GET parameters from mod_rewrite URLs

esiason14

I'm rewriting my URL's like this:

old:

http://www.mysite.com/players.php?subcat3=1457&cat=2&fname=Ahman&lname=Green

new:

http://www.mysite.com/players.php/subcat3/1457/cat/2/fname/Ahman/lname/Green/

My question is. Now that I have rewritten URL's, how can I still use the parameters throughout my application...how do I retrieve them?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

bretticus

Remove the column names from the rewrite and try the following...

<?
list(,$subcat3,$cat,$fname,$lname) = explode('/', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
?>

...since you know what each "folder" is for. Your rewrite would go from...

http://www.mysite.com/players.php/subcat3/1457/cat/2/fname/Ahman/lname/Green/

...to...

http://www.mysite.com/players.php/1457/2/Ahman/Green/

esiason14

bretticus, thanks for the response.

This is my rewrite rule (I know it could probably be a lot simpler).

How would I go about changing it to take the "known folders" out...fname, cat, subcat3, lname, etc?

RewriteRule players.php/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)/$ /players.php?$1=$2&$3=$4&$5=$6&$7=$8

Weedpacket

Do you mean you've got mod_rewrite taking

http://www.mysite.com/players.php/subcat3/1457/cat/2/fname/Ahman/lname/Green/

and turning it into

http://www.mysite.com/players.php?subcat3=1457&cat=2&fname=Ahman&lname=Green

?
PHP would see the URL as it appears after rewriting, and doesn't care about what it looks like before rewriting.

bretticus also has a good idea - unless this page might have things other than subcat3/subcat/cat/cat/fname/firstname/lname/lastname you can shorten the URL to /subcat/cat/firstname/lastname and have mod_rewrite put the rest of the pieces in.

I'd also recommend having mod_rewrite add the ".php" to the URL as well. One of the main reasons why mod_rewrite exists is to hide things like choice of backend technology from the user (who doesn't care if you're using PHP or ASP or whatever).

Your rewritten URL be

http://www.mysite.com/players/1457/2/Ahman/Green/

And mod_rewrite would turn that into

http://www.mysite.com/players.php?subcat3=1457&cat=2&fname=Ahman&lname=Green

bretticus

Ah, you're rewriting before PHP sees it. Yeah, that SHOULD entail good ole' $var = $_GET['var']. try it both ways just to be sure.

esiason14

I've been using:

$player = $_GET['subcat3']; ....etc, but after rewriting the GET vars no longer work.

I guess I need help changing the rewrite rule to take all the extra stuff out.

I've been banging my head against the wall for the last couple of hours and now I think I'm just confusing myself.

If I use bretticus' suggested code within my script, breaking all the variables out of the rewritten URL, the variables should be available then...correct?

FYI, maybe I'm reading your responses wrong, but my new URL's look like this:

http://www.mysite.com/players.php/subcat3/1457/cat/2/fname/Ahman/lname/Green/

esiason14

Ok, I think I figured out whats going on. The GET vars are working within the player.php file, however....I have an included file that uses the GET parameters as well and thats where its failing. I was testing it out with this:

For the URL

http://www.fantasyplaymakers.com/players.php/subcat3/1457/cat/2/fname/Ahman/lname/Green/

list($dummy, $dummy1, $dummy2, $player, $dummy3, $position, $dummy4, $first, $dummy5, $last) = explode('/', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);

var_dump of $player on the players.php file returns "1457"

If I do a var_dump ($player) on the include, I get "NULL".

Im assuming its because of the $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] on the include. Would any other variations of this work on BOTH files?