Dynamic sites

ThinkGeekness

How do sites with links like http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/shownotes/story/0,24330,3461558,00.html work, assuming that it is in php. I don't think that techtv would have a folder called 0,24330,3461558,00. But as this is an html file I am stumped.

Anyways, basically, how do sites with the long links that you would never think of work? I have a site that is going to have a lot of reviews but I dont want to keep changing the layout when I change something. I know that I could use the php "include", but is there any other way?

Thanks

Mordecai

Originally posted by ThinkGeekness
But as this is an html file I am stumped.

Filename means nothing. There's no telling what exactly they're using, it could be anything from python to PHP (not alphabetically, of course...).

If you have mod_rewrite or mod_alias on your server (Apache only), then you can use this feature. It will enable the $_SERVER["path"] variable which you can use to get the entire path. It will also enable you to be able to use files like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/myfolder/myfile.php/my/new/folder

ThinkGeekness

Thanks for the reply. I do have both mod_rewrite and mod_alias on my Apache server (Apache version 1.3.27). How would I use those features? Or does it not have anything that deals with php?

Thanks

ThinkGeekness

Bump, basically what I want to do is create a site with lots of reviews, but I don't want to have to change the layout on everyfile. Include for php doesn't do exactly what I want either, so I was thinking of doing something that TechTV had, but I don't know how to approach it.

Thanks

hearn

I would do it template based. Make a single file with the header and footer of the files and then go from there, based on the tag in the url you could include a file named as so.

So say your URL was http://www.something.com/?location=stuff

that would include the file stuff.php.

You could also create auth and titles doing this by using a switch statement by default at the top of your template file. I have some code for you if you're interested.

ThinkGeekness

I am very interested... I just started php classes last Monday and I do not know how to do this yet.

Thanks!

elToro

Here's an article for you: How to Succeed with URLs. It explains how to employ .htaccess files to use mod_rewrite, resulting in user-friendly URLs that may or may not have anything to do with your actual directory structure.

ThinkGeekness

Thanks for that article, have they come out with part two? I see what they are doing with it, I just wouldn't know how to actually use it (unless they have made part two).

And hearn, I am still interested in seeing the way that you would do it.

Thanks

hearn

Here's my little clipit of code that I'm writing right now just so you understand what i mean:

I would most likely name the following file index.php, or index.php3, with .htaccess having the DirectoryIndex pointed at one of those two so i could call the page by http://www.domain.com/?location=whatever

<?
     // You can also add a tag for authentication to the following pages, such as $authentication=0 for none, $authentication=1 for registered users, and so on.  This way you can keep your indexing consistent and at the same time have a way in which a user cannot spoof a cookie or session by simply tagging the url

 switch($location) {
      case "guestbook":
           $title = "My Guestbook";
           break;
      case "contact":
           $title = "Contact Me";
           break;
      default: // This sets a default location so that if none is supplied php won't fail on an inclusion attempt
           $title = "Home";
           $location = "home";
           break;
 }
?>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE><?=$title?></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<?
     // I like to keep my included files for all the pages in a seperate directory, just practice, not a big deal though

 include("inc/" . $location . ".php") or die("File Failed");</HTML>
?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

I've been programming for an internet company on campus at MSU for a year now, and many other companies before that, and have never had any security issues (granted that this is not as safe as using httd authentication), but overall i love this method, and it allows you to get away from having to modify all your pages. you can simply modify the one page and your entire site changes.

Hope this helps, I'd be glad to clarify more on anything or help out with more advanced methods.

It would also be quite simple to migrate this type of page into a database, such as mysql or pgsql.

Cheers!

ThinkGeekness

Thanks, how would I actually use it with content in it and having everything static except the content. Basically, could you actually put content in the code that you made so that I could figure it out a little bit better.

After that, I think that I got it, thanks for your help.

Edit: Also, what are some of the advance options that you mentioned?

ThinkGeekness

hearn? (bump)

ThinkGeekness

Well, does anybody other than hearn know how to answer my question or can provide me with a different way?

Thanks for your help.