URL variable sending and receiving - php

Question

How does instagram.com pass the username variable like "instagram.com/username" or like
instagram.com/floydmayweather
without using the $_GET function and it does not turn out looking like this
instagram/index.php?username=floydmayweather

Answer 1

Use a URL rewrite command in your HTTP server. There are many examples out there for both Apache and nginx.
The rewrite rule happens at the server level before it hits your code. This means the URL doesn't actually have to get modified before your code receives it.
The way I do it is I configure Apache/nginx to send all URLs that do not match an existing file (so that static files like images, js and css still work) to my index.php file. Then in the index.php file I parse the URL to determine what page type to load and what data.
In your example, they would grab the last token off the URL, know that it would be a user's name in URL format, look up that user in the database and build the page accordingly.
This is where something like a front controller or URL router comes in to play in most frameworks. In index.php I would map each URL, based on its components, to a class that would then handle the actual page building.
Here is more info on the rewrite modules;
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html
http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpRewriteModule
Some quick Googling will show you many examples for how to configure this.
Your index.php file can examine the $_SERVER array to determine the URL that has been requested. In this situation, the explode() function is your friend, for parsing the URL and checking its components :)

Answer 2

The Rewrite engine will be a perfect solution, for example:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php
Rewrite engine - A rewrite engine is software located in a Web application framework running on a Web server that modifies a web URL's appearance. This modification is called URL rewriting. Rewritten URLs (sometimes known as short, fancy URLs, search engine friendly - SEF URLs, or slugs) are used to provide shorter and more relevant-looking links to web pages. The technique adds a layer of abstraction between the files used to generate a web page and the URL that is presented to the outside world.
Usage
Instead getting URL with extenstion link (.php / html etc..)
www.stackoverflow.com/index.php
You will get URL Without extenstion
www.stackoverflow.com/index