Mod_rewrite flat links - php

Question

I'm trying to display my get variables as flat links.
Want to change from this:
http://mydomain.com/index.php?page=shop&var1=hat&var2=10
to
http://mydomain.com/index.php/shop/hat/10
Please keep in mind that there isn't a fixed number of variables, that's why I use var1,var2,...etc
[edit]
I already have a partially working script, but works only with max 3 variables
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} 200
RewriteRule .* - [L]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/?$ index.php?page=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/?([^/\.]+)/?$ index.php?page=$1&var=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/?([^/\.]+)/?([^/\.]+)/?$ index.php?page=$1&var=$2&var2=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/?([^/\.]+)/?([^/\.]+)/?$ index.php?page=$1&var=$2&var2=$3&var3=$4 [L]

Answer 1

So first remember mod_rewrite works like this :
http://mydomain.com/index.php/shop/hat/10
(what the client type) is rewritten to
http://mydomain.com/index.php?page=shop&var1=hat&var2=10
(what the client is served), but not necessarily displayed like the latter. (Unless you make it a redirect)
So assuming your format is completly described here :
RewriteRule ^index\.php/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([0-9]+)$ /index.php?page=$1&var2=$2&var2=$3
Should be good.
EDIT:
Oh BTW! I did not take the variable number of variable into account. That should not be processed by mod_rewrite I think. Maybe the best shot is to RewriteRule index.php/(.*) /index.php?call=$1 and then use your script to explode using / delimiter.
You can only do it if you already know the number of variable only AFAIK.

Answer 2

You could just direct all request directly to index.php (called bootstrapping), and let the script parse out the variables.
This is how it's done with Zend Framework, you should take a look at it. ZF also has loads of other goodies you could utilize.
This is my rewrite block from one of my vhosts with a ZF powered website.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-s
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/favicon.ico
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]