Hi GAskygirl,

the miracle is that $option, $view, $id, and JRequest::getVar("parameter_name") still all work when SEF URLs are enabled It's part of the magic of Joomla.

If you turn on Advanced Debug mode then view a page with the MetaMod enabled, you'll even get shown a snippet of PHP which uses these variables and can help you to identify the current page.

I would recommend that you try to use these variables along with many of the "recipes" shown on this site, instead of trying to use part of the rewritten URL. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can then change your friendly URLs, or temporarily turn off SEF URLs, and your rules will continue to work.

With regard to empty modules: see the FAQ section for info on what to do about them.

Cheers,
Stephen

I hope that advanced debug mode would also have shown you the change from article to items for the "view" variable... I built that because I was sick of having to turn off SEF URLs all the time just in order to view the raw URL

Glad it's working for you,
Stephen