Gernerate custom urls within Magento

Question

I am currently looking at trying to generate custom urls/routing using magento, currently I have set a default route in config.xml within the local module.

<frontend>
 <routers>
         <portfolios>
             <use>standard</use>
             <args>
                 <module>Custom_Portfolios</module>
                 <frontName>portfolios</frontName>
             </args>
         </portfolios>
     </routers>
     <default>
         <router>portfolios</router>
     </default>
 </frontend>

This currently works with the url path of /portfolios/index/action/custom-string which is the magento default route. What I am trying to achieve is to have /portfolios/custom-string.html I have attempted to use a mod_rewrite rule with no success, I have found some references in relation to utilising a custom suffix of .html which I have added to the same config.xml file.

<default><portfolios><seo><portfolios_url_suffix>.html</portfolios_url_suffix></seo></portfolios></default>

I have looked at the alan storm docs in relation to routing and found it relevent to the default routing paths only or the information is a little out-dated.

Do you know the best method to control the routing within magento with possibly an easy to follow and relevent tutorial? if so please share :D many

Answer 1

The easiest method (when you do not need to auto-generate many urls) is to use built-in Url Rewrites module. Go to admin backend -> Catalog -> Url Rewrite management and setup any url rewrite you like.

Answer 2

Code below is untested, but should work

If you don't want to define custom rewrite for each protfolio item, just follow these steps:

1. Write your custom router class extended from Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Standard and implement match method:

   public function match(Zend_Controller_Request_Http $request)
   {
       $path = explode('/', trim($request->getPathInfo(), '/'));
       // If path doesn't match your module requirements
       if (count($path) > 2 && $path[0] != 'portfolios') {
           return false; 
       }
       // Define initial values for controller initialization
       $module = $path[0];
       $realModule = 'Custom_Portfolios';
       $controller = 'index';
       $action = 'action';
       $controllerClassName = $this->_validateControllerClassName(
           $realModule, 
           $controller
       );            
       // If controller was not found
       if (!$controllerClassName) {
           return false; 
       }            
       // Instantiate controller class
       $controllerInstance = Mage::getControllerInstance(
           $controllerClassName, 
           $request, 
           $this->getFront()->getResponse()
       );
       // If action is not found
       if (!$controllerInstance->hasAction($action)) { 
           return false; // 
       }            
       // Set request data
       $request->setModuleName($module);
       $request->setControllerName($controller);
       $request->setActionName($action);
       $request->setControllerModule($realModule);            
       // Set your custom request parameter
       $request->setParam('url_path', $path[1]);
       // dispatch action
       $request->setDispatched(true);
       $controllerInstance->dispatch($action);
       // Indicate that our route was dispatched
       return true;
   }
   

2. Define your custom router in config.xml:

   <stores>
       <default>
           <web>
               <routers>                               
                   <your_custom>
                       <area>frontend</area>
                       <class>Custom_Portfolios_Controller_Router_Custom</class>
                   </your_custom>
               </routers>
           </web>
       </default>
   </stores>
   

3. Enjoy your custom routing in Magento :)

Answer 3

The way to do this is with an URL rewrite. In fact, the suffix config you found is probably used by Mage_Catalog to create it's sets of rewrites. I'm approaching this particular feature for the first time so this snippet should be taken with a pinch of salt...

// Creating a rewrite
/* @var $rewrite Mage_Core_Model_Url_Rewrite */
$rewrite = Mage::getModel('core/url_rewrite');
$rewrite->setStoreId($store_id)
        ->setIdPath('portfolios/'.$url_key)
        ->setRequestPath('portfolios/'.$url_key.'.html')
        ->setTargetPath('portfolios/index/action/id/'.$url_key)
        ->setIsSystem(true)
        ->save();

A new rewrite is needed for each possible path.

Edit; I've added a setIdPath because it might be necessary.