Url shortening design issue

[eluser]codex[/eluser]
I too want to offer short urls, which means the first segment of the url should be reserved for the shortened url. But the way I have designed my app is that the first segment is the username. Dillemma!

I basically have 2 options:

1) make the username the 2nd segment, and the 1st an 'identifier' (http://domain.com/photos/username instead of http://domain.com/username/photos). This way you can have the 1st seg free for the short url.

2) add something to the short url, maybe http://domain.com/~bw7jsd, or http://domain.com/p/bw7jsd. If the first part (~ or p/) is found, it's a short url. Redirect!

What would you do?

[eluser]Enorog[/eluser]
The first idea looks much better (http://domain.com/username/photos).

I have something similar right now, this is how to set up the routes file:

Code:

$route[':any'] = "username"; // drive all the pages to username controller

Inside the username controller, just grab the url from index function like this:

Code:

class Username extends Controller {
    
    function Username()
    {
        parent::Controller();
    }
    
    function index()
    {    
        
        // GET YOUR USERNAME
        $page_info['user'] = $this->uri->segment(1);
        
        // GET THE SECOND PART
        $page_info['page'] = $this->uri->segment(2);
        
        // DO THE MODEL MAGIC AND LOAD APPROPRIATE VIEW
        
    }

}