url rewriting beginner's tutorial

Hi,

I have good expertise with php but new to url rewriting. I need some help creating some static urls for database driven US states' pages.

what I need to do is...
alabama.html should be dealers.php?state=alabama
likewise
new-jersey.html should be dealers.php?state=new jersey

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

 

When I first started, I used this tool to get acclimated to url mod_rewrite: http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mod_rewrite-rewriterule-generator.shtml

Hopefully that helps you!

I noticed though, you will have an issue substituting the space (%20) in words like new jersey for '-'. Probably won't be able to do that.

 

RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ dealers.php?state=$1

PHP:

You cant really do new-jersey.html unless the state is new-jersey