URL Rewrites

I've just been having a look at this, and have gotten halfway to what I would like to do.

So I've got it working by changing my .htaccess file to include:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule index/LodgeID/(.*)/ index.php?LodgeID=$1
RewriteRule index/LodgeID/(.*) index.php?LodgeID=$1

Which is rewriting:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/index.php?LodgeID=288

To:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/index/LodgeID/288/

And I've resolved the issue of my paths to images and CSS files going AWOL.

What I would like to be able to do is include a variant of the lodge name in the URL.

I do have a field in the lodges table which has a short name string which could be used, e.g.:

africanhorsebacksafaris

Is it possible to use rewrite the URL to:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgename/

Where 'lodgename' is stored as a field in the same lodges table as LodgeID?

yes, you could do that, you would then need to edit the recordset on the page to filter using the lodge name column instead of the ID column.

Thanks Jason - I may have been overthinking it.

At the moment the recordset is:

SELECT *
FROM lodges
WHERE LodgeID=ParamLodgeID

Where ParamLodgeID is:

Type: Integer
Default Value: -1
Run-time Value: $_GET['LodgeID']

So I changed the recordset to:

SELECT *
FROM lodges
WHERE Lodge=ParamLodgename

Type: Text
Default Value: -1
Run-time Value: $_GET['Lodgename']

It was a case of sucking it to see, but I wasn't sure about the default value being -1 for text rather than an integer.

And I added:

RewriteRule index/GSG_URL/(.*)/ index.php?GSG_URL=$1
RewriteRule index/GSG_URL/(.*) index.php?GSG_URL=$1
RewriteRule index/(.*)/ index.php?GSG_URL=$1
RewriteRule index/(.*) index.php?GSG_URL=$1

to the .htaccess file.

And that gives me:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/index/GSG_URL/africanhorseback/

and

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/index/africanhorseback/

I tried:

RewriteRule (.*)/ index.php?GSG_URL=$1
RewriteRule (.*) index.php?GSG_URL=$1

To get to:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/africanhorseback/

But it didn't like that, and didn't show any data.

Is there a tweak in the syntax, or does it always need to reference the .php page?

so the URL perameter you are passing to the recordset is Lodgename. your URLS should look like this:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/index/Lodgename/africanhorseback/

and the rewrite rule should be:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule index/Lodgename/(.*)/ index.php?Lodgename=$1
RewriteRule index/Lodgename/(.*) index.php?Lodgename=$1

Sorry Jason - my fault. In my first post I said Lodgename, but when i looked at it I realised the field was called 'GSG_URL'.

So:

RewriteRule index/GSG_URL/(.*)/ index.php?GSG_URL=$1
RewriteRule index/GSG_URL/(.*) index.php?GSG_URL=$1

Gets me to:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/index/GSG_URL/africanhorsebacksafaris/

And

RewriteRule index/(.*)/ index.php?GSG_URL=$1
RewriteRule index/(.*) index.php?GSG_URL=$1

Gets me to:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/index/africanhorsebacksafaris/

But is it possible to get to:

Gets me to:

http://lodges.goodsafariguide.com/lodgedetails/africanhorsebacksafaris/

Or does it always need to include the page itself (e.g. index)?

I'll be 100% honest, Mod Rewrite is not my specialty. I'm sure it is possible to not include the page itself, but I am not sure on the syntax.

No worries Jason. You got me on the right track though - I always just assumed using the ID was the best variable to pass.

But presumably there's no harm in passing another one.

The thing to check would just be to make sure that that field was always unique, which can be done using some validation when its entered?

As long as that's done it should be good to go.

yup, that is correct.

you should also ensure that the field being used only contains URL safe alpha numeric characters.

also, a good rule of thumb is to force any spaces to use hyphens instead:
this-is-my-lodge

Just to say I got this all working with:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)/ index.php?GSG_URL=$1