How can I create friendly URLs with .htaccess?

Question

I'm having a hard time with .htaccess. I want to create friendly URLs for a site I'm working on...

Basically I want to convert this:

http://website.com/index.php?ctrl=pelicula&id=0221889
http://website.com/index.php?ctrl=pelicula&id=0160399&tab=posters

Into this:

http://website.com/pelicula/0221889/
http://website.com/pelicula/0221889/posters/

In case I need it later I would also want to know how to add the article title to the end of the URL like this (I'm using PHP):

http://website.com/pelicula/0221889/the-article-name/
http://website.com/pelicula/0221889/the-article-name/posters/

Note: Stackoverflow method is also good for me, for example the url of this question is:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3033407/htacces-to-create-friendly-urls-help-needed

But you can put anything after the id and it will also work. like this:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3033407/just-anything-i-want

I have used some automatic web tools for creating the .htacces file, but its not working correctly. So I ask for your help.

I will also be glad if you can recommend .htacces best practices and recommendations..

EDIT: based on some answers I get here I put this:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?([^/]*)/?$ index.php?ctrl=$1&id=$2&tab=$3 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

But I get the default host 'page not found' error.

I also tried:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/(\d+)/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?ctrl=$1&id=$2&tab=$3 [QSA,L]
    RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/(\d+)/?$         index.php?ctrl=$1&id=$2 [QSA,L]
    RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/?$               index.php?ctrl=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

This also does not work. It takes me to my default 404.php page.

mod_rewrite is enabled and working.

Help!

Answer 1

In the document root for http://website.com/ I'd put an htaccess file like this:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

Then in your PHP script you can manipulate the $_GET['url'] variable as you please:

$path_components = explode('/', $_GET['url']);
$ctrl=$path_components[0];
$id=$path_components[1];
$tab=$path_components[2];

Answer 2

Just tested this locally and it seems to do what you need:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)(?:/)?$ /index.php?ctrl=$1 [L]
    RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)/([^/.]+)(?:/)?$ /index.php?ctrl=$1&id=$2 [L]
    RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)/([^/.]+)/([^/.]+)(?:/.*)?$ /index.php?ctrl=$1&id=$2&tab=$3 [L]
</IfModule>

This is what it does:

• For a path like http://website.com/pelicula/, redirect to /index.php?ctrl=pelicula
• For a path like http://website.com/pelicula/0221889, redirect to /index.php?ctrl=pelicula&id=0221889
• For a path like http://website.com/pelicula/0221889/posters/, redirect to /index.php?ctrl=pelicula&tab=posters
• For a path like http://website.com/pelicula/0221889/posters/anything-can-go-here, redirect to /index.php?ctrl=pelicula&tab=posters and ignore the rest of the path.

These rewrites will work with or without a trailing slash - if you want them to work only without the slash, remove the (?:/)? from the end of the first two rewrites. You can also use mod_rewrite to add or remove a trailing slash as required.