Bit confused about mod_rewrite (php related)

[redrabbit]

I'm trying to change my urls to friendly urls, so that they appear to the user as :

www.mydomain.com/monitors/crt/

rather than: www.mydomain.com/products.php?id=3&cat=crt or something

Layout

• Hard Disks
• Memory
• Peripherals
• Monitors
  
  • CRT
  • TFT
• Software
• Networking

So when they click on Hard disks it will go to www.mydomain.com/harddisks/ and it will follow the structure of:

www.mydomain.com/MAINCATEGORY/SUBCATEGORY

My confusion is, in the switch file, that is run by .htaccess, how do you determine what is the main category and sub category.

I.e. how do you know what files to include/what to show the user?

How do you guys create a structure like this?

[I87]

umm
I don't really understand your question
but in the switch file

<?php

switch($thing){

case 'harddisks':
require_once('products.php?id=3&cat=harddisks');
break;


case 'memory':
require_once('products.php?id=3&cat=memory');
break;

}
?>

[redrabbit]

umm
I don't really understand your question
but in the switch file

<?php

switch($thing){

case 'harddisks':
require_once('products.php?id=3&cat=harddisks');
break;


case 'memory':
require_once('products.php?id=3&cat=memory');
break;

}
?>

The categories are dynamic. They are controlled via the CMS and database, so they could and will change.

[redrabbit]

Also what is $thing in your swith statement.

If it's a main category:

www.domain.com/monitors/index.php

You'll need monitors.

However, if it is:

www.domain.com/monitors/crt/index.php you'll need the crt stuff.

So how do you know if it is a main category (monitors) or sub category(crt) and what you need to include.

[webaddictz]

So how do you know if it is a main category (monitors) or sub category(crt) and what you need to include.

Just like you do now. You're receiving that information via the GET parameters, just like it is now. If you - for example - use:

RewriteRule ^(.*?)/(.*?)$ products.php?id=$1&cat=$2 [L]

Now in products.php var_dump ( $_GET ). You'll see that the parameters are there, just like they are now.

[wheeler]

be warned that mod_rewrite may send you prematurely bald.

Having said that I finally figured out a way to do this, you basically are putting all the variables in the URL then restructuring with mod_rewrite.

## htaccess
RewriteRule ^browse/([^/]+)/?$ /browse.php?id=$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /browse\.php\?id=([^&]+)\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^browse\.php$ http://www.thomasmultimedia.com.au/browse/%1? [R=301,L]

Now I cannot fully explain to you how this works, all I know is that it does work!

So your browse page is setup to work when requested as such "browse.php?id=catname".
Your links point to /browse/catname and the rest is history.

It is important to remember that whatever GET variables you use to retrieve data still need to be present in the rewritten URL. Was that comment overkill? All I know is that it took me a while to comprehend this.