GET method and PHP

Question

I have two questions.

In my webpage (developed by me), I use the GET method to return for example the id of one record that I have in a mySQL database.

For example, one url can be this:

http://www.example.com/example.php?id=1

But in MediaWiki software, they can use this GET method, or one strange method that I don't know, that works like this:

http://www.example.com/example.php/1 

How can I do that my PHP script knows that what the id is 1?

And now I have another question. In MediaWiki software, you can do that the index.php file converts to a virtual wiki directory.

Now the final question is: How can I do that in my webpage, the url for this request to my mySQL database (with a PHP script) is:

http://www.example.com/example/1

Thanks.

P.D: Sorry about my bad English. I'm still learning, because I'm from Spain and in Spain the Enslish is not an official language.

Answer 1

You can do that with rewrites (e.g. via .htaccess)

Have a look at this page: http://www.workingwith.me.uk/articles/scripting/mod_rewrite