CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php.htaccessmod-rewrite
Teifion
Teifion

Reputation: 111109

mod_rewrite, php and the .htaccess file

I'm coding a small CMS to get a better understanding of how they work and to learn some new things about PHP. I have however come across a problem.

I want to use mod_rewrite (though if someone has a better solution I'm up for trying it) to produce nice clean URLs, so site.com/index.php?page=2 can instead be site.com/tools

By my understanding I need to alter my .htaccess file each time I add a new page and this is where I strike a problem, my PHP keeps telling me that I can't update it because it hasn't the permissions. A quick bit of chmod reveals that even with 777 permissions it can't do it, am I missing something?

My source for mod_rewrite instructions is currently this page here incase it is important/useful.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 5512

Answers (2)

Ken
Ken

Reputation: 78922

One approach is to rewrite everything to a handling script

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /

# only rewrite if the requested file doesn't exist
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-s 

# pass the rest of the request into index.php to handle     
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

so if you have a request to http://yourserver/foo/bar/

what you actually get is a request to http://yourserver/index.php/foo/bar - and you can leave index.php to decide what to do with /foo/bar (using $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] -tom)

You only need to modify .htaccess the first time. All future requests for inexistent files can then be handled in PHP.

You might also find the docs for mod_rewrite useful - but keep it simple or prepare to lose a lot of sleep and hair tracking down obscure errors.

Upvotes: 10

Tomalak
Tomalak

Reputation: 338416

Your PHP should for very obvious reasons not be able to modify .htaccess. Even if you get that to work, I'm not sure if it is wise.

How about using a more abstract setup in regard to mod_rewrite rules? Define your general URL pattern, as you would like to use it. For example:

/object/action/id

Then write a set of rules that reroute HTTP requests to a PHP page, which in turn makes the decision what page is to run (say, by including the relevant PHP script).

RewriteRule ^/(\w+)/?(\w+)?/?(\d+)?$ /index.php?object=$1&action=$2&id=$3 [nocase]

This way you would not have to update .htaccess very often an still be flexible.

Upvotes: 2

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