Question

How to make link like http://www.facebook.com/Lukavyi ?
Must every user have separate php file to have such link? I know, that you can somehow change url with apache, but is link being changed back, when user clicks on it?

Answer 1

This can be done with Apache’s mod_rewrite URL rewrite engine. You can specify a URL pattern and direct all requests to a page or PHP script of your liking.

It works by creating a .htaccess file and setting the rules in there. For example:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^users/(.*)$ users.php?username=$1

The first two rows make sure the rewrite engine is enabled, and the third one orders all incoming requests for addresses like /users/MyUserName to be redirected internally to users.php?username=MyUserName. The user will not see the final address, only the “clean” version.

If you don’t want the users/ part in the URL and instead want yoursite.com/MyUserName to work instead, you’ll have to create a front controller that will handle all incoming requests.