Rewrite a request whether or not the requested file exists - .htaccess

I'm trying to convert all requests in the format:
/portfolio/picturename.htm
('portfolio' is constant)
to this:
/?picturename
So (thanks to users here) I have this solution which works for files that don't exist:
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^portfolio/(.+)\.htm$ /?$1 [R,NC,L]
But: How do I also have this apply to files that exist? I'd like the redirect to happen under all circumstances.

This should work for all files, whether they exist or not. RewriteRule doesn't check for file existence, RewriteCond does. Are you posting the full content of your .htaccess file, or only the part you think is important?

There's nothing about that RewriteRule that would make it only apply to files that don't exist. It would need this before it for that condition:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

Related

Mod_rewrite only working with certain folder names

Context
I'm using mod_rewrite to make my links better for SEO. I made the following rule for my page expanded_debate.php:
Options -MultiViews
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^poll/([0-9a-zA-Z_-]+)/([0-9]+) expanded_debate.php?poll_title=$1&pollid=$2 [NC,QSA,L]
When I input this format in the URL (poll/filename/10, for example) I get a 404 error:
Object not found!
The requested URL was not found on this server. If you entered the URL manually please check your spelling and try again.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 404
localhost
Apache/2.4.46 (Unix) OpenSSL/1.1.1h PHP/7.4.12 mod_perl/2.0.11 Perl/v5.32.0
However, when I change the first folder name to certain words, such as "debate" and "expanded_debate" (but not "expandedebate"), the file loads after page refresh. For example:
RewriteRule ^debate/([0-9a-zA-Z_-]+)/([0-9]+) expanded_debate.php?poll_title=$1&pollid=$2 [NC,QSA,L]
works fine.
I have an older .htaccess file, titled ".htaccess11", with the following info, in case it's of any use:
#forbids users from going to forbidden pages
IndexIgnore *
Options -Indexes
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/cpanel-dcv/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/(?:\ Ballot169)?
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
#404 error directions
ErrorDocument 404 /404.php
Question
Any idea why only certain terms in the first folder position ("^debate" in example above) work when using mod_rewrite?
There are no "poll" folders in my project, if that's of any interest.
Let me know if there are any questions.
The line
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
Means "Take the requested URL, map it to a full local path in the normal way, append .php to the resulting path, and then process the following rewrite rule only if there is an existing regular file at the modified path".
For example, the URL "poll/filename/10" will be rewritten only if there is a file called "poll/filename/10.php" in the relevant location.
Since the value of the AcceptPathInfo directive is evidently set to On, this condition will also be met if there is an existing file called "poll.php" or "poll/filename.php". That is why the rewrite rule works when you change "poll" to "debate" or "expanded_debate" – there are existing files called "debate.php" and "expanded_debate.php".
In any case, it sounds like this behavior is not what was intended. Removing the -f condition should give the desired result. Or, to prevent the rewrite rule from making existing files inaccessible, you could replace it with:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
The exclamation point negates the -f test: "continue only if this file does not exist"
If you are using the %{REQUEST_FILENAME} server variable (anywhere), you should be aware of how the AcceptPathInfo directive will affect this, and consider setting that directive explicitly in the same .htaccess file.
If Options +MultiViews is in effect, then %{REQUEST_FILENAME} will match existing files whether or not the extension is included in the request (GET /foo will match an existing file "foo.php", "foo.html", etc.). And GET /foo.php will match in any case. So, omit the string "\.php" from the original rule.
Other configuration may also have an effect, too. The important point is that, unlike %{REQUEST_URI}, %{REQUEST_FILENAME} invokes all the processing that Apache would otherwise do to translate a URL into a local path.
(source)
NB: although I don't think it was the intention here, you actually might want to test for the existence of a local file as part of this rule. You could use a RewriteCond to check whether the back-end data file for a given poll has been manually created, and return 404 by default if it has not. That would be a simple way to prevent users from making up their own poll URLs at will.

Change Displayed URL Structure using mod_rewrite NOT Working

I need to change the structure of the displayed client-side URL. I'm not too skilled using regex and coding for the .htaccess file. Basically, I have a structure that looks something like:
http://www.example.com/catalog/index.php?cat=lt&sec=lt1-1&id=nmlt10.
I would like this to be displayed in the address bar as:
http://www.example.com/catalog/lt/lt1-1/nmlt10.
This is what I came up with, but it has had no effect:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)/([^/]*)\$ /catalog/index.php?cat=$1&sec=$2&id=$3 [L]
I tested and removed any other rules in the .htaccess file to ensure nothing was being overwritten. I'm on a shared hosting apache server, and know that mod_rewrite is enabled, because I use it to rewrite non-www to www urls. I don't receive and 500 error messages, I just do not notice any change at all. I'm not sure where I'm going wrong here, so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
Finally found a solution that worked:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/?$ index.php?cat=$1&sec=$2&id=$3 [QSA,L]
Appreciate LazyOne's response to get me on the right track; however, when using:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ index.php?cat=$1&sec=$2&id=$3 [QSA,L]
I wasn't able to following links that were already placed on the site, it treated different directories as the variables, for example, when browsing to an image or file, say:
folder/folder/image.png
It would grab "folder" - "folder" - and "image" as the variables. I can see why that was happening, if anyone has a different solution or an explanation, please let me know, I'm always willing to learn.
Since your .htaccess is in website root folder, then you should use thus rule:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^catalog/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ /catalog/index.php?cat=$1&sec=$2&id=$3 [QSA,L]
If you place it in .htaccess in /catalog/ folder, then you can remove catalog from it:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ index.php?cat=$1&sec=$2&id=$3 [QSA,L]
I have tested rule before posting -- works fine for me.
This rule (same as above) will check if URL is a file or folder and will only rewrite if it is not:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ index.php?cat=$1&sec=$2&id=$3 [QSA,L]

ignore specific directories in htaccess using mod_rewrite

I've got the following code in my .htaccess to strip out index.php from the urls in my CMS-based site.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
This code works great and it routes requests exactly how I want. For example, with URL: http://example.com/contact/ the directory contact doesn't actually exist if you look in the FTP; instead index.php handles the request and shows my contact info. Perfect. Well, almost perfect.
I want to modify this code to specify a couple directories in FTP that should be ignored. For example, if I've got a folder called assets, when I go to http://example.com/assets/ the default DirectoryIndex page is displayed. Instead, I want this directory to be ignored -- I want index.php to handle /assets/.
TL;DR: How can I modify the above code to explicitly ignore certain existing directories (so that index.php handles them instead of the DirectoryIndex)?
Why not adding this below or before your code?
RewriteRule ^(assets/.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

htaccess / mod_rewrite problems with possible subdirectories

I am working on a very dynamic system where i have two identical htaccess files in / and in /somepath. The reason for this that the domain could be pointed into /somepath, but i never know if it is.
When it is pointed to /somepath there are no problems, but when its not it seems like when i request /somepath/page/foo/bar the htaccess file in /somepath overrides the one in /. In the latter case i dont want the /somepath/.htaccess to run at all, or at least disregard the mod_rewrite in it.
One solution would be if i could check if the latter htaccess is not located in the document root. Is this possible? How can i compare the htaccess path to document root from within the htacces file?
Both htaccess files look like this:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.php$
RewriteRule .* uri_handler.php [L]
</IfModule>
Does anyone know whats going on here?
Thanks!
I don't think this is possible. But this sounds like a construction error either way. It would be much better to incorporate the two .htaccess files into one. (Or is the second one in /somepath even necessary? Why?)
Under which circumstances does the request's domain point to /somepath? Is it a different domain you could use in a RewriteCond of its own?
Barring any attempts at simplifying your setup, I think that the easiest approach here is to just make sure that the .htaccess file in /somepath doesn't handle requests to /somepath when the document root is /.
Assuming we're all on the same page about the document root, we can accomplish this by modifying /somepath/.htaccess:
Edit: The easier way is to just have it always request the uri_handler.php that lives at the root:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.php$
RewriteRule .* /uri_handler.php [L]
</IfModule>

htaccess, a shortened url should not match a file

I have a little problem with my apache2 and .htaccess rules.
for example:
I have a shortened uri like
www.domain.tld/sitemap
which has to be rewritten by a rewriterule, redirected in a php File to display the sitemap.
The problem is, that in the root folder a file named sitemap.xml exists.
My apache automatically calls the sitemap.xml file but i don`t want that.
The file should be only called when uri is
www.domain.tld/sitemap.xml
is there a possibility to avoid the call of this file when the shortened URI is called?
this is just an example. There are some files that are required to be in the root folder and can`t moved from there into a subfolder (which would be the easiest way to fix this problem, but its not possible in my situation). it is required that these files are callable by uri.
Has anyone an idea how to fix this problem?
my current .htaccess file
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ /index.php?urlseg=%1&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]
Thanks a lot!
You likely have MultiViews enabled, which auto-resolves your non-existent resource /sitemap to the existent resource /sitemap.xml. Especially in cases where you're using mod_rewrite, I really see no need for MultiViews, so you can turn it off by adding this to the top of your .htaccess file:
Options -MultiViews
Doing so should hopefully prevent this from happening.

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