[macgyvr64]

I was browsing around the Apple support discussion board today and thinking how nice it looked. Anyone know if they license it out for others to use, or if there's a project going to recreate it? It's a relly nice forum setup.

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by macgyvr64:
I was browsing around the Apple support discussion board today and thinking how nice it looked. Anyone know if they license it out for others to use, or if there's a project going to recreate it? It's a relly nice forum setup.

They use a commercial product called Web Crossing for their online discussion board. You can usually tell what product is in use by how the URLs are formed.

[philzilla]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
You can usually tell what product is in use by how the URLs are formed.

ugh, i hate the URLs on that board. they just irk me to death.

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by philzilla:
ugh, i hate the URLs on that board. they just irk me to death.

I wasn't advocating them, just explaining how you can determine the origin based on the URL:

WebObjects:
http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/powerpage.woa/

Java Servlets/JSP/Struts:
http://www.servlet.com:8080/login.do;jsessionid=AZuXntPllci4gwNdZUpnd7PEhiEd9bAUU4xbWRlx0Wv1Vg2h31 N4

PHP:
http://forums.macnn.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=90

WebCrossing:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@6.VZfQaffGdww.0@.597b316f


Just some examples where you can tell the server type from the URL. All dynamic URLs with in-URL session management have some degree of URL crap. The session management standards suggest that your session management should work both in-URL and in-cookie for session management.

[philzilla]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
I wasn't advocating them

yeah, i know you weren't. i just hate them and felt like venting

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
All dynamic URLs with in-URL session management have some degree of URL crap. The session management standards suggest that your session management should work both in-URL and in-cookie for session management.

i wish more people would use mod_rewrite, to take a URL like this:

http://mydomain/test.php?foo=123&bar=45 - and make it look like this: http://mydomain/test/123/45/

doesn't take much, really: RewriteRule /(foo)\.php\?foo=([^&;]*)[&;]bar=([^&;]*) /%1/%2/%3/ [L]

i know a lot of servers don't have it enabled though. eh.

[Chris O'Brien]

Ah, Philzilla - a very good point. mod_rewrite is something i have only just come across in my 3 months of apache experience, and it is highly useful. Any idea if moveable type uses this sort of thing? Looks like it to me... But that's by the by.

Shouldn't a scouser like yourself be out nicking car stereo's or something?

Quick point - don't take that to heart. You know what I mean

[edit]
I love the quote from Brian Behlendorf from the Apache group:

``The great thing about mod_rewrite is it gives you all the configurability and flexibility of Sendmail. The downside to mod_rewrite is that it gives you all the configurability and flexibility of Sendmail.''

[/edit]

[philzilla]

Originally posted by Black Book:
Shouldn't a scouser like yourself be out nicking car stereo's or something?

nah. you're behind the times, mate. web terrorism is where it's at, these days

and yeah, i always smirk at that mod_rewrite quote too.

[Simon Mundy]

Originally posted by philzilla:
i wish more people would use mod_rewrite, to take a URL like this:

http://mydomain/test.php?foo=123&bar=45 - and make it look like this: http://mydomain/test/123/45/

doesn't take much, really: RewriteRule /(foo)\.php\?foo=([^&;]*)[&;]bar=([^&;]*) /%1/%2/%3/ [L]

i know a lot of servers don't have it enabled though. eh.

You don't even need mod_rewrite - you can just use 'acceptpathinfo' (set by default in Apache 1.x, needs a directive in Apache 2.x) and ensure 'multiviews' is set and you're set.

You can access variables from a url like http://www.australiancricketisuntouc...873292332.html by using something similar in php to:-

[php]

list($path,$year,$month,$article) = $_SERVER['PATH_INFO']

[/php]

...and away you go! Search engine and human friendly URLs.

[derbs]

Originally posted by philzilla:
yeah, i know you weren't. i just hate them and felt like venting
i wish more people would use mod_rewrite, to take a URL like this:

http://mydomain/test.php?foo=123&bar=45 - and make it look like this: http://mydomain/test/123/45/

I've always wondered how those sort of URLs were formed... now i know

So, now i know, what's the benefits between that and a querystring?

[Simon Mundy]

Originally posted by derbs:
I've always wondered how those sort of URLs were formed... now i know

So, now i know, what's the benefits between that and a querystring?

Technically not that much. But it can make URLs more memorable, and I believe Search engines treat these URLs better because they think it isn't dynamic content (I am willing to be disproved of this one!)

[philzilla]

Originally posted by Simon Mundy:
Technically not that much. But it can make URLs more memorable, and I believe Search engines treat these URLs better because they think it isn't dynamic content (I am willing to be disproved of this one!)

i'm pretty sure that's it, Simon, on both counts. i've never heard of another reason.