NYCPHP Meetup

[Greg Rundlett]

On 12/15/06, Kenneth Downs <ken at secdat.com> wrote:
> Dell Sala wrote:
> > mod_rewrite seems like a messy business. How about naming your php
> > script without a .php extension and just have that be parsed with php?
> > Then, whatever path is appending to the script name that is requested
> > just acts as a query string/argument.

Ken, I think you're missing a fine point in Dell's explanation.  To be
explicit, the reason Dell's solution works is because Apache works it
way down the request path (moving from left to right) until it finds
something it can return.  Apache does not look at the URI and work
it's way "backward".  So, if you have a script||directory||symbolic
link named 'jukebox' accessible at http://mysite.org/jukebox/ then
Apache will serve it up even if the request is for
http://mysite.org/jukebox/clapton/heaven.mp3.  Of course not only will
Apache serve up the 'jukebox' script, but since it's a mod-PHP script,
it is well aware of the full $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] which the script
can use to determine what exactly to do with the request.... like go
get a song from the database.

> > your php script would be
> >
> > http://domain.com/mp3handler
> >
> > and full requests would look like this
> >
> > http://domain.com/mp3handler/music.mp3
> >
> > mp3handler would just parse the full request string to find out what
> > mp3 was requested
> >
> > your .htaccess file would be something like this:
> >
> > <FilesMatch "^mp3hanlder$">
> >    ForceType application/x-httpd-php
> > </FilesMatch>
> >
> > I've found this to be an effective technique for creating clean urls.
>
> This looks interesting, can you give me some details here:
>
> 1)  The intent is to redirect to music.mp3, which is actually a php
> script, right?
> 2)  But then the rule is on "mp3handler", which is constant so it can't
> be a parameter?
> 3)  So what is the parameter?  How do I tell a single script to handle
> multiple files?
>
> What I'm aiming at is to have a single script that takes a parm.  If I
> understand your example above, it requires a separate script for each
> possible mp3 file, which may as well just be this:
>
> <FilesMatch "\.mp3$">
>    ForceType application/x-httpd-php
> </FilesMatch>
>
> ...which requires me again to have one script per mp3.
>
> Am I missing something?
>
> >
> > -- Dell
> >
> >
> > On Dec 15, 2006, at 5:35 PM, Kenneth Downs wrote:
> >
> >> I'm guessing that this must be a common trick, but googling it did
> >> not come up with an example that I could figure out.
> >>
> >> Basically I'd like to put a link to what looks like an MP3 file, but
> >> which is redirected to a script.  The script determines if the person
> >> is subscribed to that particular issue. If they are, it does a
> >> readfile(), otherwise it does not.
> >>
> >> I cannot do a simple force of mp3 files to be handled by PHP, or at
> >> least I don't want to, because then I would need a file for every
> >> mp3, and as the list comes out of a database, this would be troublesome.
> >>
> >> The basic problem I have is, not being familiar with mod_rewrite, I
> >> find myself in the endless maze that everybody warns you about,
> >> fiddling around and smashing fists on the table wondering why the
> >> simplest !)(#(*#@ expression won't work.
> >>
> >> What I'm looking for is for a URL like this:
> >>
> >> http://www.example.com/path/path/somefile.mp3
> >>
> >> to become:
> >>
> >> http://www.example.com/path/path/index.php?gp_page=media&file=somefile.mp3
> >>
> >>
> >> Can anybody give me a clue here?  Thanks.
> >> <ken.vcf>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >>
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> >> http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
> >
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> > http://www.nyphpcon.com
> >
> > Show Your Participation in New York PHP
> > http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>
> NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online
> http://www.nyphpcon.com
>
> Show Your Participation in New York PHP
> http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
>
>
>


-- 
A: Yes.
> Q: Are you sure?
>> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
>>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?