NYCPHP Meetup

[inforequest]

Andrew Yochum andrew-at-plexpod.com |nyphp dev/internal group use| wrote:

> If you have code in there to inspect and manage the
>
>requested URLs you can globally implement 301s, create hooks, etc.  Let
>your imagination go.  There is a lot more power in having PHP in there
>than just Apache, IMO.
>
>  
>

Absolutely. Not only do I agree, but I practice it to a much greater 
extreme than your example. I just wondered why you did it your way, 
since you didn't go to as far an extreme, and you have to configure the 
Apache directories anyway.

>Sure, some of this can be done in mod rewrite. And I do use some mod
>rewrite stuff to complement this and even have some PHP to manage mod
>rewrite rules.
>
>Your thoughts on this?
>  
>

I avoid mod rewrite whenever possible because it is just that - 
re-writing. Via PHP, you can "write" correctly, and avoid having to 
"re-write what you wrote".

The big IF is IF you have total control over all aspects of the site. IF 
you do, you can do amazing things. IF you do not, you may end up 
rewriting. Of course it must be driven by strategy.

The power is in having a clear strategy when the site is conceptualized, 
so that the architecture can be designed to support the objectives. I 
don't know of too many business objectives that are directly met with a 
"design the look and feel of the display of the content and then code a 
back end to support it" approach. That's bass ackwards. So is "code a 
back end to serve up the data we will need on each page, and then design 
the display of that data" approach. Both cases for some reason assume as 
a requirement that the site must be made of interlinked pages which are 
rendered at run time as a linear combination of content and style. That 
may have been the case in 1996 but it is not the case for most business 
websites today. Neither considers the user interaction with the site 
data or pages to be the primary factor to accommodate, and especially 
when that "user" is a search engine.

As you suggested, if you can free yourself from that restrictive 
mindset, all sorts of possibilities come into view.

>>Maybe I ammissing something or maybe it's like mountain climbing?
>>    
>>
>
>Well, I don't know about mountain climbing. Maybe its like taking the
>road less traveled?
>  
>
I meant the old "why do you climb the mountain?".. "because it is there" 
thing.

-=john andrews