Drew C King » Comb http://www.drewcking.com My projects, code snippets, and miscellaneous ideas Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:55:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9-rare en hourly 1 Clean URLs: basic mod_rewrite rules http://www.drewcking.com/2008/07/clean-urls-basic-mod_rewrite-rules/ http://www.drewcking.com/2008/07/clean-urls-basic-mod_rewrite-rules/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:53:11 +0000 Drew http://www.drewcking.com/?p=34 I’ve been using Comb with a few more projects recently. The main point of Comb is to structure the code in such a way that the request handlers get accessed directly via Apache, as opposed to rewriting the entire URL, and making PHP dynamically include or instantiate a request handling class (i.e. Action, Command, [...]]]>

I’ve been using Comb with a few more projects recently. The main point of Comb is to structure the code in such a way that the request handlers get accessed directly via Apache, as opposed to rewriting the entire URL, and making PHP dynamically include or instantiate a request handling class (i.e. Action, Command, etc).

For example, you might have a registration form that is accessed like this (pseudo-HTTP):

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# display the registration page...
GET  /register.php
 
# registration form submits to...
POST /proc_register.php

I personally hate that naming convention because it reminds me of how I wrote code 5 years ago, and it’s just plain ugly.

Here’s a cleaner, friendlier approach that I’d rather use:

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# display the registration page...
GET  /register
 
# registration form submits to...
POST /register


Yep, that’s a postback. And yep, there’s no .php extension used to access it, so some URL rewriting will be in order. I’ll add the following code into my virtualhost container in the Apache config:

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# turn on the voodoo
RewriteEngine On
 
# if the incoming request has one of these extensions, 
# just serve up the file without rewriting anything
RewriteRule     /*\.(php|html|css|js|jpe?g)$ - [NC,L]
 
# just a little shortcut to make it easier to deal with 
# case-sensitivity
RewriteMap      lc      int:tolower
 
# make clean/friendly URLs work
# e.g., turn this:  GET /register
#       into this:  GET /register_get.php
# 
# and turn this: POST /register
#     into this: POST /register_post.php
#
RewriteRule  /(.*)  /$1_${lc:%{REQUEST_METHOD}}.php [NC,QSA,L]

After restarting Apache, I’ll create these two files to make sure the rewrite is working properly:

register_get.php

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<html>
<body>
 
  <form method="post">
    Username: <input type="text" name="username" /><br />
    <input type="submit" />
  </form>
 
</body>
</html>

Note the form tag on line #4, it’s simply <form method="post"> without the expected action="/register" attribute. By leaving the action attribute absent or blank, the browser will simply submit the form back to the current address, i.e., a post-back.

Luckily our rewrite rule will see that the incoming request is a POST instead of a GET, so it’ll route the request into a different script:

register_post.php

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<?php
    echo "posting registration form...";
    var_dump($_POST);
?>

Nothing magical happening in there, but the point is that mod_rewrite can be used to run different scripts based on the %{REQUEST_METHOD} variable, so you can organize the scripts according to the action being performed. It would even route PUT, HEAD, and DELETE requests to /register_put.php, /register_head.php, and /register_delete.php, respectively…assuming the HTTP client was capable of sending those requests (e.g., AJAX).

]]> http://www.drewcking.com/2008/07/clean-urls-basic-mod_rewrite-rules/feed/ 0 Comb: auto_prepend_file, output buffering, and mod_rewrite http://www.drewcking.com/2008/05/comb-auto_prepend_file-output-buffering-and-mod_rewrite/ http://www.drewcking.com/2008/05/comb-auto_prepend_file-output-buffering-and-mod_rewrite/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 17:15:02 +0000 Drew http://www.drewcking.com/?p=24 I’ve decided to give a name to this barebones framework that I’ve been playing with for the past couple of months. I’m calling it Comb. Unfortunately it takes a long time to fully explain the thinking behind the name. Similar to Camber, however, the jist of it is simplicity; think “get the tangles [...]]]>

I’ve decided to give a name to this barebones framework that I’ve been playing with for the past couple of months. I’m calling it Comb. Unfortunately it takes a long time to fully explain the thinking behind the name. Similar to Camber, however, the jist of it is simplicity; think “get the tangles out of my code”. Plus comb is a lot faster to say and type than MVCish-framework-based-on-autoprependfile-and-output-buffering.

My plan is to build the simplest web app framework that I can. I’m by no means an expert, and I don’t anticipate that this will end up being the best/fastest/most-convenient framework that will lay waste to the Zend Framework, or Symfony, or Kohana (or the mystical Redline! no link…it’s too mystical). I just want to start from the ground-up by making very few assumptions, and without ripping “inspiration” from the latest and greatest RAD framework. I want to end up with a simple base of code that I don’t have to learn how to love, and that can evolve with me without getting in the way. Basically this is all about me, but you can feel free to use it as well if it makes enough sense.

I’ve got a few projects in mind that I’m planning on being powered by Comb. The first is my Code Examples site, which will serve two purposes: it’ll be a place to host demos of basic code for the blog entries I write, and it’ll be a testbed for integrating new features into the framework. And yes, the code that runs the examples site is Comb itself. The other projects will be revealed in time…

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