Invisible folder parameters

[AcidReignX]

For lack of a better name, how do you set up the "invisible folder parameters" that I've seen on so many sites?

The type of setup that I'm referring to is like this:

http://www.example_site.com/~parameter

And that particular link will automatically act as a parameter, just like anything after a quotation mark to be parsed by php. So in other words, these can do the same thing:

http://www.example_site.com/index.php?user=random_name

http://www.example_site.com/~random_name

I've only thought of one way that this is possible, but it doesn't seem like it would be very good. The way I thought of having it work would be to use javascript to parse the folder and then redirect the page. But I've seen it work without having to redirect, which suggests that it has to be possible through server-side scripting.

Can anybody explain how it's possible? Even if I'm wrong, and it has to be done through client-side scripting? My goal is to check the parameter and use it in a SQL query.

 

[sleipnir214]

I've most-commonly seen that kind of thing on Apache web servers, which can support a module named "mod_rewrite". That module can actually use regular expressions to match and rewrite URLs internally to the server before any scripts are run.


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