Silverstripe htaccess - .htaccess

Question

I have a Silverstripe platform website that has duplicate URLs for www, non-www, http and https
There seem to be multiple solutions but no definitive answer. Is there someone that knows the correct code for the htaccess file for Silverstripe?
I want to get all pages pointing to https ://www
This is the current code in the htaccess file -
ErrorDocument 401 /base/401.txt
### SILVERSTRIPE START ###
# Deny access to templates (but allow from localhost)
<Files *.ss>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
</Files>
# Deny access to IIS configuration
<Files web.config>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Files>
# Deny access to YAML configuration files which might include sensitive information
<Files ~ "\.ya?ml$">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>
# Route errors to static pages automatically generated by SilverStripe
ErrorDocument 404 /assets/error-404.html
ErrorDocument 500 /assets/error-500.html
<IfModule mod_env.c>
# Ensure that X-Forwarded-Host is only allowed to determine the request
# hostname for servers ips defined by SS_TRUSTED_PROXY_IPS in your _ss_environment.php
# Note that in a future release this setting will be always on.
SetEnv BlockUntrustedIPs true
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# Turn off index.php handling requests to the homepage fixes issue in apache >=2.4
<IfModule mod_dir.c>
DirectoryIndex disabled
</IfModule>
RewriteEngine On
# non-www to www redirect
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^bolstered.com.au$ [NC]
#RewriteRule (.*) https://www.bolstered.com.au/$1 [R=301,L]
# http to https redirect
#RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
#RewriteRule ^ (.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
# Enable HTTP Basic authentication workaround for PHP running in CGI mode
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
# Deny access to potentially sensitive files and folders
RewriteRule ^vendor(/|$) - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule silverstripe-cache(/|$) - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule composer\.(json|lock) - [F,L,NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.php$
RewriteRule .* index.php?url=%1&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]
</IfModule>
### SILVERSTRIPE END

Answer 1

I typically keep the SilverStripe part between ### SILVERSTRIPE START ### and ### SILVERSTRIPE END ### untouched and put my rules only before or after those of silverstripe.
There is no issue with having RewriteEngine On twice.
I also did not bother to check if mod_rewrite exists, because all my servers will have it enabled and I wouldn't let a client put it on a server without it.
Here is a full example of a .htaccess that I would typically use in silverstripe a project:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^localhost [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^127.0.0.1 [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.examle\.org [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.examle.org%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
### SILVERSTRIPE START ###
# Deny access to templates (but allow from localhost)
<Files *.ss>
Require ip 127.0.0.1
</Files>
# Deny access to IIS configuration
<Files web.config>
Require all denied
</Files>
# Deny access to YAML configuration files which might include sensitive information
<Files ~ "\.ya?ml$">
Require all denied
</Files>
# Route errors to static pages automatically generated by SilverStripe
ErrorDocument 404 /assets/error-404.html
ErrorDocument 500 /assets/error-500.html
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# Turn off index.php handling requests to the homepage fixes issue in apache >=2.4
<IfModule mod_dir.c>
DirectoryIndex disabled
DirectorySlash On
</IfModule>
SetEnv HTTP_MOD_REWRITE On
RewriteEngine On
# Enable HTTP Basic authentication workaround for PHP running in CGI mode
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
# Deny access to potentially sensitive files and folders
RewriteRule ^vendor(/|$) - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^\.env - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule silverstripe-cache(/|$) - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule composer\.(json|lock) - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule (error|silverstripe|debug)\.log - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^Security - [F,L,NC]
# Process through SilverStripe if no file with the requested name exists.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule .* index.php
</IfModule>
### SILVERSTRIPE END ###
Step-by-step explanation:
Turns on the rewrite engine
RewriteEngine On
The 4 RewriteCond are all conditions connected to the RewriteRule below it.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^localhost [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^127.0.0.1 [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.examle\.org [NC]
Multiple conditions will be a logical AND, unless you add a [OR].
[NC] stands for no-case, so not case-sensitive
The first 2 are an exception for localhost/127.0.0.1 to ensure a redirect will not be done when I am developing on my workstation.
3 is checking if https if off
4 is checking if the domain is correct
So speaking in pseudo code, it's like this:
if ($HTTP_HOST != "localhost" && $HTTP_HOST != "127.0.0.1" AND ($HTTPS != "on" OR $HTTP_HOST != "www.examle.org") {
do_redirect();
}
The actual redirect
RewriteRule ^ https://www.examle.org%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
It's redirecting to the desired domain and attaches the path (/foo/bar) and the query paramters (?foo=bar) to it.
R=301 is the http response code. If you wanted a temporary redirect you could make it 302.
L means Last I think, which will stop the processing at this point and will not continue to try other rules below.
Alternatives:
.htaccess is the best way to do it. But it's worth pointing out that this is not the only option.
You could do it in plain PHP, in the config of any/most webservers, ...
And SilverStripe has builtin methods for doing the check & redirect:
Director::forceSSL();
Director::forceWWW();
but as said, .htaccess is much better (much faster and only a single redirect)