How to do URL re-writing in PHP?

Question

I am trying to implement URL rewriting in my PHP application. Can someone share a step by step procedure of implementing URL rewriting in PHP and MySQL?

In my applic

Answer 1

Keep in mind that redirecting is not the same as rewriting.

A redirect is when the server receives the request and the response is sent as a redirect. For instance, you request a page www.example.com/page. When the server receives this, either the page or the server self issues a redirect command to the browser. The redirect command basically says "go here: new page". In PHP, this is in the form of header('Location: newpage.html');

A rewrite is when the server receives the request from the browser then looks in a list of matching regular expressions for that site. If a match is found, the URL is rewritten into that form and is responded to accordingly. For instance, the requested URL www.example.com/specificpage could be rewritten (on the server end) as www.example.com/?loadpage=specificpage. The browser never receives header information stating that it must go somewhere else.