PHP and .htaccess Help

[wherkamp]

I am wonder how this is done.
Lets say I am viewing this page 
https://www.spigotmc.org/threads/server-wont-boot.304556/
How do they know they are at page server-wont-boot.NUMBER/
without doing this ?Variable_Name=server-wont-boot.NUMBER/
Or using POST and having it hidden. I know it has something to do with the .htaccess file however could you tell me how and how it works. 
Another Example They have wherkamp/KingServerInfo which I might think it would be ?author=wherkamp&repo=KingServerInfo
https://github.com/wherkamp/KingServerInfo
PS. I did Google it that is How I know it uses htaccess.

 

My Current Code: https://git.kingtux.me/KingTux/TuxForums

[requinix]

There are various methods depending on the server but collectively they're all called "URL rewriting". Google that.

 

The one you're thinking of uses Apache's mod_rewrite. In essence you tell Apache that it should run a series of tests against the URL for every request, and depending on what you say it can rewrite the URL into another form.

 

For example,

# enable url rewriting with mod_rewrite
RewriteEngine on

# the url requested must not correspond to an actual file
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

# it can't be an actual directory either
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# rewrite urls of the pattern /threads/something.number/ to /thread.php?id=number
# then stop processing other rules
RewriteRule ^threads/.*\.(\d+)/$ thread.php?id=$1 [L]

Then there's a thread.php that uses $_GET[id] to display the thread.

 

Most mod_rewrite URL rewriting schemes look basically like that.

[phpmillion]

They use mod_rewrite. 

 

I see requinix explained it with more details and posted his explanation a second before my post, so you should really be able to get it done now.

Edited February 21, 2018 by phpmillion

[dalecosp]

It can also be done without using mod_rewrite, instead configuring Apache to serve PHP via a FORCETYPE directive and parsing the URI request, but for most of these situations mod_rewrite is probably simpler and potentially safer.