Is it possible to build a RewriteRule regex with database values? - php

Question

When my client adds a page to the site, the new pagename should be appended to a RewiteRule regex. So with, for instance fwrite(), I would like PHP to change that RewiteRule regex with values retracted from the database. If this could be done, are there any pitfalls in the process?
Edit: handling in a PHP script would be the solution, if there would'nt be more to it...
First domain/index.php?page=pagename is 301 redirected to "domain/pagename"
to warn the visitor this page is permanently moved - (this is the old
PUBLIC location of the URL and should give this 301). Then requests
like "domain/pagename" (the new public location), would be
silently,internally rewritten to domain/index.php?page=pagename where
verification takes place and a 404 is given when not valid. But just
the key, the "page" part of ?page=pagename, is static and can be
verified and will give a 404 directly from within the .htaccess . Now,
requests like domain/index.php?page=crap will first nicely give a 301
like the valid domain/index.php?page=pagename does, and only when
arrived in the index.php can be identified as crap. So there is still
a need to get the pagenames from the database to inside the .htaccess.
This is a sample of the .htacces content to give some background to this problem:
ErrorDocument 404 http://localhost/testsite/404.php
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /testsite/
## block craprequests without extension like domain/crap > 404
# The requests domain/pagename that do not go to existing pages, will now be redirected with a 302 to index.php?page=pagename and only then give a 404 through the errorcheck in the code.
# This should be done here, with a RewriteCond regex with database content
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !404.php$
RewriteRule .* 404.php [R=404,L]
## block-direct-queries ##
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !marker=1$
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} page=(.*)
RewriteRule ^.*$ %1? [R=301,L]
## strip-extensions ##
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !404.php$
RewriteRule ^([\w+%*\d*\+*\-*]+)\.(php[\s]{0,3}|htm[\s]{0,3}|html[\s]{0,3})$ $1 [R=301,L]
## put-querystring
RewriteRule ^([\w\-_]+)\/?$ index.php?page=$1&marker=1 [L]

Answer 1

I'm sorry to keep repeating this back to you, but there just isn't a need for storing the page name in the .htaccess. This can all be done much more simply in PHP.
The only rewrite rule you need is this:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/?index\.php$
RewriteRule .* /index.php [L,QSA]
Now, in PHP, you can do something like this:
// The important point here is that $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] contains the actual
// path the user typed into their browser, which is what you are interested in
if (strtolower(basename(parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_PATH))) === 'index.php') {
// The user directly requested index.php
if (!empty($_GET['page']) || value_of_page_is_crap()) {
// The user requested a bad page
header("{$_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL']} 404 Not Found");
} else {
// Redirect to correct URL
header("{$_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL']} 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/{$_GET['page']}");
}
exit;
}
// The request is allowed to continue
$requestedPage = pathinfo($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PATHINFO_FILENAME);
The .htaccess will route every single request blindly through PHP, where much more precise logic than mod_rewrite's clunky PCRE-based rules can be used.
The PHP script examines the URI the user typed into their address bar in the browser. If they directly requested index.php, it will check whether $_GET['page'] contains a sensible value and if it does, redirect them to the correct URL, if not respond with a 404. If the user did not request index.php directly, the script can continue. I have added an example line to show how you could extract the value of the page they requested, but how you continue on from here is up to you.

Answer 2

This will most likely be possible (although writing permissions may be an issue). However wouldn't it be a better way to route all requests from the client through the index.php file and let PHP handle the routing.
This way you will be maximum flexible and you don't have to do "hacky" stuff.
EDIT
All forms of redirect can be done from PHP. E.g. an example of a 301 redirect:
header ('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header ('Location: http://example.com/new/path'); // note the full address
exit();
Please see the manual for more information about the use of header().