URL Structure Shifts

Question

I have a site that is using the simplest of URL layouts and was just asked if they could change.

Currently, they are as follows:

www.domain.com/details/item
www.domain.com/dates/item
www.domain.com/topics/item

Where 'item' is a separate entry that is linked via playa field. So all links are simply

www.domain.com/template_group/index

and 'item' is {last_segment} which triggers the entry {url_title}

Now they would like to shift this to

www.domain.com/item/details
www.domain.com/item/dates
www.domain.com/item/topics

Is there something simple I am missing? I feel that each time I look at it, I start to over complicate it.

Answer 1

So, this is dirty, but seems to be working locally anyway. There may be much tidier solutions but they escape me.

In your home template, try using something like:

{if segment_2}
    {embed="{segment_2}" target="{segment_1}" /}
{/if}

This assumes you have a template group with the template set in segment 2 (i.e. details, dates, etc.). It may be prudent to add some additional logic to ensure the request is valid.

Then, again assuming you only want one entry on the details page, you can use:

{if embed:target}
    {exp:channel:entries channel="items" limit="1" url_title="{embed:target}"}
        Some code...
    {/exp:channel:entries}
{/if}

Theory being that all requests to non-existent stuff gets forwarded to the home template (so the old paths of /details/item should still work). Then the home template picks them up and embeds the template you actually want.

Answer 2

Whilst it's possible to achieve what you're looking for via any number of techniques (htaccess, pages module, convoluted embeds), I wouldn't recommend doing this at all. You'll end up fighting against EE the whole way, and if the site grows in complexity you'll have a maintenance nightmare on your hands. At a minimum, you'll need to specify a template in segment 1 and an entry in segment 2, so /items/item/dates