Custom URL handling (just a little)

[eluser]Jupiter[/eluser]
I'd like to parse URLs before CI dows routing. Purpose is take the first level (the controller) out of the URL and use the segments as a tree-like structure to display contents of my database.

Example:

www.mysite.com/shoes/sneakers/nike

should display all rows from my db where
category = 'shoes', type = 'sneakers' and brand = 'nike'.

I cannot setup controllers for every category (because they keep adding up) and I don't want to generally disable the URL-handling. Actually I just want to check, if there is a category matching the first segment and handle it (and in case there isn't - continue with CI URLs as usual).

Any hint where to begin?


Peter