Joomla, php GET and redirecting - php

Question

I have joomla 2.5 site, and I have
http://www.something.com/places?x=target
I would like to have URL like this:
http://www.something.com/places/target
How can I do this?
EDIT:
on .htaccess following works:
RewriteRule ^places/(.*)$ http://www.something.com/places?x=$1 [L,P,nc]
However it does not work with spaces ('/places/tar get' will only go to '/places?x=tar'). How can I fix that?
EDIT 2:
RewriteRule ^places/([^\ ])\ (.)$ http://www.something.com/places?x=$1\%20$2 [L,P,nc]
RewriteRule ^places/(.*)$ http://www.something.com/places?x=$1 [L,P,nc]
doest the trick. Thank you all!

Answer 1

If the places page belongs to a custom component (not a Joomla! built-in component), you will need to write or adjust the router.php file, in the component's directory.
It will need to contain something like:
function yourcomponentnameBuildRoute(&$query) {
$segments = array();
if (isset($query["x"])) {
$segments[] = $query["x"];
unset($query["x"]);
}
return $segments;
}
function yourcomponentnameParseRoute($segments) {
$vars = array();
$count = count($segments);
switch($segments[0]) {
case "target":
$vars["x"] = "target";
break;
}
return $vars;
}
UPDATE for your specific case:
Unfortunately there is no way to do this without a core hack.
So backup your *components/com_content/router.php* file, and then edit it as follows:
Replace the following code (around line 132):
if ($view == 'article') {
if ($advanced) {
list($tmp, $id) = explode(':', $query['id'], 2);
}
else {
$id = $query['id'];
}
$segments[] = $id;
}
unset($query['id']);
unset($query['catid']);
with this:
if ($view == 'article') {
if ($advanced) {
list($tmp, $id) = explode(':', $query['id'], 2);
}
else {
$id = $query['id'];
}
if(isset($query['x']) && $query['x']) {
$segments[] = $query['x'];
}
$segments[] = $id;
}
unset($query['x']);
unset($query['id']);
unset($query['catid']);
and this code (around line 212):
if (!isset($item)) {
$vars['view'] = $segments[0];
$vars['id'] = $segments[$count - 1];
return $vars;
}
// if there is only one segment, then it points to either an article or a category
// we test it first to see if it is a category. If the id and alias match a category
// then we assume it is a category. If they don't we assume it is an article
if ($count == 1) {
// we check to see if an alias is given. If not, we assume it is an article
if (strpos($segments[0], ':') === false) {
$vars['view'] = 'article';
$vars['id'] = (int)$segments[0];
return $vars;
}
with this:
if (!isset($item)) {
$vars['view'] = $segments[0];
$vars['id'] = $segments[$count - 1];
$vars['x'] = $count >= 2 ? $segments[$count - 2] : NULL;
return $vars;
}
// if there is only one segment, then it points to either an article or a category
// we test it first to see if it is a category. If the id and alias match a category
// then we assume it is a category. If they don't we assume it is an article
if ($count == 1 || ($count == 2 && (int) $segments[0] === 0)) {
// we check to see if an alias is given. If not, we assume it is an article
if (strpos($segments[0], ':') === false) {
$vars['view'] = 'article';
$vars['x'] = $count == 2 ? $segments[$count - 2] : NULL;
$vars['id'] = (int)$segments[$count - 1];
return $vars;
}
Then in your article's PHP code, you would use:
$target = JRequest::getVar("x");
I haven't tested it, so I'm not sure if it works. Let me know.