Archive for the ‘shortening URLs through htaccess’ Category

shortening URLs through htaccess

Posted: July 10, 2009 in shortening URLs through htaccess
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shortening URLs using .htaccess

One common use of mod_rewrite is to shorten URL’s. Shorter URL’s are easier to remember and, of course, easier to type. An example..

beware the regular expression:
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^grab /public/files/download/download.php

this rule would transform this user’s URL..

http://mysite/grab?file=my.zip

server-side, into..

http://mysite/public/files/download/download.php?file=my.zip

which is a wee trick I use for my distro machine, among other things. everyone likes short URL’s, and so will you; using this technique, you can move /public/files/download/ to anywhere else in your site, and all the old links still work fine; simply alter your .htaccess file to reflect the new location. edit one line, done – nice – means even when stuff is way deep in your site you can have cool links like this.