Question

I’m doing my first single-entry site and based on the result, I can’t see the benefit.

I’ve implemented the following:

• .htaccess redirects all requests to index.php at the root
• Url is parsed and each /segment/ is stored as an element in an array
• First segment indicates which folder to include (e.g. “users” » “/pages/users/index.php”).
• index.php file of each folder parses the remaining elements in the segments array until array is empty.
• content.php file of each folder is included if there are no more elements in the segments array, indicating that the destination file is reached

Sample

File structure ( folders in [] ):

• [root]
  • index.php
  • [pages]
    • [users]
      • index.php
      • content.php
      • [profile]
        • index.php
        • content.php
        • [edit]
          • index.php
          • content.php
    • [other-page]
      • index.php
      • content.php

Request: http://mysite.com/users/profile/

1. .htaccess redirects request to http://mysite.com/index.php

2. URL is parsed and segments array contains: [1] users, [2] profile

3. index.php maps [1] to “pages/users/index.php”, so includes that file

4. pages/users/index.php maps [2] to pages/users/profile/index.php, so includes that file

5. Since no other elements in the segments array, the contents.php file in the current folder (pages/users/profile) is included.

---

I’m not really seeing the benefit of doing this over having functions that include components of the site (e.g. include_header(), include_footer(), etc.), so I conclude that I’m doing something terribly wrong. I’m just not sure what it is.

Answer 1

This version you have is lacking some functions and only works as a very simplistic front-controller pattern.

Most systems don’t map the URL to a single PHP file that is the page – they map the URL path to a controller that knows how to build the page.

In addition, not all URL’s need to map to a direct file. For example, look at github.com/[username]/[repo]. You can’t create millions of bob/ajaxstuff/index.php files – you need to use regex to tell a controller you want the write page for this project.

$app->get('/:username/:repo', function ($username, $repo) {
    echo "Looking at $username's $repo";
});

To really grasp how this should be used correctly I recommend you use a full-featured routing system like the simple Slim Framework.

If you want more information about routing design and theory I recommend reading php-router’s readme and the excellent URL Design post from warpspire.

If any of those are too much, you can also look at klein and the super-simple ToroPHP library.