Question

I need a little help on this one.

I’m in the process of making a php page that collects a query string, tests it against a database for matches, and then redirects the user to a different section of the site.

The is how it works currently (without htaccess/mod_rewrite):

1. User visits: domain.com/redirect/index.php?slug=Test_1
2. The php page sanitizes and looks up ‘Test_1’ in the database and retrieves a destination URL to redirect the user to. (e.g. domain.com/New_Test_1)
3. The php page then 301 redirects accordingly.

This part is working fine. However, due to some variables outside of my control, I need to interpret the original URL (using htaccess/mod_rewrite), like this:

• domain.com/redirect/index.php/Test_1

Which still acts the same as:

• domain.com/redirect/index.php?slug=Test_1

(note: yes, the index.php needs to stay in the url.)

I have this working with the following in my htaccess, but I know it could be better:

RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)/(.*)$ %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/redirect/index.php?slug=$2 [PT,L,QSA]

Part I need help with…

Some of the old url slugs had forward slashes in them, like this:

• domain.com/redirect/index.php?slug=How_to_Code/Program

Without htaccess, the above still works, but fails with the pretty(ier) url:

• domain.com/redirect/index.php/How_to_Code/Program

With my current htaccess, it only captures the ‘How_to_Code’ part, but ignores everything after it.

So my question is this: how can I restructure my htaccess to grab everything after domain.com/redirect/index.php/(.*)$, including forward slashes?

Edit: this .htaccess is going inside the /redirect directory

Answer 1

If you do this

RewriteRule ^redirect/index.php/([a-zA-Z0-9/_]+)$ redirect/index.php?slug=$1

That will accept forward slashes and underscores. To add anymore allowed characters just add them inside the [] square brackets. Certain characters may need to be escaped so just Google that.