issues with friendly urls using htaccess and php - php

Question

i have a problem, but may be easier if i put my code. I have this:
<?php
$view = "";
if(isset($_REQUEST["view"]) != "" && $_REQUEST["view"]) {
$view = $_REQUEST["view"];
} else {
$view = "";
}
#View Handler
$factory = new \API\Factory();
$factory->Template('header');
switch($view) {
#Home
case '':
$factory->View("home/index");
break;
case 'about-us':
$factory->View("home/about-us");
break;
case 'contact':
$factory->View("home/contact");
break;
#Products
case 'products':
$factory->View("products/index");
break;
case 'details':
$factory->View("products/details");
break;
#How To
case 'how-to':
$factory->View("how-to/index");
break;
#Tech Documents
case 'tech-docs':
$factory->View("tech-docs/index");
break;
#Virtual Home
case 'virtual-home':
$factory->View("virtual-home/index");
break;
#Shopping Cart
case 'shopping-cart':
$factory->View("cart/shopping-cart");
break;
case 'checkout':
$factory->View("cart/checkout");
break;
#Client
case 'client-dashboard':
$factory->View("client/client-dashboard");
break;
case 'client-profile':
$factory->View("client/client-profile");
break;
case 'logout':
ClientLogin::doLogout();
header("Location: index.php");
break;
}
$factory->Template('footer');
Don´t ask why, lol. So my problem is this, when user navigates through website he see url's like this: www.mysite.com?view=products, but i want that they can see something like this: www.mysite.com/products/ but i want to manage it using .htaccess how can i implement that .htaccess to rewrite those ugly url's into nice url's. And asuming that all view requests are handled through that index.php
Also want to see it in my localhost, http://localhost:8080/index.php?view=products to http://localhost:8080/products/
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

you can do this (replaced $_REQUEST["view"] by $_SERVER['PATH_INFO']):
if(isset($_SERVER['PATH_INFO']) != "" && $_SERVER['PATH_INFO']) {
$view = $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'];
} else {
$view = "";
}