Question

problem with links when using php path_info to make request parameters seo friendly

Asked by: andy_baptiste

I have a problem with links when using php path_info to make request parameters seo friendly.

I am adding path info on the end like this:
http://www.jezebeldesign.com/controller.php/action/news/

Apache is finding and using the controller.php file ok, but the links and images are all messed up in the resulting HTML sent back to the browser.

An example link:
http://www.jezebeldesign.com/controller.php/action/news/controller.php?action=home
An example image:
http://www.jezebeldesign.com/controller.php/action/news/images/back.jpg

I've tried using <base> tag but it doesn't help.

Any help appreciated.

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Asked On
2009-01-06 at 12:42:44ID24029492
Tags

php apache path_info

Topics

WebApplications

,

Apache Web Server

,

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
3
Points
250
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: Hube02Posted on 2009-01-06 at 13:45:19ID: 23309723

What do the actual links look like in the document source dilivered to the browser? Are they relative from the document?

What I mean is, does the actual link to the image look like:

<ims src="news/images/back.jpg" />

 

by: nizsmoPosted on 2009-01-06 at 13:45:27ID: 23309725

Hi there,

When you get into SEO friendly URL's, I find that defining some kind of global variable, which references back to your base path if you like, so that all your images can have absolute URLs instead of relative as SEO urls are known to cause problems with relative URLs (as URLs have directory like structure).

Either create some kind of helper function and echo out <?php echo base_url(); ?> before each image/css/javascript include file, or define a global variable and echo it out the same way across your pages.

This way when your domain changes, or you change host, you only have to change your base path in one place, and all your paths will be updated accordingly, and the good thing is you know it will always work regardless of what kind of URL you have.

Hope this helps, let me know if you need further clarification!

 

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2009-01-06 at 14:27:23ID: 23310180

Please post some of the PHP code that is doing that stuff.  Thanks, ~Ray

 

by: andy_baptistePosted on 2009-01-06 at 15:00:12ID: 23310426

Hi, thanks for the responces.

There is no actual code yet as such, I am just entering the urls manually as, for example:
http://www.jezebeldesign.com/controller.php/action/news/

Apache is finding and using the controller.php page, and I am getting path_info set as 'action/news' as expected, but the links in the resulting page are all as described.

The links in the source are currently still as they were as I've not got round to generating the new style links as yet. so for links:
<a href="controller.php?action=home">
And images:
<img src="images/back.jpg" border="0" />

I will take your advice nizsmo thanks about creating a utility function to handle creating the newly styled links.

Thanks again.

 

by: nizsmoPosted on 2009-01-06 at 15:03:18ID: 23310443

Glad I can help, goodluck!

 

by: Hube02Posted on 2009-01-06 at 15:05:19ID: 23310460

That is the cause. You will need to use paths that are absolute from the web root. instead of <img src="images/back.jpg" border="0" /> use <img src="/images/back.jpg" border="0" />

The reason, even though the server knows where the page is, the browser sees the path to the page as

http://www.jezebeldesign.com/controller.php/action/news/

and adds the relative url to this path.

This or use nizsmo's suggestion

 

by: andy_baptistePosted on 2009-01-14 at 03:25:07ID: 31531579

Many thanks once again.

 

by: andy_baptistePosted on 2009-01-14 at 04:24:12ID: 23371880

Just out of interest , do you think that Google etc will know that these are different pages and list them both...

http://www.website.co.uk/controller.php/action/products/
http://www.website.co.uk/controller.php/action/special-offers/

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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