.htaccess/index.php fix? - Re: refreshed website soft launched

[electBlake]

Alo Alo,

First off, VERY nice. I love that initial landing page, its clean,  
calm and collective. Its fun and inviting and is exactly what it needs  
to be :)

Anyway,
I did have one little suggestion.


fluidproject.org/index.php/pages



This was the first thing I noticed about the site (after those sexy  
icons), and I was curious about it.

 From what I can tell this was written from scratch right? (or at  
least I can't spot any framework/cms clues) so I'd like to suggest we  
rewrite the urls using .htaccess to take out that index.php.
If we are going to consider this, we should think about it sooner then  
later - for SEO purposes (among other problems down the line) changing  
our link structure should be handled upfront.

My Solution Offering

For my personal experiments I often use codeigniter.com - a cool but  
not suitable for open source distribution php framework. By default  
codeigniter uses this sort of method for browsing pages.
Because of this, I have a standard .htaccess file that I find works  
great (I've included the link and code below)

from: http://codeigniter.com/wiki/mod_rewrite/

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
     RewriteEngine On
     RewriteBase /

     #Removes access to the system folder by users.
     #Additionally this will allow you to create a System.php  
controller,
     #previously this would not have been possible.
     #'system' can be replaced if you have renamed your system folder.
     RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
     RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

     #Checks to see if the user is attempting to access a valid file,
     #such as an image or css document, if this isn't true it sends the
     #request to index.php
     RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
     RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
     #This last condition enables access to the images and css  
folders, and the robots.txt file
     #Submitted by Michael Radlmaier (mradlmaier)
     RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|robots\.txt|css)
     RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
</IfModule>


As you can see there are some leftovers I've included that are  
specific to codeigniter (the disallowing of access to the /system  
folder), but I feel that they are worthy of inclusion in this email as  
we may find a use for them.


Problems from a Programming Standpoint?
Well, depending on how the page keys are passed into index.php we may  
need to do a little rewriting. If we are using the URI then we have to  
adjust to work with NOT having the index.php in there.
Something to note is that the php can be written that old links will  
work as well, that is, index.php/page driven links

I'd give any help thats needed, as I do have experience with this  
situation.

I don't mean to step on any toes, and I don't know if this is  
schedule, I just want the fluidproject site to be the best it can be  
(and you asked for feedback :))

:D

Great work Fluidees,

Blake

On 21-Feb-09, at 12:26 AM, Jess Mitchell wrote:

> Hey All,
>
> I just wanted to send a note out to let the list know that we "soft  
> launched" the Fluid website today.
> http://fluidproject.org/
> Soft launched means we're still working on it, we know there are a  
> lot of opportunities for improvement and we want feedback.
>
> I want to thank Laurel, Erin, and Jacob for all their hard work on  
> (in no particular order) creating, moving, and polishing the site.   
> I'd also like to encourage you to chew on this site with us, help us  
> improve it, and give us a hand in doing that.  This is a great  
> moment in Fluid for us all to have a web impact -- it's as simple as  
> submitting ideas or code or chatting with the community about your  
> ideas.
>
> Ideas that we'd like to work on:
> 1. info architecture -- did we get it right?
> 2. jumping off the site -- we have a lot of links that bounce to  
> other places -- how can we best handle that?
> 3. related to 2. how do we keep the website clean and light and not  
> too deep and meaningfully link to the content in the wiki, where it  
> is most updated?
> 4. I see a number of opportunities for Fluid components -- what a  
> wonderful way to showcase our work!
> 5. I've made some effort to clarify what Fluid is and what our  
> projects are -- is this clear?  (I'm sure it can be clearer).
> 6. code beautification -- it's time to iterate!  We're artists with  
> a real interest in the aesthetic...  so we'll keep tweaking.
>
> What else?
>
> Best,
>
> Jess
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Jess Mitchell
> Boston, MA, USA
> Project Manager / Fluid Project
> jess at jessmitchell.com
> / w / 617.326.7753  / c / 919.599.5378
> jabber: jessmitchell at gmail.com
> http://www.fluidproject.org
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
>
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