I know that you can add rules in htaccess, but I see that PHP frameworks don't do that and somehow you still have pretty URLs. How do they do that if the server is not aware of the URL rules?
I've been looking Yii's url manager class but I don't understand how it does it.
This is usually done by routing all requests to a single entry point (a file that executes different code based on the request) with a rule like:
# Redirect everything that doesn't match a directory or file to index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule .* index.php [L]
This file then compares the request ($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]) against a list of routes - a mapping of a pattern matching the request to a controller action (in MVC applications) or another path of execution. Frameworks often include a route that can infer the controller and action from the request itself, as a backup route.
A small, simplified example:
<?php
// Define a couple of simple actions
class Home {
public function GET() { return 'Homepage'; }
}
class About {
public function GET() { return 'About page'; }
}
// Mapping of request pattern (URL) to action classes (above)
$routes = array(
'/' => 'Home',
'/about' => 'About'
);
// Match the request to a route (find the first matching URL in routes)
$request = '/' . trim($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/');
$route = null;
foreach ($routes as $pattern => $class) {
if ($pattern == $request) {
$route = $class;
break;
}
}
// If no route matched, or class for route not found (404)
if (is_null($route) || !class_exists($route)) {
header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
echo 'Page not found';
exit(1);
}
// If method not found in action class, send a 405 (e.g. Home::POST())
if (!method_exists($route, $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"])) {
header('HTTP/1.1 405 Method not allowed');
echo 'Method not allowed';
exit(1);
}
// Otherwise, return the result of the action
$action = new $route;
$result = call_user_func(array($action, $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"]));
echo $result;
Combined with the first configuration, this is a simple script that will allow you to use URLs like domain.com/about. Hope this helps you make sense of what's going on here.
I have a problem with PHP 8 routing. I'm creating my MVC "framework" to learn more about OOP. I did routing, controller and view - it works, I'm happy. But I found out that I would test my creation. This is where the problem begins, namely if the path is empty (""), it returns the "Home" view as asked in the routing, but if I enter "/ test" in the URL, for example, I have a return message "404 Not Found - The requested URL was not found on this server. " even though the given route is added to the table. What is wrong?
.htaccess file
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ index.php [QSA,L]
index.php with routes
<?php
/*
* Require Composer
*/
require dirname(__DIR__) . '/vendor/autoload.php';
/*
* Routing
*/
$routes = new Core\Router();
$routes->new('', ['controller' => 'HomeController', 'method' => 'index']);
$routes->new('/test', ['controller' => 'HomeController', 'method' => 'test']);
$routes->redirectToController($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']);
Router.php file
<?php
namespace Core;
class Router
{
/*
* Routes and parameters array
*/
protected $routes = [];
protected $params = [];
/*
* Add a route to the route board
*/
public function new($route, $params = [])
{
/*
* Converting routes strings to regular expressions
*/
$route = preg_replace('/\//', '\\/', $route);
$route = preg_replace('/\{([a-z]+)\}/', '(?P<\1>[a-z-]+)', $route);
$route = '/^' . $route . '$/i';
$this->routes[$route] = $params;
}
/*
* Get all routes from table
*/
public function getRoutesTable() {
return $this->routes;
}
/*
* Checking if the specified path exists in the route table
* and completing the parameters table
*/
public function match($url)
{
foreach($this->routes as $route => $params) {
if(preg_match($route, $url, $matches)) {
foreach($matches as $key => $match) {
if(is_string($key)) {
$params[$key] = $match;
}
}
$this->params = $params;
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
/*
* Get all params from table
*/
public function getParamsTable() {
return $this->params;
}
/*
* Redirection to the appropriate controller action
*/
public function redirectToController($requestUrl) {
$requestUrl = explode('?', $requestUrl);
$url = $requestUrl[0];
if ($this->match($url)) {
$controller = $this->params['controller'];
$controller = "App\\Controllers\\$controller";
if(class_exists($controller)) {
$controller_obj = new $controller($this->params);
$method = $this->params['method'];
if(method_exists($controller, $method)) {
$controller_obj->$method();
} else {
echo "Method $method() in controller $controller does not exists!";
}
} else {
echo "Controller $controller not found!";
}
} else {
echo "No routes matched!";
}
}
}
View.php file
<?php
namespace Core;
class View {
public static function view($file) {
$filename = "../App/Views/$file.php";
if(file_exists($filename)) {
require_once $filename;
} else {
echo "View $file is not exist!";
}
}
}
HomeController file
<?php
namespace App\Controllers;
use Core\Controller;
use Core\View;
class HomeController extends Controller {
public function index() {
return View::view('Home');
}
public function test() {
return View::view('Test');
}
}
Folder structure
Routes in web browser
I'm using XAMPP with PHP 8.0 and Windows 10.
First of all, choose one of the following two options to proceed.
Option 1:
If the document root is set to be the same as the project root, e.g. path/to/htdocs, in the config file of the web server (probably httpd.conf), similar to this:
DocumentRoot "/path/to/htdocs"
<Directory "/path/to/htdocs">
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
then create the following .htaccess in the project root, remove any .htaccess file from the directory path/to/htdocs/Public and restart the web server:
<IfModule dir_module>
DirectoryIndex /Public/index.php /Public/index.html
</IfModule>
Options FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /Public/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
Option 2:
If the document root is set to be the directory path/to/htdocs/Public in the config file of the web server (probably httpd.conf), similar to this:
DocumentRoot "/path/to/htdocs/Public"
<Directory "/path/to/htdocs/Public">
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
then create the following .htaccess in the directory path/to/htdocs/Public, remove any other .htaccess file from the project root (unless it, maybe, contains some relevant settings, other than DirectoryIndex) and restart the web server::
Options FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
After you decided and proceeded with one of the options above, edit the page index.php as shown bellow:
<?php
//...
/*
* NOTE: A route pattern can not be an empty string.
* If only the host is given as URL address, the slash
* character (e.g. "/") will be set as value of the
* URI path, e.g. of $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']. Therefore,
* the route pattern should be set to "/" as well.
*/
$routes->new('/', [
'controller' => 'HomeController',
'method' => 'index',
]);
//...
/*
* In order to get the URI path, you must use the server
* parameter "REQUEST_URI" instead of "QUERY_STRING".
*/
$routes->redirectToController(
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']
);
Notes:
In regard of changing $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] to $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], the credits go to #MagnusEriksson, of course.
There can't be an "MVC framework", but a "web framework for MVC-based application(s)". This is, because a framework is just a collection of libraries (not at all correlated with MVC), which, in turn, is used by one or more applications implementing the MVC pattern.
For any further questions, don't hesitate to ask us.
I'm creating a PHP Framework and I have some doubts...
The framework takes the url in this way:
http:/web.com/site/index
It takes the first parameter to load controller (site) and then loads the specific action (index).
If you've installed the framework in a base URL works ok, but if you install it in a subfolder like this:
http://web.com/mysubfolder/controller/action
My script parses it as controller = mysubfolder and action = controller.
If you have more subfolders the results will be worst.
This is my Route code:
Class Route
{
private $_htaccess = TRUE;
private $_suffix = ".jsp";
public function params()
{
$url='';
//nombre del directorio actual del script ejecutandose.
//basename(dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']));
if($this->_htaccess !== FALSE):
//no está funcionando bien si está en un subdirectorio web, por ej stynat.dyndns.org/subdir/
// muestra el "subdir" como primer parámetro
$url = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
if(isset($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']) && !empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'])):
$url = str_replace("?" . $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'], '',$url);
endif;
else:
if(isset($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'])):
$url = $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'];
endif;
endif;
$url = explode('/',preg_replace('/^(\/)/','',$url));
var_dump($url);
var_dump($_GET);
}
}
Thanks for any help you can give.
You are missing a base path. The routing script must now where to start when detecting a pattern or route detected.
Pseudo code:
//set the base URI
$base_uri = '/base';
//remove the base URI from the original uri. You can also REGEX or string match against it if you want
$route_uri = str_replace($base_uri,'',$uri);
//perform route matching $route_uri, in your code a simple explode
$url = explode('/',preg_replace('/^(\/)/','',$route_uri));
You can use this with or without RewriteBase for your .htaccess so long as they use the same harness - index.php.
Additionally, you can improve your route match procedure using Regular Expressions function like preg_match and preg_match_all. They let you define a pattern to match against and results to an array of matching strings - see http://php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php.
Even if you are creating your own framework, there is no reason not to reuse robust, well tested and documented components, like this Routing component.
Just use Composer, which has become the standard for dependency management in PHP, and you'll be fine. Add as many components as you want to your stack.
And here you have a must read guide on how to make your own framework.
Yes, I think I know how to fix that.
(Disclaimer: I know that you know most of this but I am going to explain everything for others who may not know some of the gotchas)
Using PATH_INFO and .htaccess
There is a trick in php where if you go to a path like:
http://web.com/mysubfolder/index.php/controller/action
you will get "/controller/action" in the $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] variable
Now what you need to do is take a .htaccess file (or equivalent) and make it tell your php script the current folder depth.
To do this, put the .htaccess file into the "mysubfolder"
mysubfolder
.htaccess
index.php
.htaccess should contain:
RewriteEngine on
# if a directory or a file exists, use it directly
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# otherwise forward it to index.php
RewriteRule (.*) index.php/$1
(I used the yii framework manual as reference, I also recommend using the html5 boilerplate)
Basically you set it up to redirect everything to index.php at a specific point in the url.
Now if you visit: http://web.com/mysubfolder/index.php/controller/action
Now you can get the right path "/controller/action" from $_SERVER['PATH_INFO']
Except it's not going to have any value if you visit http://web.com/mysubfolder/ because the .htaccess file will ignore the rewrite because the http://web.com/mysubfolder/ path requests the mysubfolder/index.php which actually exists and gets denied thank yo RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f.
ifsetor function
For this you can use this super handy function called ifsetor (I don't remember where I got it)
function ifsetor(&$variable, $default = null) {
return isset($variable)? $variable: $default;
}
What it does is take a reference to a variable that might or might not exist and provide a default if it does not exist without throwing any notices or errors
Now you can use it to take the PATH_INFO variable safely like so
In your index.php
function ifsetor(&$variable, $default = null) {
return isset($variable)? $variable: $default;
}
$path = ifsetor($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'],'/');
var_dump($path);
php 5.4 also has this new shorter ternary format which you can use if you don't care about notices (I do)
$path = $_SERVER['PATH_INFO']?:'/';
Handling the QUERY_STRING
Now tecnically you are not getting a URL, it is merely its path part and will not contain the query_string, for example when visiting
http://web.com/mysubfolder/index.php/test?param=val
you will only get '/test' in the $path variable, to get the query string use the $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] variable
index.php
function ifsetor(&$variable, $default = null) {
return isset($variable)? $variable: $default;
}
$path = ifsetor($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'],'/');
$fullpath = ($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'])? $path.'?'.$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']:$path;
var_dump($fullpath);
But that might depend on your needs
$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] vs $_GET
Also keep in mind that the $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] variable is different from the $_GET and $_REQUEST variables because it keeps duplicate parameters from the query string, for example:
Visiting this page
http://web.com/mysubfolder/controller/action?foo=1&foo=2&foo=3
if going to give you a $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] that looks like
?foo=1&foo=2&foo=3
While the $_GET variable is going to be an array like this:
array(
'foo'=>'3'
);
If you don't have .htaccess
You can try using the SCRIPT_NAME to your advantage
list($url) = explode('?',$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
list($basepath) = explode('index.php',$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);
$url = substr($url,strlen($basepath));
If you like to blow up stuff like me :)
Your case
Class Route
{
private $_htaccess = TRUE;
private $_suffix = ".jsp";
public function params()
{
$url='';
//nombre del directorio actual del script ejecutandose.
//basename(dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']));
if($this->_htaccess !== FALSE):
//no está funcionando bien si está en un subdirectorio web, por ej stynat.dyndns.org/subdir/
// muestra el "subdir" como primer parámetro
list($url) = explode('?',$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
$basepath = dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);
$basepath = ($basepath==='/')? $basepath: $basepath.'/';
$url = substr($url,strlen($basepath));
else:
if(isset($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'])):
$url = $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'];
$url = preg_replace('|^/|','',$url);
endif;
endif;
$url = explode('/',$url);
var_dump($url);
var_dump($_GET);
}
}
I hope this helps
P.S. Sorry for the late reply :(
At some point you will have to check the $_SERVER ['HTTP_HOST'] and a config var defined by the programmer/user wich indicates the subfolder(s) where the app is located, and remove the portion you are not interested in from the rest of the URL.
You can check this forum post on the codeigniter formus for some hints.
CodeIgniter uses another different way to route the controller/method internally.
You do the routing by the $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] value. You use the urls like this: myapp.com/index.php/controller/method .
To avoid showing index.php on the uri you must rely on an Apache rewrite rule, but even with that I think that the CI one is a nice solution, once you have your index file location, you can avoid all the hassle of parsing the URL.
If I am understanding what you are after correctly, then one solution may be to carry on doing what you are doing, but also get the path of the main routing script (using realpath() for example).
If the last folder (or folder before that etc) matches the beginning URL item (or another section), you ignore it and go for the next one.
Just my 2 cents :-).
Within the application configuration script place a variable which will be set to the path the application runs at.
An alternative is to dynamically set that path.
Before the part
$url = explode('/',preg_replace('/^(\/)/','',$url));
strip the location (sub-folder) path out of the $url string using the predefined application path.
This is how i implemented loader.php
<?php
/*#author arun ak
auto load controller class and function from url*/
class loader
{
private $request;
private $className;
private $funcName;
function __construct($folder = array())
{
$parse_res = parse_url($this->createUrl());
if(!empty($folder) && trim($folder['path'],DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR)!='')
{
$temp_path = explode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR,trim($parse_res['path'],DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR));
$folder_path = explode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR,trim($folder['path'],DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR));
$temp_path = array_diff($temp_path,$folder_path);
if(empty($temp_path))
{
$temp_path = '';
}
}else
{
if(trim($parse_res['path'],DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR)!='')
{
$temp_path = explode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR,trim($parse_res['path'],DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR));
}
else
$temp_path ='';
}
if(is_array($temp_path))
{
if(count($temp_path) ==1)
{
array_push($temp_path,'index');
}
foreach($temp_path as $pathname)
{
$this->request .= $pathname.':';
}
}
else $this->request = 'index'.':'.'index';
}
private function createUrl()
{
$pageURL = (#$_SERVER["HTTPS"] == "on") ? "https://" : "http://";
$pageURL .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
return $pageURL;
}
public function autolLoad()
{
if($this->request)
{
$parsedPath = explode(':',rtrim($this->request,':'));
if(is_file(APPLICATION_PATH.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'controllers'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$parsedPath[0].'_controller'.'.php'))
{
include_once(APPLICATION_PATH.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'controllers'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$parsedPath[0].'_controller'.'.php');
if(class_exists($parsedPath[0].'_controller'))
{
$class = $parsedPath[0].'_controller';
$obj = new $class();
//$config = new config('localhost','Winkstore','nCdyQyEdqDbBFpay','mawinkcms');
//$connect = connectdb::getinstance();
//$connect->setConfig($config);
//$connection_obj = $connect->connect();
//$db = $connect->getconnection();//mysql link object
//$obj->setDb($db);
$method = $parsedPath[1];
if(method_exists ($obj ,$parsedPath[1] ))
{
$obj->$method();
}else die('class method '.$method.' not defined');
}else die('class '.$parsedPath[0]. ' has not been defined' );
} else die('controller not found plz define one b4 u proceed'.APPLICATION_PATH.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'controllers'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$parsedPath[0].'.php');
}else{ die('oops request not set,i know tis is not the correct way to error :)'); }
}
}
Now in my index file
//include_once('config.php');
include_once('connectdb.php');
require_once('../../../includes/db_connect.php');
include_once('view.php');
include_once('abstractController.php');
include_once('controller.php');
include_once('loader.php');
$loader = new loader(array('path'=>DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'magsonwink'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'modules'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'admin'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'atom'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR));
$loader->autolLoad();
I haven't used the concept of modules.only controller action and view are rendered.
Are you sure you have your htaccess correctly?
I guess if you're placing your framework on subfolder, then you have to change your RewriteBase in htaccess file from / to /subfolder/. it would be something like this:
# on root
RewriteBase /
#on subfolder
RewriteBase /subfolder/
that's only thing I could wonder of that in your case ...
I don't use OOP, but could show you some snippets of how I do things to dynamically detect if I'm in a subdirectory. Too keep it short and to the point I'll only describe parts of it instead of posting all the code.
So I start out with a .htaccess that send every request to redirect.php in which I splice up the $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] variable. I use regex to decide what parts should be keys and what should be values (I do this by assigning anything beginning with 0-9 as a value, and anything beginning with a-z as key) and build the array $GET[].
I then check the path to redirect.php and compare that to my $GET array, to decide where the actual URL begins - or in your case, which key is the controller. Would look something like this for you:
$controller = keyname($GET, count(explode('/', dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']))));
And that's it, I have the first part of the URL. The keyname() function looks like this:
/*************************************
* get key name from array position
*************************************/
function keyname ($arr, $pos)
{
$pos--;
if ( ($pos < 0) || ( $pos >= count($arr) ) )
return ""; // set this any way you like
reset($arr);
for($i = 0;$i < $pos; $i++) next($arr);
return key($arr);
}
To get the links pointing right I use a function called fixpath() like this:
print 'link';
And this is how that function looks:
/*************************************
* relative to absolute path
*************************************/
function fixpath ($path)
{
$root = dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);
if ($root == "\\" || $root == ".") {
$root = "";
}
$newpath = explode('/', $path);
$newpath[0] .= $root;
return implode('/', $newpath);
}
I hope that helps and can give you some inspiration.
Forget about "reinventing the wheel is wrong" claims. They don't have to use our wheels. I walked on the same road a while ago and i'm totally grateful what i get... i hope you will too
When it comes to the answer to your specific problem -which if faced too- there is a very easy solution. it's a new line in .htaccess at root folder...
Just add line below to your root .htaccess file ; (if your subfoler is "subfolder" )
RewriteRule subfolder/ - [L]
This will leave apart this folder from rewriting directives
By using this way you can install as many instances of your framework as you wish. But if you want this to be framework driven then you have to create/change .htaccess within your framework.
Create /myBaseDirectory/public directory and put your files there - like index.php.
This works because Apache sees this directory like base directory.
basically grab the url string after your first slash, and then explode it into an array (i use '/' as a delimiter).
then carefully array_shift off your elements and store them as variables
item 0: controller
item 1: the action / method in that controller
item 2 thru n: the remaining array is your params
I'm trying to setup a system to minimize complexity for people updating the site as I will not be the main person updating daily content AND also provide clean URLs.
Since I am unable to use a DB, all of the content resides in one of two base folders (/private/content OR /private/utilities). For normal daily updates, the utilities (contains the page wrapper - header, nav, footer, etc.) folder wouldn't need to be accessed. This minimizes the amount of visible code to the daily editor.
I've created an array ($allowedContent) that has the list of valid sections that are accessible. The code tests against that array to verify that the user is not attempting to access inappropriate content. With the code below, these requests would be successful. Everything else would fail.
www.example.com/
www.example.com/popup/*
www.example.com/test
www.example.com/hello
www.example.com/foobar
My question is:
Is there anything that sticks out as a problem with this approach?
.htaccess
RewriteEngine On
# Rules
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . index.php
PHP
// parse the URL
$requestURI = explode('/', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
//print_r ($requestURI);
// a list of non-restricted dynamic content
$allowedContent = array("test", "hello", "foobar");
$allowAccess = false; // assume hackers :o
// determine the section
if (!$requestURI[1]) { // none defined - use root/home
$section = 'home';
$skin = true;
$allowAccess = true;
} elseif ($requestURI[1] == 'popup') { // popup - no skin
$section = $requestURI[2];
$skin = false;
$allowAccess = true;
} else {
if (in_array($requestURI[1], $allowedContent)) { // verify that the requested content is allowed / prevent someone from trying to hack the site
$section = $requestURI[1];
$skin = true;
$allowAccess = true;
} else { // this would be either a 404 or a user trying to access a restricted directory
echo "evil laugh"; // obviously, this would change to a 404 redirect
}
}
Added code where content is called
// call the relevant content pieces
if ($allowAccess == true) {
if ($skin == true ) {
// call wrapper part 1
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/private/utilities/wrapperOpen.php';
// call aside
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/private/utilities/header.php';
// call aside
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/private/utilities/aside.php';
}
// call CONTENT (based on section)
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/private/content/' . $section . '/index.php';
if ($skin == true ) {
// call branding
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/private/utilities/branding.php';
// call footer
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/private/utilities/footer.php';
// call wrapper part 2
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/private/utilities/wrapperClose.php';
}
}
this would work.
you coyuld also look into using xml to store data, but you need to keep watch over system memory usage and loading time if the files get too large. sosplit them up where possible.
can’t you talk them into using a database? webhosting with database is cheap.
I know that you can add rules in htaccess, but I see that PHP frameworks don't do that and somehow you still have pretty URLs. How do they do that if the server is not aware of the URL rules?
I've been looking Yii's url manager class but I don't understand how it does it.
This is usually done by routing all requests to a single entry point (a file that executes different code based on the request) with a rule like:
# Redirect everything that doesn't match a directory or file to index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule .* index.php [L]
This file then compares the request ($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]) against a list of routes - a mapping of a pattern matching the request to a controller action (in MVC applications) or another path of execution. Frameworks often include a route that can infer the controller and action from the request itself, as a backup route.
A small, simplified example:
<?php
// Define a couple of simple actions
class Home {
public function GET() { return 'Homepage'; }
}
class About {
public function GET() { return 'About page'; }
}
// Mapping of request pattern (URL) to action classes (above)
$routes = array(
'/' => 'Home',
'/about' => 'About'
);
// Match the request to a route (find the first matching URL in routes)
$request = '/' . trim($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/');
$route = null;
foreach ($routes as $pattern => $class) {
if ($pattern == $request) {
$route = $class;
break;
}
}
// If no route matched, or class for route not found (404)
if (is_null($route) || !class_exists($route)) {
header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
echo 'Page not found';
exit(1);
}
// If method not found in action class, send a 405 (e.g. Home::POST())
if (!method_exists($route, $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"])) {
header('HTTP/1.1 405 Method not allowed');
echo 'Method not allowed';
exit(1);
}
// Otherwise, return the result of the action
$action = new $route;
$result = call_user_func(array($action, $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"]));
echo $result;
Combined with the first configuration, this is a simple script that will allow you to use URLs like domain.com/about. Hope this helps you make sense of what's going on here.