It's possible this question exists elsewhere, and if so, I apologize. After searching for an hour without success, I can't help but think I'm on the wrong track.
Essentially what I am looking for is a method to enforce a description or title in a page's URL. I am using CodeIgniter, so it is pretty simple to make a pretty URL go where ever I wish.
I could have:
http://mysite.com/controller/function/what-ever-i-want/can-go-here
and it will always go to:
http://mysite.com/controller/function/
with the variable values what-ever-i-want
and can-go-here
What I would like is for the URL to be automatically rewritten to include the title if only the controller/function is given.
So, if someone went to:
http://mysite.com/controller/function/
it should automatically rewrite the url as
http://mysite.com/controller/function/a-more-descriptive-title/
A great example of the functionality that I am talking about is the SO URL. if you go to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/789439 it will automatically rewrite it to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/789439/how-can-i-parse-descriptive-text-to-a-datetime-object
I suspect that mod_rewrite is involved, but I would like to come up with the solution that works most gracefully with CodeIgniter.
I am very new to the pretty-url scene and desperately call upon the advice of someone with more experience. Thanks in advance for any help given!