User-friendly URLs instead of Query Strings? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
using seo user friendly in php
Custom routing in code ingniter

I'm deving a CMS and I wanna use User-friendly URLs instead of Query Strings.

e.g.:

mysite.com/cat_1 => mysite.com/cat_1/itme_1

instead of

mysite.com/?cat=1 => mysite.com/?item=1

How should I implement this? any standard way?

My idea is to use of semi-dynamic pages and generating static snapshots with user-friendly URLS of dynamic pages that use query strings.

Answer 1

This is accomplished through the use of .htaccess to modify how the URL is sent to the client. Or as other people say, to prettify the URL. Here are some links to articles to help you get started with the mod_rewrite rules required to make this function.

http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/other/using-htaccess-files-for-pretty-urls/

http://www.roscripts.com/Pretty_URLs_-_a_guide_to_URL_rewriting-168.html

Answer 2

You want to use .htaccess to rewrite your URLs internally and route them appropriately to your application.

Here's a specific .htaccess example that will do what you're looking for:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^cat_([0-9]*) /?cat=$1 [N,QSA]
RewriteRule ^item_([0-9]*) /?item=$1 [N,QSA]

Just put the above in a file called .htaccess in your root web folder, and you'll be good to go.

Note that you may have to enable mod-rewrite in your apache server if it's not already enabled (most shared hosting providers have it enabled)