How can I simplify Urls for a website?

Question

To access a particular area of the site, I have to indicate one to three parameters in the URL:

Normal URL:

# aceder a um módulo
http://www.meusite.com/index.php?mod=john

# aceder a um sub-módulo:
http://www.meusite.com/index.php?mod=john&call=doe

# Aceder a um conteúdo específico no sub-módulo:
http://www.meusite.com/index.php?mod=john&call=doe&id=1

Through htaccess, I am trying to allow access to modules, sub-modules and specific content as follows:

# aceder a um módulo
http://www.meusite.com/john

# aceder a um sub-módulo:
http://www.meusite.com/john/doe

# aceder a um conteúdo específico no sub-módulo:
http://www.meusite.com/john/doe/1

So far I have the following:

The code below allows me to access the module, but I have to repeat it for each existing module, still missing dealing with sub-modules and specific contents:

# Rewrite the url
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

  RewriteEngine On

  RewriteCond $0 ^john/
  RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /index.php?mod=john [NC,L]

  RewriteCond $0 ^jane/
  RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /index.php?mod=jane [NC,L]

</IfModule>

Question

How do I get through .htaccess read the addresses so that they can be used in both ways shown above taking into account the three possible parameters?

Answer 1

Method 1: PHP

See a commented example:

# Se o mod_rewrite estiver ativo
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

# Ativa a reescrita
RewriteEngine On

# Manuseia as requisições...
 # se a URL não descreve um arquivo ou diretorio existeste
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

 # Então sera redirecionado para index.php
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

After using this file . htaccess you can access the URL the user requested using the variable $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]

<?
   $url = explode('/', $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
   $i = 0;
   foreach($url as $u){
       if($i == 0)
           $module = $u;
       elseif($i == 1)
           $subModule = $u;
       elseif($i % 2 == 0)
           $paramName[] = $u;
       else
           $param[] = $u;
   }

   require_once($module . '/' . $submodule . '.php');
   

I do not understand very well how will be your structure of modules and submodules, more from this code you can handle to include the file correctly and still receive all parameters.

Method 2: . htaccess (mod_rewrite)

You can use the parameters as follows:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /([^/]+)/([^/]+)
RewriteRule .* http://site.com/index.php?modulo=%1&usuario=%2  [L]

Or even more elegantly

// Quando apenas um parametro for passado
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$ index.php?modulo=$1
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/$ index.php?modulo=$1

// Quando houver um segundo
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/([0-9]+)$ index.php?modulo=$1&id=$2
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/([0-9]+)/$ index.php?modulo=$1&id=$2

.
.
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Answer 2

From what I understand you’re trying to treat all the rules in the . htaccess, I find this difficult because in your example it seems that will work with modules and submodules, but this is not a rigid rule, sometimes only with modules.

The ideal would be to treat . htaccess by redirecting to index.php, as already described in the Hernandes response. However, remember that you will have to pass actions and parameters also through the url.

One way to help productivity and also ensure quality would be to use a framework that already has well-established routing processes and enables you to focus on developing your system’s business rules, not on infrastructure.

A suggestion is to use a microframework, some options are:

• Lumen: https://lumen.laravel.com/ - based on the Laravel
• Silex: http://silex.sensiolabs.org/ - based on Symfony

Answer 3

I recommend using Routers to work with URL simplification.

Here is an example created by Brazilians https://github.com/Respect/Rest

There is a router very easy to use.