Rewrite URL empty values in query string - Double slashes, Optional Parameters - .htaccess

Question

I have looked around quite a bit and tried myself and could not sort it out.
This is the URL before applying rewrite :
http://example.com/job-search/?searchText=GOOGLE+INC.&searchCity=Enter+US+City+or+Zipcode&searchYear=14&action=search&searchJobTitle=Enter+Job+Title+%2F+Role+Name
This is the URL after below rewrite rules are applied :
http://example.com/job-search/GOOGLE-INC./Enter-US-City-or-Zipcode/14/search/Enter-Job-Title
I have the below rules in .htaccess. It works well, when I have the URL like above with all the fields.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /job-search/
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}\s/+(.*?)(?:\+|%20|\s)+(.+?)\sHTTP [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1-%2 [L,NE,R]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \?searchText=([^\s&]+)&searchCity=([^\s&]+)&searchYear=(\d+)&action=([^\s&]+)&searchJobTitle=([^\s&]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1/%2/%3/%4/%5? [R=302,L,NE]
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/(\d+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ ?searchText=$1&searchCity=$2&searchYear=$3&action=$4&searchJobTitle=$5 [NC,L,QSA]
The rewrite fails, when It gets empty values. The rules do not work and I get the below URL.
http://example.com/job-search/?searchText=GOOGLE-INC.&searchCity=&searchYear=14&action=search&searchJobTitle=
Of the three parameters ( searchText or searchCity or SearchJobTitle ), at a time, only one of the parameters will be having a value and other two will have blank values. Also, just want to ensure, when the user types the home page URL like http://example.com/job-search/ , it should not fail ( I tried something and it failed ) . Would like to avoid double slashes as well, when they are empty.
Below is the output I would like to see :
E.g when searchCity and SearchJobTitle are empty, the output URL should look like
http://example.com/job-search/GOOGLE-INC./14/search
When searchText and searchCity are empty and searchJobTitle value is 'Applicaton-Engineer', the output URL should look like
http://example.com/job-search/14/search/Application-Engineer
Can you please help me get the right rule ? Appreciate your help !

Answer 1

Change your rules to this:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /job-search/
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}\s/+(.*?)(?:\+|%20|\s)+(.+?)\sHTTP [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1-%2 [L,NE,R]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \?searchText=([^\s&]+)&searchCity=&searchYear=(\d+)&action=([^\s&]+)&searchJobTitle=\s [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1/%2/%3/? [R=302,L,NE]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \?searchText=([^\s&]+)&searchCity=([^\s&]+)&searchYear=(\d+)&action=([^\s&]+)&searchJobTitle=([^\s&]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1/%2/%3/%4/%5? [R=302,L,NE]
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/(\d+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ ?searchText=$1&searchCity=$2&searchYear=$3&action=$4&searchJobTitle=$5 [NC,L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/(\d+)/([^/]+)/?$ ?searchText=$1&searchYear=$2&action=$3 [NC,L,QSA]