Codeigniter URL Rewriting

111 Comments / CodeIgniter, Web Development / By

Codeigniter URL Rewriting

mostly we need to rewrite URLs to provide user friendly URLs of projects.

In CodeIgniter its much simple rather than manual writing HTAccess Rules.

Suppose you have :

  • Controller (users)
    • Function (index) list of all users
    • Function (add) add user
    • Function (view) view user
    • Function (update) update user information
    • Function (delete) delete user

Normally URLs will be :

  • www.example.com/users/index/
  • www.example.com/users/add/
  • www.example.com/users/view/
  • www.example.com/users/update/
  • www.example.com/users/delete/

But you want that URLs should be:

  • www.example.com/users/
  • www.example.com/add-user/
  • www.example.com/view-user/
  • www.example.com/update-user/
  • www.example.com/delete-user/

You do not need to add HTAccess rules in CodeIgnitor.

Just go to /application/config/routes.php

Aprx line 42

add following lines:

  • $route[‘users’] = “users/index/”;
  • $route[‘add-user’] = “users/add/”;
  • $route[‘view-user’] = “users/view/”;
  • $route[‘update-user’] = “users/update/”;
  • $route[‘delete-user’] = “users/delete/”;

That’s All.

Now you can update your hyperlinks and rewrite rules will be done.

You open path www.example.com/add-user/

it will be opened www.example.com/users/add/

Enjoy 🙂

111 thoughts on “Codeigniter URL Rewriting”

  1. Mussa Kamal

    Thank You . You saved me from a lot of headache. I preapred myself to spend hours on fixing the htaccess to work on categories and other urls n never knew about routes so far.

    so nice of you and wish you good luck.

    can you let me know if i can route all image requests to a specific folder.

    like should be routed to /assets/images/site/logo.png

    Reply
  2. Naveed Ramzan

    Hi thanks for your comments.

    to access images, you can create a function same as base_url() … you can create images_url() and set path in that.

    Feel free to ask queries.

    thanks

    Reply
  3. mobeen

    Thanks. you saved a lot of time. but i want to make dynamic route paths. like my footer links are dynamic and added/deleted from admin side.Admin created pages and title of these pages will be viewed in footer, admin adds slug for any page (e.g page[‘title’]=’About Us’, page[‘slug’]=’about_us’). Now this slug name will be sent to the controller.How to make url for this type of scenario.

    Reply
  4. Naveed Ramzan

    Hi Mobeen, Can you please tell me exact scenario that you have page slug as parameter to a controller’s function something like this domain.com/controller/function/about_us

    or you have a controller for about_us something like this
    domain.com/about_us

    then I can tell you a better answer.

    thanks

    Reply
  8. Naveed Ramzan

    Hi Sandeep Barala,

    I am sure this will work.

    $route[‘(.*)/(.*)-(.*)’] = “products/detail/$3″;

    Here :
    first : (.*) -> shows category name
    second :(.*) -> product name
    third : (.*) -> product id

    we will parse third parameter and based on that we can get information of product and then also get category information.

    Feel free to contact if issue not resolved.

    Thanks

    Reply
  12. Naveed Ramzan

    You can do like:

    $route[‘shop/result.html?keywords=(.*)&x=(.*)&y=(.*)&catidtobeparent=(.*)&inc_subcat=(.*)&manufacturers_id=(.*)&pfrom=(.*)&pto=(.*)&dto=(.*)’] = “shop/advancesearchresult?keywords=$1&x=$2&y=$3&catidtobeparent=$4&inc_subcat=$5&manufacturers_id=$6&pfrom=$7&pto=$8&dto=$9″;

    And so on.

    Thanks

    Reply
  19. Parveen

    HI Naveed,

    Actually, i am facing one issue i.e
    I have url like this http://mydomain.com/blog/category/10/category-name
    I want like this http://mydomain.com/blog/category/category-name

    It should work without any change in the coding and my code should read id becuase it display record based on id not by category name.

    Can you help me in this.

    I have tried in the routes.php but nothing happend.

    Can i hide one parameter like this:-
    $route[“category/$2”] = “category/$1/$2”;

    Thanks a lot !

    Reply
  20. Salauzzaman Khan

    Dear Naveed Ramzan,
    I’m fetching a problem in codeigniter recently.
    I tried it in many ways. used _remap function and route.php as well as some other
    technique but failed. If you have solved this problem please give me the code. It’ll
    help me a lot and save my time.

    I need to rewrite my url in codeigniter dynamically.
    Say my url
    mysitename.com/controller/method/id1.
    mysitename.com/controller/method/id2
    mysitename.com/controller/method/id3
    ………
    mysitename.com/controller/method/idN

    I want to remove method name from url and id would be my variable. Just as follows
    mysitename.com/controller/search-engine-friendly-string1
    mysitename.com/controller/search-engine-friendly-string2
    mysitename.com/controller/search-engine-friendly-string3
    …..
    mysitename.com/controller/search-engine-friendly-stringN

    You are expert in CodeIgniger. I am sure u have the solution.
    Hope I explained the problem. Thanks in advance…

    Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      Dear Salsauzzaman Khan,

      you need to write a route line in routes.php

      $route[“controller/user-friendly-url-$1”] = “controller/method/$1″;

      I am sure it will be helpful

      Thanks

      Reply
  21. Noor Khan

    it’s not working when i am trying this

    $route[‘default_controller’] = “welcome”;

    $route[“contactus”] = ‘contactus’;
    $route[“content-(.*)”] = ‘content/$1’;

    $route[‘404_override’] = ”;

    Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      Dear NoorKhan,

      for default_controller, welcome should be a controller name.

      Same for contactus, it should be controller name

      the method of calling routes is like

      $route[“content-(.*)”] = ‘controller/method/$1’; //$1 is parameter

      Please let me know if you need further assistance.

      Thanks

      Reply
  22. Noor Khan

    Dear Naveed
    Thanks for Prompt reply

    welcome is my controller name
    class Welcome extends CI_Controller

    contactus is also my controller name

    Reply
  24. Noor Khan

    I am working on localhost

    $route[“content-(.*)”] = “content/page/$1″;

    class content extends CI_Controller {
    public function index()
    {
    //$this->load->model(‘content_model’);
    //$this->load->view(‘content’);
    }

    function page($url_title = ”)
    {
    $id = $_REQUEST;
    print_r($id);
    $this->load->model(‘content_model’);
    $this->load->view(‘content’);
    }
    }

    Reply
  26. Noor Khan

    Thanks Above issues has been resolved it was my mistake 🙂

    $route[“contactus”] = ‘contactus’;
    $route[“content-(.*)”] = “content/page/$1”;
    $route[“(.*)-(.*)”] = “brandsdetail/brandprofile/$1”;
    $route[“stores”] = “stores”;
    $route[‘(.*)/(.*)’] = “storedetail/profile/$1”;

    All are working fine when i put last line on route file and then try to execute it’s go to brandsdetail (means it’s execute line 3)

    Reply
  27. Naveed Ramzan

    OK fine.

    as far as brandsdetail and store detail.

    it should be recognized with dash (-) and slash (/) and then redirect to relevant route.

    Is not working like that ?

    Reply
  29. Naveed Ramzan

    Ok what if you attach word in url.

    Such as :
    $route[“brand-(.*)-(.*)”] = “brandsdetail/brandprofile/$1″;
    $route[“store/(.*)/(.*)”] = “storedetail/profile/$1″;

    brand and store are more seo friendly words.

    Reply
  33. Muhammad Waqas

    _remap() is also a powerful function in CI for SEO friendly url. please share some article about it as well.

    Reply
  35. Naveed Ramzan

    Hi Nimmy,

    If you try like this.

    $route[‘property_detail/(.*)-(.*)’] = “controller/property_detail/$1/$2″;

    Here $1 will be id
    and $2 will be slug

    both will be tackled in url.

    Id you can pass to controller’s method
    slug will be helpful for SEO Friendly URLs.

    Please let me know if you need more assistance.

    Thanks

    Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      $route[‘mobile/nokia’] = “controller/mobile/4″;

      But in this way, nokia will be a slug/keyword while passing in parameter its ID only.

      so best is to pass name instead of id like this

      $route[‘mobile/(.*)’] = “controller/mobile/$1″; // here set variable in where clause

      or you can do like this

      $route[‘mobile/4-nokia’] = “controller/mobile/$1/$2″; // in this way, you can map $1 as ID and second paramter as empty

      Reply
  40. Zahid Hussain

    A.A brother i want to change this URL to

    current url
    http://www.mobile57.com/pms_v2/product/index/phones/1

    To

    http://www.mobile57.com/pms_v2/product/phones/1

    AND

    http://www.mobile57.com/pms_v2/product/view/phones/samsung/2

    To

    http://www.mobile57.com/pms_v2/product/phones/samsung/2

    AND

    http://www.mobile57.com/pms_v2/product/detail/phones/samsung/58

    to

    http://www.mobile57.com/pms_v2/product/phones/samsung/58

    can you please ANS me my problem I m very thanks full to you..zahid hussain

    Reply
  41. Zahid Hussain

    This was working

    $route[‘(:any)’]= “product/index/$1”;
    $route[‘(:any)’]= “product/view/$1”;

    but when execute last route execute only one execute why ?
    just one function execute
    how i chnage in $route[‘(:any)’] for specific function

    Reply
  42. Naveed Ramzan

    Well for the last comment

    $route[‘(:any)’]= “product/index/$1″;
    $route[‘(:any)’]= “product/view/$1″;
    but when execute last route execute only one execute why ?

    Its in fact overwriting.

    you need to give a token or path instead of only :any.

    such as

    $route[‘list-(:any)’]= “product/index/$1″;
    $route[‘detail-(:any)’]= “product/view/$1″;

    for above two comments, I am sure you can fix as my given example.

    or you can send me your effort and i can update you.

    Reply
  44. Zahid Hussain

    this is my rout file

    /* use for admin */
    $route[‘addproductmeta’] = “cms/addproductmeta”;
    $route[‘productinfo/(:num)’] = “cms/productinfo/$1”;

    /* use for web */

    $route[‘default_controller’] = “webmain”;

    /* i change it but it not work */
    /*$route[‘list-(:any)’]= “product/index/$1”;
    $route[‘list2-(:any)’]= “product/view/$1″*/;

    $route[‘404_override’] = ”;

    Reply
  49. Tom

    Hi,

    I have a situation where my slideshow displays fine on localhost/citylights/ but when i go to the url: localhost/citylights/en/1/some-page everything displays okay except the slideshow images.

    my .htaccess is:

    # Development
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /citylights/
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond $1 !^(index.php|images|scripts|styles|vendor|robots.txt)
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

    My routes.php is:

    $route[‘default_controller’] = “content”;
    $route[‘en/(:num)/(:any)’] = “content/en/$1”;

    The issue i think is two-fold:

    1. My images display fine when in localhost/citylights/ but not when in the url sub-directory path of localhost/citylights/en/1/ even though i am using base_url() (where base_url is set as localhost/citylights/)
    2. My javascript (that does slideshow) is set with a path of “assets/js/some-js.js” but when i try to set path using base_url() nothing works on anything.

    Therefore path is all correct when in localhost/citylights/ but moment i go to localhost/citylights/en/1/some-page all the paths for the images and js mess up. Any ideas??

    thx

    Reply
  51. Aslam

    Hello Naveed,

    Great tips on rewriting using Codeigniter.
    I have a different kind of query regarding rewriting URL

    This is the current URL
    http://localhost/mywebsite/page/

    And I want it to work as root url as
    http://localhost/mywebsite

    Which I have already done by adding it as default controller in config.php

    But now I have another URL as
    http://localhost/mywebsite/page/mypagename

    Which should open as
    http://localhost/mywebsite/mypagename

    How can I do it?

    Thanks in advance,
    Aslam

    Reply
  54. sohail

    AoA
    i am facing some issue
    i have same function name for both userside and adminside but different controller name .so when i am routing so it all redirect to userside

    Thanks in advance

    Reply
  57. broac

    Hi Naveed,
    How to do if i want this:
    Localhost/ci/index.php/main/wall/username
    to (atleast):
    Localhost/ci/wall/username
    Or (better):
    localhost/ci/username

    Note: username is the parameter where shoud exist in the database. If not exist, the url entered (with or without string username) will directed to “page not found”. Not php error (if username is blank such as localhost/ci/(blank) or localhost/ci/wall/(blank). or mysql error (if the username doesnt exist in the database)

    Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      Yes you can do like localhost/ci/wall-username
      and map this in routes.php
      $route[‘wall-(.*)’] = “users/wall/$1”;
      and in function
      public function wall($username){}

      and like this

      Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      Well, you can save slug same as wordpress save for pages/posts.

      Like if you save a product

      Epson TM c3510 Color Label Printer so you can save slug epson-tm-c3510-color-label-printer and this slug should be unique.

      and you can pass paramter in URL and get that in controller’s function (as you can see in original post)

      I am sure it will be working otherwise please do email me.
      Thanks

      Reply
  60. Taimoor Ali

    expect create url Like “mobiles?brand=[brand]”
    and wanted to direct the user to brands_mobile/mobile_by_brand
    what would be the route??
    kindly guide me..

    Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      Well, you can pass parameter like

      url.com/controller/method/product+name (using url_encode)

      you are passing 1 parameter in function. its name is ID but you can change to NAME.

      in function, you need to search products by name instead of product id. (use url_decode)

      OR

      if you want to make url like
      url.com/controller/method/id-product+name

      then do let me know.

      Reply
  62. Waqas

    my route file has route[‘(:any)’] = “web/index/$1” to bring URL friendly: localhost/my-slug-url, it works good (am using slugs from database), but my dashboard class does not work if I use the route[‘(:any)’] the problem is that how can I access the dashboard class “dashboard” (has functions add/remove/edit)

    I want to make url : localhost/this-is-my-domain without using route ? the simple I can let you feel my issue is about … and even I can access other class and controller.

    Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      $route[‘category/(.*)’] = “category/record/$1″; //here i assume record as function and parameter $1 is the name of category

      as for as about us page
      $route[‘about-us’] = “page/aboutUs″; // here i assume page as controller and aboutUs as function.

      Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      In that case you need to set name as unique key or make slug as unique.
      when saving name of institute save also slug. and parse that in URLs.

      $route[‘institute/details/(.*)’] = ‘institutes/details/$1’; // here I am assuming institute as controller and detail as method.

      Reply
    1. Naveed Ramzan

      Well, you can set title of product as unique slug :
      $route[‘Snapdeal/(.*)’] = “controller/function/$1″; // here $1 is slug or title of product. and in db you can search product with its slug.

      Reply
  73. Surbit

    Hello sir i have two controller having name holiday_detail and tour_packages into one floder name frontend and controller routes is

    $route[‘default_controller’] = “home”;
    $route[‘(:any)’] = “holiday/holiday_detail/$1”;
    $route[‘(:any)’] = ‘package/tour_packages/$1’;

    whats problem in this route??? because only tour_packages controller method working fine but holiday_detail controller method not show the page??? please help me…

    Reply
    1. naveedramzan

      In fact, you are mapping one url into two paths. You need to set separate url for these two.
      Like
      $route[‘default_controller’] = “home”;
      $route[‘holiday/(:any)’] = “holiday/holiday_detail/$1”;
      $route[‘package/(:any)’] = ‘package/tour_packages/$1’;

      Now both separate urls will be mapped into two separate path.s

      Reply
  75. viraj singh

    404 page is coming
    after using
    $route[‘animal_28_12/(.*)’] = “animal_28_12/Blogdetails/$1”
    in application\config\routes
    blogdetails is my controller

    Reply
  79. naveedramzan

    well, you can use slug like name of news paper is “Express Jobs” and you can make its slug “express-jobs” and in URL you can pass that slug.

    In Controller’s function, you can pass that slug as parameter and update where clause with slug.

    I am sure it will work

    Reply
  83. Lucky

    Hii Sir,

    My url: abc.com/categorytname/12/abc-xyz-pqr

    In url contains categoryname,id,and product name but manually id change in url than data get these id but categoryname and product name as its in url.

    After Id change url: abc.com/categorytname/13/abc-xyz-pqr

    Reply
    1. naveedramzan

      Well if you manually change ID in URL then definitely product name or category name will not be updated. Yes that can be done in constructor of base controller that if id and name is different then get record based on ID and redirect to updated URL.

      Reply
  85. Dimitri

    Hello! Thank you very much for this instruction, which really helped me. Can I somehow pass utf8 in url? I want to write Georgian text, but get 404. Same text on English works well.

    Reply

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