htaccess rewrite still some problems, getting a bit complex eek! - .htaccess

Question

Another edition to my .htaccess rewriting saga. Everything is now working to a degree but still have some issues.
I have numerous rules to move old urls to new urls, passing variables etc - however there are still a couple of things i need to add, and for the life of me cannot figure out.
I have 3 urls that are directing/rewriting as below.
1 www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/index.php
2 www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=April&year=2011
3 www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=1234&title=some-title
These are redirected & rewritten perfectly to the new urls respectively
1 www.mydomain.com/dental_news/
2 www.mydomain.com/dental_news/April-2011
3 www.mydomain.com/dental_news/1234-some-title
However... Here is the problem #1 The following urls are also redirecting as below
4 www.mydomain.com/news/it_technology/index.php?month=April&year=2011
5 www.mydomain.com/news/it_technology/article_detail.php?article=1234&title=some-title
Which are also directing to the same urls as the dental redirects
4 www.mydomain.com/dental_news/April-2011
5 www.mydomain.com/dental_news/1234-some-title
Which shouldnt be happening. The it_technology news articles have now been removed so i wish to redirect them either to my homepage with a 410 or something similar, whichever is the best option really.
My current .htaccess looks as follows.
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]
# Rewrite all index.php to root: / ( with perm redirect )
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/generator/
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [R=301]
RewriteRule ^products/dental-digital-imaging/([^/]*)_([^/]*)$ /products/digital_xray.php?id=$1&product=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^products/package_deals.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/products/dental-computer-network-bundles [R=301]
RewriteRule ^products/computer_hardware.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/products/dental-computer-solutions [R=301]
RewriteRule ^products/individual_computers.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/products/dental-computer-systems [R=301]
RewriteRule ^products/digital_xray_imaging.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/products/dental-digital-imaging [R=301]
RewriteRule dental_news/$ /news/dentistry_dental/?rewrite [L]
# Rewrite dental news article to neat nice url
# Protect from looping because of previous rules
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !rewrite
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([0-9]*)-([^/]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=$1&title=$2&rewrite [L]
#Conditional rewrite of old news article path to new one with 301 redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} article=([0-9]*)&title=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1-%2? [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} month=([^&]*)&year=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1-%2? [R=301]
# Protect from looping because of previous rules
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !rewrite
RewriteRule news/dentistry_dental/$ /dental_news/ [R=301]
# Protect from looping because of previous rules
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !rewrite
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([a-zA-Z]*)-([0-9]*)/?$ news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=$1&year=$2&rewrite [L]
# Rewrite URL stripping .php Extension
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php
My only other requirement would be to add a trailing slash to the php files served ( that have allready add the .php extension removed with the last rule in my .htaccess.
I have tried numerous ways that i have found via google, but all of them cuase probelms with my other rules.
Hopefully someone can help me finish this off once and for all.
Regards
M

Answer 1

Sure is getting complicated :) Try changing these lines (I think there are 2):
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
to:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/news/dentistry_dental/
That way its only going to redirect the old dental news URLs to there respective new ones.

Answer 2

Trivially, your problem is the catch-all rules:
#Conditional rewrite of old news article path to new one with 301 redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} article=([0-9]*)&title=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1-%2? [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} month=([^&]*)&year=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1-%2? [R=301]
Restrict them to the path you want to rewrite, i.e. replace .* with something more specific, like:
#Conditional rewrite of old news article path to new one with 301 redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} article=([0-9]*)&title=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule ^news/dentistry_dental/index.php$ /dental_news/%1-%2? [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} month=([^&]*)&year=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule ^news/dentistry_dental/index.php$ /dental_news/%1-%2? [R=301]
You can do the news/it_technology redirect as a standard redirect.
RewriteRule ^news/it_technology http://www.thepage.com/ [R=301,L]
It might technically be more correct to do a 410, but the 410 code is really optional. You might also want to make it 404, and then have a link from the 404 page to the main page.