Posted by NC on 10/23/25 11:35

frizzle wrote:
>
> what i wonder is how THIS system works.
> If site.com/news/hot_news.html is converted to
> site.com/news.php?article=hot_news,
> Does this mean that the PHP looks in the DB "WHERE article =
> 'hot_news'" ?
> Meaning it looks for a piece of text instead of an actual id?

First of all, it is entirely possible that HTML pages you are referring
to are in fact static. Some content management systems actually
separate writing, editing, and publication. An article can be
submitted by the author and stored in a database until the editor
approves its publication, at which point static HTML files are created
and publication's home page and RSS feeds are updated.

Now to your question. If you do decide to use mod_rewrite in the
above-described fashion, you can simply do something like this:

if (is_numeric($_GET['article'])) {
$id = (int) $_GET['article'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM articles WHERE id=$id";
// Execute the query and display the article...
}
else {
$search = $_GET['article'];
switch $search {
case 'hot_news':
$query = "SELECT * FROM articles ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 5";
break;
// more case statements here...
}
// Execute the query and display the article headers/teasers...
}

Cheers,
NC

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