Question

This is more for information then a problem.(On searching Stack Overflow I found more problem related questions then solution or explanation)
I am working on a PHP website for real estate,something very similar to this.Here,each property in the list takes the user to a different page(URL shows a different link for each property clicked) and displays the details.Also the and tags are changed.There are about 600 properties in a single city on the website and definitely there cannot be 600 Pages.Hence they must have used some framework or URL rewriting technique to achieve this. I am fairly new to PHP and no experience with frameworks(having worked on classical PHP).
I would like responses/suggestions to understand how such functionality(Ideally similar to the site) can be achieved using any PHP framework or some URL rewriting technique.
Sorry if the question sounds too broad to explain,but any pointers will also do which can briefly explain the scenario for me to get started.

Thanks

Answer 1

Using a module in Apache called mod_rewrite and by placing a file named .htaccess in your web directory with the following content (for example)

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)\.php$ /view.php?id=$1 [L]

As you can see, when the URL example.com/some-cool-apartment.php is requested it is as if the following was requested example.com/view.php?id=some-cool-apartment

Of course other web servers (such as IIS) support URL rewriting using other syntax. IIS uses a file named web.config with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="RewriteUserFriendlyURL" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^([^/]*)\.php$" />
                    <action type="Redirect" url="/view.php?id={R:1}" appendQueryString="false" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>

    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

I hope that answered your question