How to Create Clean URLs with .htaccess?

Creating Clean URLs with .htaccess

Question:

How can we transform a URL like "http://localhost/index.php?user=1&action=update" into a cleaner version: "http://localhost/user/1/update"?

Answer:

To achieve this, you can modify your .htaccess file with the following code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^user/([0-9]*)/([a-z]*)$ ./index.php?user=&action=

Here's how it works:

• Groups: The parentheses in the .htaccess code create groups that can be referenced later using $1, $2, and so on.
• First Group: It matches any numerical characters (e.g., 1, 34) and captures them in the $1 group.
• Second Group: It matches any alphabetical characters (e.g., a, abc) and captures them in the $2 group.
• Replacement String: The replacement string "./index.php?user=$1&action=$2" builds the modified URL using the captured groups $1 and $2.

Accessing Parameters in PHP:

In your PHP code, you can access the URL parameters like this:

<code class="php"><?php
echo "user id:" . $_GET['user'];
echo "<br>action:" . $_GET['action'];
?></code>

This approach ensures more control and security compared to using a wildcard character (.*) in the RewriteRule, which could potentially match any string.

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