What are the recommended methods for structuring PHP applications to avoid rewriting URLs?

To avoid rewriting URLs in PHP applications, it is recommended to use a front controller pattern. This involves routing all requests through a single PHP file which then determines the appropriate controller and action to execute based on the URL. By using this pattern, you can avoid the need to rewrite URLs and instead handle all requests through a centralized entry point. 

// index.php

// Define the base URL
define('BASE_URL', 'http://example.com/');

// Get the requested URL
$request_url = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

// Remove the base URL from the request URL
$request_path = str_replace(BASE_URL, '', $request_url);

// Split the request path into parts
$parts = explode('/', $request_path);

// Determine the controller and action based on the URL parts
$controller = !empty($parts[0]) ? $parts[0] : 'home';
$action = !empty($parts[1]) ? $parts[1] : 'index';

// Include the appropriate controller file
include 'controllers/' . $controller . '.php';

// Call the specified action method
$controller_instance = new $controller();
$controller_instance->$action();

Keywords

MVC Routing URL Rewriting .htaccess Clean URLs

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