URL Rewriting: Name instead of ID

[eluser]mddd[/eluser]
That kind of rewriting cannot be done through .htaccess or CI routes, because you need to look up the name in the database.

If you exchange the id for the name, you must change your controller's methods to look up data by name instead of by id.

If you wanted to make something like authors/john_doe, you should make a _remap method in the authors controller. The _remap method is always called. In that method you can examine the uri and start the correct controller method.