Make a good url without the index with magento - php

Question

I want to make a phtml file witch shows products from a specific brand.
The url needs to look like:
brands/Subway
brands/Mcdonalds
brands/Lego
brands/Barbie
brands/Duplo
brands/.....
How can i make this url work where the brand is a variable.
I have tried to make a module but in that case I get an url like brands/index/brands/Subway
I also don't want to make a rewrite for every brand (100+)

Answer 1

You can create a custom router in your module to handle routes like brands/Subway.
Here is what you need.
First you need to have the pages working without rewrites.
Let's assume that at this url mysite.com/brands/index/index - you have the brand list
and at the url mysite.com/brands/index/view/id/12 - you have the brand with id 12.
In your config.xml you need to add this inside the <global> tag:
<events>
<controller_front_init_routers>
<observers>
<[namespace]_[module]>
<class>[Namespace]_[Module]_Controller_Router</class>
<method>initControllerRouters</method>
</[namespace]_[module]>
</observers>
</controller_front_init_routers>
</events>
This will add a new router to the existing ones.
Now the router class app/code/local/[Namespace]/[Module]/Controller/Router.php:
<?php
class [Namespace]_[Module]_Controller_Router extends Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Abstract{
public function initControllerRouters($observer){
$front = $observer->getEvent()->getFront();
$front->addRouter('[module]', $this);
return $this;
}
public function match(Zend_Controller_Request_Http $request){
if (!Mage::isInstalled()) {
Mage::app()->getFrontController()->getResponse()
->setRedirect(Mage::getUrl('install'))
->sendResponse();
exit;
}
$urlKey = trim($request->getPathInfo(), '/');
$check = array();
$parts = explode('/', $urlKey);
if ($parts[0] == 'brands'){//if url key starts with 'brands'
if (!isset($parts[1])){ //if the url is just 'brands' - then redirect to brand list
return false;//do nothing...the request will be handled by the default router and you will see `brands/index/index/`.
}
elseif ($parts[1] == 'index'){//if your controller is named differently change 'index' to your controller name
return false; //do nothing...the request will be handled by the default router and you will see `brands/index/index/`.
}
else {
//if a name is specified
//get the entities with that name.
$collection = Mage::getModel('[module]/[entity]')->getCollection()
//if the field is named differently change 'name' to your field name.
->addAttributeToFilter('name', $parts[1]);
$collection->getSelect()->limit(1);//limit to only one
$itemId = (int)$collection->getFirstItem()->getId();
//redirect to 'brands/index/view/id/$itemId'
$request->setModuleName('brands')
->setControllerName('index') //if your controller is named differently change 'index' to your controller name
->setActionName('view') //if your action is named differently change 'view' to action name
->setParam('id', $itemId);
$request->setAlias(
Mage_Core_Model_Url_Rewrite::REWRITE_REQUEST_PATH_ALIAS,
$urlKey
);
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}
That's it. Clear the cache and give it a try.

Answer 2

You could create a rewrite rule in your .htaccess (the one that's in the root directory).
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^brand/(.+)$ /brands/index/brands?brand=$1 [L,R=301,QSA]
With this if your url is:
www.yoursite.com/brands/index/brands?brand=MyBrandName
You'll see:
www.yoursite.com/brand/MyBrandName
Hope it helps!