How to create URLs similar to Pastebin, Imgur, Youtube etc.? - php

Question

I'm creating a site (with PHP & MySQL) that takes a user input, generates a random link, and uses that users input on the generated link to show content.
The nearest real-life example would be http://pastebin.com/ - you enter a text input on the homepage, it generates a random link (such as http://pastebin.com/2hf4Dtv7 and then the text you input is permanently displayed on that generated link.
I've been stuck on this problem for what seems like forever. I've managed to get different parts of the problem solved (I think), but I can't seem to get it to work altogether.
Key facts
The user input needs to be available to use on the generated link
A PHP file run.php is what I will use to display content / manipulate the user's input, so somehow needs to be available on the generated link (unless there's another way to do this).
I have a MySQL database that currently has / stores 3 columns: ID (integer, which automatically increments), userinput (varchar, which is set to unique) and pageurl (varchar, which is also set to unique)
The site is using WordPress, but that's not too important as I'm dealing with the PHP / htaccess file(s) directly.
Things I've attempted / managed to do:
I can generate a random string for the url, via <?php echo $randGen ?>. This can be put into <form action="<?php echo $randGen ?>" method="POST"> - This works in the sense that it will open a tab to domain.com/xyz, but that 404s & run.php isn't assigned to the generated link (I'm not sure if the input value is either).
Tried both POST and GET methods in the form. The input data isn't sensitive, so it isn't a huge issue which is used.
Read up on & attempted to use .htaccess rewrite rules / pretty urls, such as RewriteRule ^([0-9a-zA-Z]+)$ run.php?userinput=$1 [NC,L], as well as trying to use [QSA] & &%{QUERY} to keep the user input, but found myself to be way out of my depth.
Attempted to covert the MySQL (auto-incrementing) ID to base64, but aren't sure where to run the PHP script to get it working & also don't understand how to append that random string to the URL, while still showing the users input.
Watched numerous tutorials on how to create pastebin-esque sites / URL shortener sites, to see if I could get any relevant ideas from that - to no avail.

Answer 1

You are almost there, RewriteRule is the way to go.
With this in your apache configuration:
RewriteRule ^([0-9a-zA-Z]+)$ run.php?randurl=$1 [L]
This, in your html page:
<form action="/run.php" method="POST">
Userinput: <input type="text" name="userinput">
You then just need to use the variables $_GET['randurl'] and $_POST['userinput'] in run.php:
if (isset($_POST['userinput'])) { // user adds a new input
// insert into database (userinput, randurl) values ('".$_POST['userinput']."', '".$randGen."')
// redirect the user to the new short URL page:
header('Location: domain.com/'.$randGen);
}
else if (isset($_GET['randurl'])) { // user wants to access the short URL
// retrieve userinput from database:
// select userinput from mydatabasename where randurl = 'domain.com/'.$_GET['randurl']
$sql = "SELECT userinput FROM articles WHERE randurl = '".$_GET[randurl]."'";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result) {
if ($row = $result->fetch_object()) {
// echo select result in the page
echo($row['userinput']);
}
else
echo("error: fetch_object");
$result->close();
}
else
echo("error: query");
}