What meaning does the text in the URL have after index.php/

Question

I am wondering what special meaning does text in the URL have after index.php/ So I would have an address like www.site.com/index.php/sometext Is it parsed as a GET parameter, or something else.

I am working on a PHP framework for my personal use. The problem I'm trying to solve is URL routing.

Thanks, but that doesn't answer my question about the URL parsing. — Rasteril, Feb 27 '13 at 16:54
@Rasteril It does in one of the answers. See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#acceptpathinfo — Pekka, Feb 27 '13 at 16:54
@JasonMcCreary I am building my own mini framework, I kinda wanted to know the behind the scenes action. — Rasteril, Feb 27 '13 at 16:57

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 27 '13 at 16:55

I am wondering what special meaning does text in the URL have after index.php/

There is no intrinsic special meaning there. Special meaning gets assigned after the first ? and after the first #.

That said, the same script will be run for /index.php and /index.php/foo/bar/baz, and the full URL requested will be available via $_SERVER, so the script can add its own special meaning to it.

See $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] and $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] for some interesting bits. print_r on $_SERVER is also worthwhile.

Is there any way to see what the user has typed into the space, even though it has no meaning at first? — Rasteril, Feb 27 '13 at 16:56

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 27 '13 at 16:56

Most frameworks use the text after index.php to route the request without having to rely on ugly query (ex: ?page=foo). So removing the index.php with some .htaccess rule for instance would provide a way to have beautiful urls: site.com/foo/bar. The part after the index.php can be accessed via $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'].

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 27 '13 at 16:56

1

Path after /index.php is available inside your index.php code as:

 $_SERVER["PATH_INFO"]

e.g. for the URL of http://domain.com/index.php/nice/url:

$_SERVER["PATH_INFO"]=/nice/url

This technique is used to create clean/pretty URL in PHP without any support of .htaccess.

answered Feb 27 '13 at 16:56

anubhava

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So what is generally preferred: htaccess, or this method? – Rasteril Feb 27 '13 at 17:01
.htaccess is preferred way of geting pretty URL actually. – anubhava Feb 27 '13 at 17:25

What meaning does the text in the URL have after index.php/

3 Answers3