If you've ever wanted a bit more control over access to your site/error handling (custom 404 pages), or HTTP redirects then this new article on WebProNews.com about making a HTACCESS Wrapper with PHP.

HTACCESS is a remarkable tool you can use for password protection, error handling (like custom 404 pages), or HTTP redirects. It can also be used to transform whole folders in seconds: adding headers to all your HTML documents, watermarking all your images, and more.

A wrapper is like a middleman. Using htaccess you can tell your web server to "forward" certain files to PHP scripts of yours.

They give a few examples of this technique, including a "free hosting" situation where ad banners are the norm, a little HTTP compression using the output buffering functionality, and one of the most requested items I've seen - a wrapper to protect your images from "borrowing" with a watermark.

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