Need help, can't find answer

CliftonH

I am very new to php and developing my first site.

I am trying to figure out how to create an 'alias' (not sure what to call it) for profiles created on my site.

Example: I need to disguise 'http:///www.mysite.php/view_profile.php?member_id=1234' with 'http:///www.mysite.php/CliftonH'

Can anyone give me an idea on how to do this or where I can find it or even what it is called?

Thank you so much!
Clifton

bpat1434

You would use mod_rewrite which can allow you to "rewrite" the URL 😉

RewriteModule On

RewriteRule /(.*) /index.php

That would take all requests and move them to index.php. Sometimes this is referred to as a "bootstrapper" which routes all requests to whatever you want. Instead of just the username, I'd suggest using a URL like:
http://www.mysite.com/view_profile/CliftonH

Then you'd want to do a quick lookup for the userID based on the username passed.

RewriteModule On

RewriteRule /view_profile/(.*) view_profile.php?member_name=$1

mod_rewrite requires the Apache server. IIS and LightTPD do have similar modules (I think LightTPD actually calls it mod_rewrite) that do the same thing. You'll have to look into your server's documentation to see the proper implementation if you're not using Apache.

CliftonH

Thank you! I will try it out!

CliftonH

bpat1434 wrote:
You would use mod_rewrite which can allow you to "rewrite" the URL 😉
RewriteModule On

RewriteRule /(.*) /index.php
That would take all requests and move them to index.php. Sometimes this is referred to as a "bootstrapper" which routes all requests to whatever you want. Instead of just the username, I'd suggest using a URL like:
http://www.mysite.com/view_profile/CliftonH

Then you'd want to do a quick lookup for the userID based on the username passed.
RewriteModule On

RewriteRule /view_profile/(.*) view_profile.php?member_name=$1
mod_rewrite requires the Apache server. IIS and LightTPD do have similar modules (I think LightTPD actually calls it mod_rewrite) that do the same thing. You'll have to look into your server's documentation to see the proper implementation if you're not using Apache.

Ok I hope I am not an idiot but I added the following code to my .htaccess file in the root directory. When I type http://www.mysite.com/view_profile/CliftonH the page only says 'No Input file Specified.' I can not figure this error out.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule /view_profile/(.*) view_profile.php?member_name=$1

Any ideas? Thank you so much for your help.

bpat1434

Sorry, the rewrite rule should be:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule view_profile/(.*) view_profile.php?member_name=$1

CliftonH

I got it to work! Thank you very much!