Change url without actually changing it.

[Markus]

Is there a way i could get

http://somesite.com/viewer/someimage.jpg

to be recognised as

http://somesite.com/viewer/?id=someimage.jpg

I know i could rewrite the url with .htaccess but i don't want to change the lettering in the url.

The thing im trying to get at is;
how myspace do: myspace.com/username
but the 'username' isn't an actual directory.
I'm guesing it is read as myspace.com/?user=username

Hmm, anyone?

Thanks.

[Atli]

Hi Markus.

Based on my brief experience with MySpace, I could very well believe that they actually create a directory for each user with a dynamically created index file.

Other than the UrlRewrite thing, I'm not sure how you could do what you are asking.

I'm very interested in seeing if anybody has a solution to this.

[coffear]

A normal mod rewrite rule is what you are looking for. As long as you do not specify the R flag in the rule the user will be unaware of anything happening.

For example something like this will work:-

RewriteEngine on
 
RewriteRule ^viewer/([-_a-zA-Z0-9]+.jpg)$ /viewer/?id=$1 [L]
 

[Markus]

A normal mod rewrite rule is what you are looking for. As long as you do not specify the R flag in the rule the user will be unaware of anything happening.

For example something like this will work:-

RewriteEngine on
 
RewriteRule ^viewer/([-_a-zA-Z0-9]+.jpg)$ /viewer/?id=$1 [L]
 

Thanks man! I had that exact(near enough) same rewrite just i had the [L] bit different!

Thanks again.

And @ atli:

if you go to myspace.com/username/index.php there isn't such a thing. I was told once it's done by virtual hosting? Not sure what that is, but y'know!

Thanks.x

[Atli]

And @ atli:

if you go to myspace.com/username/index.php there isn't such a thing. I was told once it's done by virtual hosting? Not sure what that is, but y'know!

Thanks.x

Myspace is built using M$ technology, ASP.Net, so it would probably be more like:

myspace.com/username/Default.aspx

I tried that but it gave me an error. Not 404 tho.

[Markus]

Myspace is built using M$ technology, ASP.Net, so it would probably be more like:

myspace.com/username/Default.aspx

I tried that but it gave me an error. Not 404 tho.

Truth be told, i don't care for MySpace - i was just intriguied by this, and now i may be able to build a networking site. (Not for general public use, just for a project)

:)

[Markus]

RewriteEngine on 
RewriteRule ^viewer/([a-zA-Z0-1_-]+)\.([a-z]+)$ viewer/?ID=$1.$2 [L] 
 

Is what i've came up with and t'is working! Thanks.

[coffear]

just 1 thing you have 0-1 in the regexp. You definitely only going to have 0 or 1 in the name?

[Markus]

just 1 thing you have 0-1 in the regexp. You definitely only going to have 0 or 1 in the name?

Oh! Thanks, i didn't see that - damn typos.

[Atli]

I'm not all that experienced with all this, but would it not be possible to replace "([a-zA-Z0-1_-]+)" with "(\w+)"?

[Markus]

I'm not all that experienced with all this, but would it not be possible to replace "([a-zA-Z0-1_-]+)" with "(\w+)"?

I was aware that there was some common expression that could take care of it, but i didn't know what it was.

Thanks Atli.

[coffear]

I'm not all that experienced with all this, but would it not be possible to replace "([a-zA-Z0-1_-]+)" with "(\w+)"?

Not quite \w is for the following range:-

a-zA-Z0-9_

so misses out the - but of course you could add that in. I personally however prefer whenever possible to use ranges so that it is easier to see what a regular expression does. Unless you specifically know what \w does you will have problems decoding the regexp whereas you have a better chance with actually using the ranges.

[Markus]

Not quite \w is for the following range:-

a-zA-Z0-9_

so misses out the - but of course you could add that in. I personally however prefer whenever possible to use ranges so that it is easier to see what a regular expression does. Unless you specifically know what \w does you will have problems decoding the regexp whereas you have a better chance with actually using the ranges.

Yeh, i was going to stick with

a-zA-Z0-9_-

For that very reason. Although knowing about \w is helpful for future reference :)