Simpler urls

[Paul Furman]

I want to have urls that work like the php.net pages where there's just
a word after a slash, maybe a few folders deep. Right now I've got urls
& code like this:
http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California

But I'd prefer:
http://www.edgehill.net/California

<?php
function chk_screen(){
$default_screen = 'home.php'; # the default screen
if(isset($_REQUEST['SC'])) {
if(is_file(SCREEN_DIR . "/" . basename($_REQUEST['SC']))) {
$SCREEN = basename($_REQUEST['SC']);
} else {
$SCREEN = $default_screen;
}

if($SCREEN == 'main.php') {
$SCREEN = 'home.php';
$_REQUEST['SC'] = $SCREEN;
}
} else {
$SCREEN = $default_screen;
}
return $SCREEN;
}?>

The images are stored in a folder heirarchy, there is no database but
I'm guessing I'll have to add one with an index & serial numbers for
each image. The folder structure is part of the properties of each image
though:
&DIR=California/Bay-Area/San-Francisco/neighborhoods/2007-06-19-stanyan
then the url gets this too:
&PG=1&PIC=1

I'd like to see at most:
http://www.edgehill.net/California/B...19-stanyan/005
Ideally it could trim off most of that in hidden POST data?
(I forget how)

I could just try snipping off the "1/?SC=go.php&DIR=" and "&PG=1&PIC=1"
http://www.edgehill.net/stanyan/001

or add a database & use something like this:
http://www.edgehill.net/000001

Part of the effort is to create a fresh set of folders & the old archive
folders remain as the 'database' and sorted by location & date. One such
new folder could be a blog with my (usually weekly) photo updates, then
categories for nature, plants, landscapes, people.

I've built the collection with text files for captions & the folders
with date & location so I guess all that needs to go in a database & get
indexed.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

[NC]

On Jul 10, 3:56 pm, Paul Furman <[e-mail]:

>
I want to have urls that work like the php.net
pages where there's just a word after a slash,
maybe a few folders deep.

This has almost nothing to do with PHP. This is a HTTP server-level
problem. Apache has a module called mod_rewrite, which can be
configured to accomplish what you want:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html

Right now I've got urls & code like this:
http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California

But I'd prefer:
http://www.edgehill.net/California

[skipped]

I'd like to see at most:
http://www.edgehill.net/California/B...San-Francisco/[skipped]

If your hosting company allows .htaccess files, add these lines to
your .htaccess file in the site's root directory:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^California(.*)$ /1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California$1 [NC,L]

This should do the trick.

Cheers,
NC

[Rik]

>>Hence, the links:

>>>
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html

Ack... regular expressions!!!!!!!!!
Anyone interested in a little consulting to get me up to speed on a
basic framework for this system, please email. I've got a couple web
sites that could use this upgrade but it's beyond me for now to even
get a basic effect to take hold with .htaccess on the first one I tried.

I'd suggest you try asking in alt.apache.configuration. That's where
those gurus hang out.

There are a few here with knowledge about how to do it, but many more
over there.

Well, if htaccess isn't your thing, there's one other pretty easy brute
force thing to do:

Simple htaccess:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule .* index.php [L,QSA]

This will throw requests for non-existant files or folders to your
index.php. Search the $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] for the original request,
and have fun in PHP instead of .htaccess. Exploding, loops, databases, all
at your disposal.

If the request doesn't make sense, please throw out a not-found header in
PHP, search engines generally appreciate that. And realise your server
will have a lot more heavier load in this setup, as the webserver itself
isn't responsible anymore for it's own fast returns, but everything goes
through PHP.

HTH
--
Rik Wasmus

[Paul Furman]

Sorry, that was supposed to go to alt.apache.configuration

Paul Furman wrote:

Hi, can someone help me with consulting to migrate to a RewriteEngine
configuration? This looks like more than I can bite off, I could use
some help.

Thanks,
Paul

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

>
I'd suggest you try asking in alt.apache.configuration.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Paul Furman wrote:

Sorry, that was supposed to go to alt.apache.configuration

Paul Furman wrote:

>Hi, can someone help me with consulting to migrate to a RewriteEngine
configuration? This looks like more than I can bite off, I could use
some help.

Thanks,
Paul

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

> >
I'd suggest you try asking in alt.apache.configuration.

:-)

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Paul Furman]

NC wrote:

Paul Furman wrote:

>>I want to have urls that work like the php.net
pages where there's just a word after a slash,
maybe a few folders deep.

This has almost nothing to do with PHP. This is a HTTP server-level
problem. Apache has a module called mod_rewrite, which can be
configured to accomplish what you want:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html

>>Right now I've got urls & code like this:
http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California

But I'd prefer:
http://www.edgehill.net/California

>>I'd like to see at most:
http://www.edgehill.net/California/B...San-Francisco/

If your hosting company allows .htaccess files, add these lines to
your .htaccess file in the site's root directory:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^California(.*)$ /1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California$1 [NC,L]

This should do the trick.

Hmm, OK I looked into this some more and it doesn't appear to be
practical because I have a huge number of destination urls & as I
understand, I'd need to actually list all those in the .htaccess file.
It seems I might be better off doing my own parsing in php which also
would not be easy but then I could direct things more flexibly &
accommodate any number of destination urls. Does this sound right?

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

[Michael Fesser]

..oO(Paul Furman)

>Hmm, OK I looked into this some more and it doesn't appear to be
practical because I have a huge number of destination urls & as I
understand, I'd need to actually list all those in the .htaccess file.

This depends on the URLs. Of course listing all possible URLs is
absolutely pointless. That's not what regular expressions are for.
But if there would be a common structure inside them, like

http://example.com/state/area/city

you could easily match all of them with a single regular expression.

Micha

[Paul Furman]

Michael Fesser wrote:

.oO(Paul Furman)

>>Hmm, OK I looked into this some more and it doesn't appear to be
practical because I have a huge number of destination urls & as I
understand, I'd need to actually list all those in the .htaccess file.

This depends on the URLs. Of course listing all possible URLs is
absolutely pointless. That's not what regular expressions are for.
But if there would be a common structure inside them, like

http://example.com/state/area/city

you could easily match all of them with a single regular expression.

Just a followup, I found a consultant to tutor me through this and I got
away with just rewriting the top level folders in .htaccess then
allowing any number of subfolders to be appended. Here's what it looks like:

RewriteRule ^gallery/?$
index.php?SC=go.php&DIR=0_gallery [NC]

RewriteRule ^gallery/Photo-Update(/.+)?$
index.php?SC=go.php&DIR=0_gallery/0-Photo-Update$1 [NC]

RewriteRule ^gallery/(.+)$
index.php?SC=go.php&DIR=0_gallery/$1 [NC]

Then I also have to go back & rewite my links to the new format. I'm
still working out plenty of bugs but I got the basic thing rolling.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com