Generation of dynamic kml files

I have a number of geographical datasets in a database that I would like to visualize as kml-files. For google earth to behave correctly, it is not just enough that the “Content-Type” is correctly set. The file must end with a .kml.

Again, mod_rewrite to the rescue. The following line in my .htaccess file:

RewriteRule dataset-(.*).kml$ /mobilweb/kml.php?fileid=$1

I.e, when I make an url that ends with fileid-.kml, that is internally forwarded to the apacheserver that runs kml.php?fileid= and returns the result as the abovementioned kml-file. Google earth then opens the file and displays it just fine. (of cource given that the kml is correctly made…) I can also add some more info in the kml-name by using a more advanced .htaccess E.g.

RewriteRule dataset(.*)-(.*).kml$ /mobilweb/kml.php?fileid=$2&color=$1 

Here I specify a colorcode just followint the keyword dataset, the id comes after the hyphen. Of cource, I must sanitize the id and color codes correctly in the script and also handle it correctly if they are invalid or missing.