i am building a web site using PHP and TWIG, i have organized my code into:
class folder: for php classes
lib folder: for non-classes php files
templates folder: for twig templates
and index.php file
when i want to include a link for register page for example the link will be: domain-name/lib/register.php
the question is: is there any good way of hiding the file organization from the link
for example to make the link something like: domain-name/register without changing my file organization and preserving the ability to send get parameters in the url?
thanks
If you are using apache, you can use the mod_rewrite module with a .htaccess file
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html
For other webservers similar modules and methods exist.
Here's an example htaccess file I would use. Folder structures entered after "register/" are treated as variables that forward to register.php. The QSA flag will allow you to have additional GET variables treated as vars if need be. (e.g. /register/something/?some_var=1).
This is for specific cases when you know how many variables you want to rewrite for what pages. In other words, the below will only work with two variables/spots (e.g. /registers/var1/var2/).
Hope that helps!
############################################
## ENABLE REWRITES
RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks
## EXAMPLE WITH 1 VAR
RewriteRule ^register/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/ lib/register.php?var1=$1 [L,QSA]
## EXAMPLE WITH 2 VAR
RewriteRule ^register/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/ lib/register.php?var1=$1&var2=$2 [L,QSA]
## ALSO GOOD TO HAVE ERROR DOCS REWRITE
ErrorDocument 404 oops/
Related
I am confused about how a php framework works with a web server like apache. Now if there wasn't a framework and if it was using classic php, then I understand how it works(if a php file is requested, the php parser executes it and returns the htm to the server).
When a framework like cakePHP is used, I have noticed that no matter which url the client requests, the index.php in the root folder gets executed first. How is this possible? if we were using pure php then, only the file we requested will get executed. So how does cakePHP make each and every request to go through the /index.php file?
CakePHP, and many other websites, leverage mod_rewrite which is an Apache module that "Provides a rule-based rewriting engine to rewrite requested URLs on the fly".
To do so, the web framework will use a .htaccess file with specific rules defined. These rules, in the case you're asking about, point any URL matching a specific pattern to to a real index.php file (this file can be named anything really, but index.php is a good "default" name).
Per CakePHP's URL Rewriting outline, a base rule is defined as:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /path/to/cake/app
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
</IfModule>
What the above does is:
Turns on the rewrite module
Sets two conditions for rewriting the current URL
a. Only if the requested file is not a real directory (!-d)
b. Only if the requested file is not a real file (!-f)
Sends the full requested URL, (.*) to index.php
Sometimes, you'll see the RewriteRule line as:
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
This will set the requested url into the $_GET['url'] parameter instead of forcing the application to process the $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']. Other times, there will be a lot of rewrite rules, some complicated, some basic.
There are a lot of good resources online, and in books, regarding mod_rewrite. Check out Introduction to URL Rewriting for one (it's one I have bookmarked, has a lot of good basic rules / formats).
That's a pretty simple one (https://github.com/gilbitron/PIP).
Read the files in the System folder.
Basically it goes like this:
All requests are sent to the index file (with mod_rewrite, or like a plain get parameter).
The index file includes configuration files and definitions of constants.
Then it loads the main class for the framerwork.
The main class does some configurations, initiates a database connection and so on.
Depending on how it is implemented, there might be a router but it's possible there isn't.If there is one the main class checks what controller should be loaded against the request in the router.
Then the main class loads the controller that should be loaded with that particular request.
PIP is not that good and the main class is actually not a class but you can get the point in it.
You can also read about the following things:
Object oriented programming: http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.php
Scopes: http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.scope.php
Autoloading classes: http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.autoload.php
You mentioned
"I have noticed that no matter which url the client requests, the index.php in the root folder gets executed first."
This is what front controllers do. You can have a front controller with a framework or if coding from scratch using the .htaccess file. Front controllers enable rendering of pages using PHP functions/methods, such as $app->get($uri, $callback); in Lumen.
I want to have a single PHP file that takes care of multiple URLs in a subdirectory.
For example, my site is http://www.startingtofeelit.com/. I want one php file, say, called playlist.php which would handle when a user goes to http://www.startingtofeelit.com/playlist/101 or if they go to http://www.startingtofeelit.com/playlist/142 etc. I want to be able to strip the number (101, 142 in my example urls above) to use as a variable (the playlist ID), so I can display the correct playlist.
I know that I can create an index.php in my playlist subdirectory and use GET variables like http://www.startingtofeelit.com/playlist?id=102 and get the ID that way, but this is much sloppier looking and I'd like to be able to know how to do it the other way.
My site is built on WordPress, but I don't think this should make a difference in any way.
Well, you cannot achieve this with PHP alone.
If you use Apache, you can use .htaccess
If you use IIS, you can use URL Rewrite
The basic idea behind those modules is to mapping from one URL to another URL. For example: you would want to map from
http://www.startingtofeelit.com/playlist/142 =>
http://www.startingtofeelit.com/playlist.php?id=142
You can express the URL mapping in regular expression. For example, in .htaccess (Apache). You can write like this
RewriteRule ^playlist/([0-9]+)/?$ playlist.php?id=$1
Noted that, you need to have .htaccess file in your website directory. Since, you are using Wordpress, chance that you have existed .htaccess is high. You can simply append that line of code to existed .htaccess
The following is an explanation of the regular expression:
^playlist/ # any URL start with playlist/
([0+9]+) # following by number, and store it as $1
/?$ # end with or without /
Mapping to
playlist.php?id=$1 # where $1 is taken from the matched number from our pattern.
This is usually handled in a way similar to what you already tried. However, it's common to use a re-writing script so that your application will accept a clean URL such as:
http://www.startingtofeelit.com/playlist/142
...and re-write it for your application as such:
http://www.startingtofeelit.com/playlist?id=142
For example, if you're using an Apache web server and have the mod_rewrite module installed and enabled, you can use the following snippet in an .htaccess file and use your GET parameter as you indicated you already know how to do. Other popular web servers have unique URL re-writing modules that will let you do the same.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
# Rewrite this:
# http://www.example.com/somepage/1
# ...into this:
# http://www.example.com/somepage?id=1
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
I noticed in Drupal if you add .php to the url bar of any page it gives you a 404 message; clean urls enabled. The page is obviously a .php, but the .htaccess is preventing the user from being able to tamper with url extensions in the url bar. How could you do this using .htaccess. I have file extensions omitted at the moment, but would also like to add that feature. Thank you.
Also, this question does not pertain to Drupal. I only mentioned Drupal for and example.
Just because a file contains PHP code it doesn't mean it has to have the .php extension; even more so when you're accessing a file over the internet.
When you request http://mysite.com/page and you're using an .htaccess like Drupal's, the request is forwarded onto index.php?q=page whereupon Drupal will check it's database for a path matching page. If it finds one it will display the content for that page, if not it will (rightly) give a 404.
If you want all of your pages to be accessible with a PHP extension you could add an extra rule in your .htaccess file to remove .php from any request where the PHP file doesn't physically exist:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.php $1 [NC]
Bear in mind though that this adds zero extra value for your site's visitors (in fact they have to remember a file extension as well as the path to the page), and it exposes exactly what server-side technology you're using so a potential attacker would have some of his work done for him.
Hope that helps.
Could you please explain that in more depth. How can it redirect content into an existing page? Is that common practice / typical way of doing things?
Yes it is a very common practice, used by most frameworks and CMS.
The principle is simple: you setup your .htaccess so that every request which doesn't match a real file or directory will be redirected to a front controller, usually the index.php in the root directory of the application. That front controller handles the request by analyzing the URL and calling the necessary actions.
In this way you can minimize the rewrite rules to just one, and you can offer customized 404 pages.
I dunno Drupal but in the usual php app every request being routed to the front controller which performs some validations and throws 404 on errors.
easy-peasy
I am working on building my first search-engine friendly CMS. I know that perhaps one of the biggest keys to having and SEO site is to have search-engine friendly URLs. So having a link like this:
http://www.mysite.com/product/details/page1
will result in much better rankings than one like this:
http://www.mysite.com/index.php?pageID=37
I know that to create URLs like the first one, I have one of two options:
use a web technology, in this case PHP, to create a directory structure
leverage Apache's mod_rewrite add-on to have these URLs passed to a PHP processor
As far as the PHP goes, I'm pretty comfortable with anything. However, I think the first option would be more difficult to maintain.
Could someone show me how to write an .htaccess file, which will:
silently direct SEO URLs to a processor script
not redirect if the requested URL is an actual directory on the server
Is there a better way than the way I am trying it?
You can use .htaccess for apache, create file in your root folder of web mainly "htdocs" name it ".htaccess" add next content to it
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
Options -Indexes
</IfModule>
in your php file you can access data from $_GET
$_GET['url'];
Then you can use data to parse what you need.
Yes, the first option would be pretty hard to maintain. If you want to change the header of the pages, you'd need to recalculate all of the pages.
The simplest way to do that would be to have a PHP file named product.php or product/details.php and use the $_SERVER\['PATH_INFO'\] variable to figure out what the client requested.
I have a website that passes some GET variables to different pages in PHP. My issue is that now I have a url with variables i.e. index.php?category=categoryname and that's not very memorable.
Is there any way I can change the URL to something like /categoryname instead without duplicating the page and storing in folders? But also allow users to type in /categoryname and be redirected to the correct page?
.htaccess Apache mod_rewrite, almost every professional dynamic website uses this method (like stackoverflow).
The method is fully explained in this article far better then I could ever explain it in this answer box.
You should look into writing some apache Mod_Rewrite rules in a .htaccess file.
The solution is discussed here:
this is done by the rewrite module of apache and this handles regular
expressions. You have to put a rule
like this in your .htaccess file on
the root of your website:
RewriteRule ^cat/([0-9]+)$
/index.php?category=$1
^ means the start of the url after
www.example.com/ $ means the end of
the page.
www.example.com/cat/123
will be converted by the server to:
www.example.com/index.php?category=123
In PHP you use the normal $_GET['id']
variable. The rewrite module must be
enabled by apache... This is mostly
used to make the url format
independent of the serverside
scripting language so the .php in the
url is not logical. Thats why i
changed it to product/ . The .htaccess
starts with
RewriteEngine On Options
+FollowSymLinks RewriteBase / Here all the rewrite rules.. ...