Thread

I apologize if I posted in the wrong section, I wasn’t really sure where this should go.

I’ve been working on my church’s new site. I’ve been building the HTML, CSS, etc. and I’v got them sold on using ExpressionEngine so that they can manage their content and only bug me when they have a major site issue to work with.

Here is my dilema, I ran the server wizard on their current host and everything looks good except “URL Segment Support” is unsupported on their server. Can someone please explain what exactly this means?

I haven’t yet installed IE, because if I have to I’ll try to convince them to move to my (mt) media temple server or a new host. I know that in some of the previous sites I’ve done using EE the {segment_X} tags were super helpful in doing some of the things I wanted to do, and I’m pretty sure that I am going to need them again with this site. Thanks for whoever can help me.

Seth

It’s not a crisis- it means the server isn’t supporting the path_info server variable- see this kblog entry for what happens when it isn’t supported and how to get around the issue. 

In brief, it just means you’ll need to force query strings- i.e., have a url like mysite.com/index.php?/etc- not the ?.  And there are sometimes ways around that, depending on the server.  You’ll still be able to use segments and such- you’ll just have to have the ? in there.

Make sense?  (And I think I’ll shift to ‘General’ for the moment.  Probably easier for folks with the same issue to spot it there.)

Now, I know its not officially supported, but with the index.php? and forced query strings, is it still possible to remove the index.php? via .htaccess like I’ve done on other sites or is there another method?

So that I make sure I’m getting this correct, the only thing this is making me do is force query strings, its not going to affect any of the functionality of the site or of the EE code, correct?

Right- shouldn’t jam you up otherwise.  As to removing index.php?- it just depends on the server.  I’ve seen some folks do it by basically adding the ? into the htaccess so it’s part of what gets written in.  If that makes sense.  But I can’t swear it will work- or that removing it would work on that particular server even w/out the path issue.

In truth- I’d probably do a really quick install and just see if you can get rid of it.  Could even do it w/the free Core if you need to.  Would work the same in either case.  See if you have to force query strings- dink a bit w/htaccess to see what you can do w/index.php.  Would at least let you know how badly you might want to push them to change servers.

Thanks that helps.

Yeah I’m debating how much I want to push the server change because if I do, then I have a large amount of forms that are written in ASP that I would need to reprogram in PHP, but if I stay with the current server I can reskin the asp form pages to match the template and not reprogram all of them.

I think I might be setting up EE on their server later today. Also, another quick question that you might be able to redirect me to the proper thread; I should be able to setup their EE installation in a test folder that lets me develop the site while keeping the current site live and then when I need to change everything over move the correct files into the root folder, correct?

Thanks for everything Robin, you’ve been helpful with this process.

(BTW, not to sound cocky, but I think I might submit this site to you guys as a showcase piece, I think it has the potential to be pretty freakin’ sweet. I can post a screenshot of the comp if desired.)