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php.htaccesskohanapathinfo

How can a URL like http://localhost/index.php/articles/edit/1/my-first-article work without an .htaccess?

I don't get this:

http://localhost/index.php/articles/edit/1/my-first-article

This URL is mentioned as an example in the Kohana framework documentation. I poked around in the files of my installation, and there is no .htaccess besides my own one that has nothing to do with that.

So, how can it be that an index.php is called but then, as parameters, the stuff looks like added directories to the URL? That doesn't look "real".

Or is this just how native PHP/Apache/HTTP stuff actually works? As I understand it, / is always telling "hey, a directory!". Makes really zero sense to me... how's that possible? Or do they have somewhere an .htaccess that I just can't see / find?

Solution

  • In PHP you can get the data after the filename with the $_SERVER["PATH_INFO"] variable. This allows you to basically GET information without having to use GET variables, which means Google and co will think you're using static pages. This is basically an alternative to mod_rewrite which is often enabled while mod_rewrite is more often not enabled.

    This may be obvious to you, but it wasn't immediately to me, this doesn't work correctly on index pages unless you use the filename. For instance, http://example.com/test/my/get/params will not work, while http://example.com/test/index.php/my/get/params will.