[RESOLVED] Mod Rewrite with Multiple Variables

[Sops21]

I've got a mod rewrite that I'm trying to do. Currently my .htaccess file looks like this:

RewriteRule ^videochannel/([^/\.]+)/?$ /video/viewchannel.php?curlname=$1 [L]

Which corresponds to the url:
/videochannel/videochannelname

I need to expand upon this. I need to add the variable so that the url for the rewrite reads: /video/viewchannel.php?curlname=$1&pagenumber=$2

Which would correspond to the url:
/videochannel/videochannelname/1

Here is the trick that I can't seem to figure out. Both the urls:
/videochannel/videochannelname/

and

/videochannel/videochannelname/1
need to work.

I've tried changing the mod rewrite to:

RewriteRule ^videochannel/([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/?$ /video/viewchannel-testing.php?curlname=$1&pagenumber=$2 [L]

The works for:
/videochannel/videochannelname/1
but
/videochannel/videochannelname/
gives me a 404.

Any ideas?

[jazz_snob]

I've taken a lesson from drupal and handle it like this:

Map the WHOLE url to a single page. That page figures out what to do and includes the necessary files.

  # Rewrite current-style URLs of the form 'index.php?q=x'.
  # but only for files that do not exist
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  # this is saying if it ends in a trailing slash, we don't want it
  # you might have to adjust this line to your tastes
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\/$
  # and the requested URI is not an existing directory
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  # finally we get to the rewrite, its about time!
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

So /videochannel/videochannelname/ is sent in this case to index.php as

index.php?q=/videochannel/videochannelname/

and the other would come in as

index.php?q=/videochannel/videochannelname/1

Then index.php examines the URL and figures out what to do. This works exceedingly well.

[madwormer2]

That's always a way of doing it, because it certainly makes it easier for those who are familiar to PHP but not with the apache redirect rules (and regex etc)

However, I don't believe this problem requires such an urgent redesign 😉

I think the problem here is that you're telling apache that you need to to have 1 or more after the last comma with the + character. Change this to * to mean 0 or more, and we should have a winner.

RewriteRule ^videochannel/([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]*)/?$ /video/viewchannel-testing.php?curlname=$1&pagenumber=$2 [L]

(You could alternatively make the group optional using a question mark, if this way doesn't work, try that)

[Sops21]

madwormer2,
I tried your way and it seems to be working:

RewriteRule ^testchannel/([^/\.]*)/([^/\.]*)/?$ /video/viewchannel-testing.php?curlname=$1&pagenumber=$2 [L]

The only problem that I am now encountering is when that:

/videochannel/videochannelnamehere/

works as well as
videochannel/videochannelnamehere/2

and
videochannel/videochannelnamehere/2/

works, however

/videochannel/videochannelnamehere

without the "/" at the end does not work, it 404's.

I don't know what you mean when you say "You could alternatively make the group optional using a question mark" It sounds like that would work, but I'm not sure how to implement it.

Any suggestions?

[madwormer2]

No need, just add a question mark after the other forward slash, and that should do it.

[Sops21]

Thanks for your help. That fixed it.