424

 

needless to say I don't want to put in mod_rewrite rules for every product independently. I don't even know where to start with this. it looks as if the mod_rewrite in .htaccess doesn't get generated automatically. so how do sites like my clients or even bigger sites deal with this?

 

ThnX

[Ch0cu3r]

You don't define a mod_rewrite rule for every product. You'd define your rule using regex. example rule

RewriteRule ^product/([a-z0-9_\-]+)/?$ view_product_page.php?product=$1

The above rule will match urls like

site.com/product/chocote-bar/
site.com/product/samsung_tvs/ 

... etc

 

mod_rewrite will map those urls to the following urls

site.com/view_product_page.php?product=chocolate-bar
site.com/view_product_page.php?product=samsung_tvs 

In view_product_page.php the superglobal variable $_GET['product'] will get the product from the url.

[alh]

Ch0cu3r - 

 

ThnX for responding...

 

so I create the view_product_page.php page? what is in it? do I create a MySQL query that gives me the "chocolate-bar" string? 

 

it seems like there are 2 different places that the mod_rewrite has to act...

 

1) when someone clicks on a product link on the site and the URL that is displayed is the nice one like -

 

  site.com/view_product_page.php?product=chocolate-bar

 

and 

 

2) when someone gets that nice URL, clicks on it and gets taken to the correct product page

 

is this correct?

 

how does #2 happen? there is no /product/ folder? Page 18 is a page called productPage.php that's a page that does a MySQL query based on the passed ID and displays the formatted product information.

[Ch0cu3r]

mod_rewrite maps fake urls to ones that do exist (your existing urls). products/ is not a folder it is just a unique identifier that is captured by mod_rewrite. Whats follows after products/ is sent to view_product_page. It sets the query string variable product to that value.

 

Create a file called test_page.php Now in add the following code to it

<?php

if(isset($_GET['message']))
    echo 'Message is: ' . $_GET['message'];

?>
<p>
   Try me out<br />
  <a href="/test_page.php?message=hello+world">existing url</a><br />
  <a href="/test/hello+world">clean url using mod_rewrite</a><br />
</p>

Now in an .htaccess file (that is full name of the file) add this to it. make sure its in same folder as test_page.php

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^test/([a-z0-9_\-\+]+)/?$ test_page.php?message=$1 [NC,L]

Have a read of this article http://www.sitepoint.com/guide-url-rewriting/ it'll help you more than I can explain it.

[alh]

ThnX