Joomla - Component: Generating Friendly Links

You know, standard url at Joomla like this http://jomla-site/index.php?option=com_contact&task=view&id=123. It appear as long GET string. For your visitors and search engine, it doen't make happy.

It will be very helpful if our like like this, http://jomla-site/contact/view/123. Do you agree? This tutorial focus how to generate friendly links.

This tutorial is series from Joomla! tutorial before. So, please read Joomla! tutorial before.

1. Login as administrator, at http://localhost/joomla/administrator.
2. Open Global Configuration by click Site > Global Configuration.
3. Set Search Engine Friendly Urls to "yes" and Use Apache mod_rewrite to "yes".

   mod_rewrite must be installed in your Apache. If you don't know about how to install module mod_rewrite, you can read tutorial about mod_rewrite in this site (see category: Apache).

4. Change "htaccess.txt" within joomla directory to be ".htaccess".
5. Create "router.php" within joomla/components/com_hello. Enter following code:

   <?php
   defined( '_JEXEC' ) or die( 'Restricted access' );
   
   function HelloBuildRoute(&$query)
   {
     $segments = array();
   
     if(isset($query['task'])) 
     {
       $segments[] = $query['task'];		
       unset($query['task']);
     };
   	
     if(isset($query['id']))
     {
       $segments[] = $query['id'];
       unset($query['id']);
     };
   
     return $segments;
   }
   ?>
   

6. Now, open "hello.html.php". Update showhello() with following code:

   <?
   	function showHello($rows, $option)
   	{ ?>
     <table>
     <?php
     foreach($rows as $row)
     {
   
       $link = JRoute::_( 'index.php?option='.$option.'&id='.$row->id . '&task=view' );
   
       echo '
       <tr>
         <td>
         <a href="'. $link .'">'. $row->message .'</a>
         </td>
       </tr>
       ';
     }
   	?>
     </table>
     <?php
   	}
   ?>
   

7. Change following line code at viewHello():

   <?php $link = JRoute::_('index.php?option='. $option); ?>
   

   with this:

       <?php $link = JRoute::_('index.php?option='. $option); ?>
   

8. Point your browser to http://localhost/joomla. We look how router works. Look all links change like this:

   http://localhost/joomla/hello-world
   http://localhost/joomla/news-feed
   http://localhost/joomla/web-links
   

9. Open hello world at http://localhost/joomla/hello-world
10. Click one of items. You will get error. We must intepret url before.
11. Open again router.php. Add following bold code:

    <?php
    defined( '_JEXEC' ) or die( 'Restricted access' );
    
    function HelloBuildRoute(&$query)
    {
      $segments = array();
    
      if(isset($query['task'])) 
      {
        $segments[] = $query['task'];		
        unset($query['task']);
      };
    	
      if(isset($query['id']))
      {
        $segments[] = $query['id'];
        unset($query['id']);
      };
    
      return $segments;
    }
    
    function HelloParseRoute($segments)
    {
      $vars = array();
      $vars['task']	= $segments[0];
      $vars['id']		= $segments[1];
      return $vars;
    }
    
    ?>
    

Finish, urls like this must work:

http://localhost/joomla/hello-world/view/1
http://localhost/joomla/hello-world/view/2
http://localhost/joomla/hello-world/view/3
...