Static Urls from Dynamic Urls using Mod Rewrite (htaccess).

There are three stages to go through to complete and be successful in this venture

1 The .htaccess file it self.
2 The Code used in the htacces file.
3 Modifcation to your code which will allow it to work.

The .htaccess File

This file must either be placed in the root directory of your website or in a folder where you wish to control the code to your webpages.

NOTE: The file name must have a period in front of it to work.

NOTE: Once this file is uploaded most FTP Programs will not allow you to see it.

NOTE: File Managers in your control panel will allow you to see it and edit the file.

Content for the .htaccess file

Lets convert http://www.domain.com/Content/photo.php?prod=21&cat=12
to http://www.domain.com/Content/photo/21/12.html

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /Content/
RewriteRule ^photo/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([0-9]+).html$ photo.php?prod=$1&cat=$2 [L]

NOTE: The above code is placed into your .htaccess file stored in a folder called "Content"

Lets convert http://www.domain.com/photo.php?prod=21
to http://www.domain.com/photo/21.html

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^photo/([A-Za-z0-9-]+).html$ photo.php?prod=$1 [L]

NOTE: The above code is placed into your .htaccess file stored in root of your website

Modify the code in your program

This is the code before modification href=\"photo.php?prod=$row[productcode]&cat=$cat

This is the code after modification href=\"photo/$row[productcode]/$cat.html

Please NOTE: the above covers a small amount of the mod rewrite problems which webmasters face today, it is aimed at the beginners not the experanced programmers.