Question

I’ve searched all forums recently including StackOverflow, but couldn’t find any solution how to use .htaccess files. I’ve heard that virtual directories are created using this service.

I want the virtual path of user profile to be displayed like this if user name is set

http://www.example.com/username

or if username is not set, then user profiles will be displayed with this link

http://www.example.com/profile.php?id=134531

Just like facebook.

Can anyone post me an exact code of this? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I assume by virtual directories you mean rewrites. You have a profile.php page that loads the users profile via username or via id.

Lets take your first issue, mapping /[username] to profile.php?username=[username].
This solution assumes that mod_rewrite is installed on your Apache server.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9]+)$ profile.php?username=$1 [L]

(Place this in a .htaccess file in the root of your webapp or in the VirtualHost directory in your Apache conf)

This will internally rewrite any request to /[username] to profile.php?username=[username].

As for using a username when available, and a id when not – You will have to implemenent that when you generate the links.

<?php
$profile_url = $username ? : 'profile.php?id='.$userid;
?>
<a href="/<?php echo $profile_url; ?>">View profile</a>

That takes care of the link building. Then you have your profile.php page:

$username = $_GET['username'];
$userid = $_GET['id'];

if ($username) {
    /* Load user via username */
} else {
    /* Load user via ID */
}

There are loads of tutorials on URL Rewriting with Apache on the internet, just google and make your way through some test setups.