Question

I try to convert a url parameter in folders using RewriteRule.
Anyone can help me?.

Origin: search.php?term=red&cat=colors
Destination: /search/red/colors

Answer 1

The top part of this answer clarifies how URLs get rewritten and redirected. Using “convert” is not really clear, as there’s 2 completely different things that can happen.

To change a URL like /search.php?term=red&cat=colors to the nicer looking variation, you need to match against the actual request and redirect the browser:

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^(GET|POST|HEAD)\ /search\.php\?term=([^&]+)&cat=([^&\ ]+)
RewriteRule ^ /search/%2/%3/? [L,R=301]

This makes it so when someone types in their browser the URL: http://mysite.com/search.php?term=red&cat=colors, they get externally redirected to http://mysite.com/search/red/colors, changing the URL in the address bar.

Then in order to internally rewrite the nicer looking URL and route it back to the php script:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?search/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /search.php?term=$1&cat=$2 [L]

This does the reverse, but only internally so that the URL in the browser’s address bar remains unchanged while the content is served from search.php. You can do one or the other depending on what your need is, or you can do both if you need this to happen in both directions.