Weird bug: Rewrite rule does not append period to the end of URL

period does not get added to new URL

[renwoshin]

Hi everyone,

I just learned this stuff yesterday, so I don't know if this is a bug or not.

RewriteRule ^profile/(.+)/$ profile.php?username=$1

Now most usernames have a '.' at the end of their username (don't ask me why, it's an API i'm using), when i call $_GET['username'] in the PHP script, it doesn't get the period.

In other words, if what's typed into the address bar is:
/profile/Ifawej./

It essentially is redirected to /profile.php?username=Ifawej
(without the period)

Is there a fix for this?

Thanks.

[jdMorgan]

It's probably Apache that is stripping the period, because no filetype follows that period.

Despite what we may want, we are not free to put any character any place in a URL -- The HTTP protocol has specific rules [faqs.org] about URL structure which are intended to simplify URL parsers and to make the URL path-parts unambiguous and easy to distinguish.

I'd suggest you eliminate the period as early as possible in the URL-construction process, and then add it back in the script that needs it, if that script cannot be made to work without it.

Jim