how do websites do this index.php?something=somepage

Question

i\'ve seen alot of php based websites where no matter where you navigate your stuck at the index.php and some random parameters are passed in the url. and when i take a look

Answer 1

You are looking at websites built with a front controller.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_controller

Many popular PHP apps like Joomla use it to treat a collection of scripts as a cohesive application.

A front controller is a good idea for languages like PHP, but remember to hide the front controller with something like mod_rewrite to create URL canonization and to optimize readability.