Php simulating HTML files

sleptoor

I am currently trying to create an accurate estimate for a client but cannot decide on how to build their site.

The client requires that the URLs they currently have (URLS like this: www.thesite.com/listings/user.html) stay intact. But the whole site is going to be made dynamic (Editable on the site using PHP). Normally, I would not use HTML files then search/write files using PHP. I am concerned about the robustness of the site for searching etc…. I could change the .html so it interprets PHP but as these user pages will be created from a MYSQL Database I really don’t want to have to write a Page for each user.

So, and I know I have come across this somewhere before, I’d like it if

www.thesite.com/listings/user.html

would actually be:
[URL]/listings[the actual page]/user.html[search string]

The web server would interpret /user.html as an argument not an actual HTML file. So the PHP page would be “listings” with no extension. The end result is that the site would look just like a bunch of HTML files (to users and the search engines) but all the data would be pulled out of the Database. Then to edit each user’s site they would go login and change their info right on the website.

What do you think of that? How is this done?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

devinemke

if you are using apache, check out mod_rewrite

mtmosier

Also for apache you could make "listings" a php file and use ForceType (tutorial). If using this method with apache 2 you also have to make sure AcceptPathInfo is enabled.

sleptoor

awesome thanks guys!! I am running apache so those will help a lot.

sleptoor

One question os there any problems associated with making a site this way? Does it help search engines?? or hinder them. any comments appreciated.

mtmosier

It's generally held to help search engine rankings. Being not an expert on search engine optimizations, I really can't confirm that. Certainly won't hurt though.

superwormy

Generally search engines avoid long querystrings ( ie: listing.php?var=youruserhere ) so the paths you're making might be more search engine friendly.

I've made a number of sites which use a similar technique, and it seems to work just fine, no problems here.

You might want to look at all of the variables in the $_SERVER array as oen of them will show the entire request string ( REQUEST_URI maybe? ) which you can take and parse to get which user you want.