URL Thingy majig

Anon

Hi there everyone!

I've tried to solve this one myself by browsing php.net and here etc, but im such a novice I dont even know where to start!

What I would like is to have a search thing for my website. What I would like is for someone to type in my domain, then a slash, then whatever they want to search for. Im making a car website, so Id like it to search a MYSQL database for the cars eg. http://www.mydomain.com/ford or just http://www.mydomain.com/whatevertheywant. Then it tries to match it to something in the mysql database, then send them to the appropriate page. It probably sounds far fetched, but if you can help Id be greatful!

Thankz

fahhem

sorry, that won't work. You will have to make a search page that goes to yourdomain.com/search.php?ford and search.php would gather up your database and then go line by line, lloking for ford or whatever car you want.

Anon

Actually, it might be possible, but would take some work-

In this scenario, if someone typed in http://domain.com/ford, etc., it would be a 404 page not found.
You can, in apache, have a 404 be redirected to any page you choose. The page the 404 was redirected to could then parse the original url and then search the db for it.
I think this could work.
Just a thought.

Anon

It is possible. But not in a standard way.
This whole thing is explained in the book Web Application Development with PHP. By the auteurs: T. Ratschiller & T. Gerken.
The point is to catch the url in a 404 file which is php enabled. It does work. But you may have to change a few bits and pieces in the server config. Goodluck with it.