Dropbox style URL, without using hashes or params

Question

Could someone point me in the right direction? I'm trying to create a url like the one below. I don't want to use url hashes #I2QT40oSwU0AoH7g02cAHI or parameters ?myparam=I2QT40oSwU0AoH7g02cAHI.

https://www.dropbox.com/l/I2QT40oSwU0AoH7g02cAHI

Is this done with mod_rewrite?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, it's done by editing the httpd.conf file (turn on AllowOverride all) and creating a .htaccess file in your root web directory.

Here is a sample .htaccess file

Options -Multiviews

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^l/(.*)$ /somescript.php?key=$1 [L]

The above will direct

https://www.dropbox.com/l/I2QT40oSwU0AoH7g02cAHI

to

https://www.dropbox.com/somescript.php?key=I2QT40oSwU0AoH7g02cAHI

Answer 2

It's called Clean URL Usually it's implemented via url rewrite technique. But also you can use 404 HTTP error page to handle such urls.