Cool URL & Good coding

[hapytran]

Hi,

I found some websites have URL like this http://www.oscommerce.com/shops/live,18960/cID,14. It's a cool URL (to me 🆒 ). By the way, any body know how to code a site work this URL?

Thanks.

[ysu]

It's built into osCommerce.
Simplest way to have an idea is to check it out - it's a GPL licenced code afaik.

[leatherback]

This is using the apache mod rewrite syntax. Basically, througfh a series of regular expressions in the .htaccess file on your website, you define how specific urls are to be rewritten. it is quite complex, some good manuals are on thie apache sites, and there are a few forums on it on the web. Google on mod rewrite url

[ysu]

But it's possible to create -and use- funny urls without mod_rewrite. 🙂

Apache always calls the first available file, and the whole url is available from php.
Altho in that case you need to either use it like this:
/dir/file.php/moreparams/evenmoreparams
or you need to direct apache to run php on all files - careful with that! - but then you can use the format:
/dir/file/moreparams/evenmoreparams

[leatherback]

There is a difference between what you can do and what you should want to do

[ysu]

true 🙂

[Bobulous]

The problem with URLs that hide their query string is that it makes it harder for others to extract the query string.

For instance, I use a log analyzer to examine referrer strings to find out how my visitors found my site (something I find quite interesting). But some search engines that hide the query string using a URL that looks like a long list of directory names, as you demonstrate above. This completely foxes my log analyzer, and I can't as easily gather up the most popular search terms for my site.

Also, purely as a counter-argument, I don't like the appearance of the URLs that hide query strings. They look messier somehow.