Question

Ok so I have a site that needs to have 2 RewriteRules on it.

First if you go to newvendor.business.com it will go to newvendor.business.com/newform.php

Second I need it to go from newvendor.business.com/pending to newvendor.business.com/pending/index.php when you click on the link with that id. Here is the htaccess file that works for the first rule but not then pending one.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z_]+)/?([a-zA-Z_+]+)?/?([0-9]+)?/? $1.php?action=$2&id=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-p
RewriteRule ^pending/([0-9]*)$ /pending/index.php?id=$1

Can you do this or not? If so can someone help me with it?

Answer 1

1. the bit about newform.php:

1.a. DirectoryIndex

DirectoryIndex newform.php index.php index.html

Pros:

• The URI actually stays "/" , and not "/newform.php".

Cons:

• Maybe you do want users to see "/newform.php"
• Beware having newform.php anywhere in sub folders – DirectoryIndex setting is inherited and you might end up with an unexpected result (though this is pretty far fetched scenario).

1.b. RedirectMatch

RedirectMatch ^/$ /newform.php

Pros:

• Precision – only this specific URI is being redirected (sub folders not affected).

Cons:

• None that i can think of at the moment

1.c. RewriteRule

RewriteRule ^/$ /newform.php [R,L]

Pros:

• emm.. using mod_rewrite to make me a sandwich?

Cons:

• Invoking mod_rewrite is not a very light operation, although irrelevant if you’re going to use mod_rewrite for other rules…

2. The rest…

2.1. Using mod_rewrite

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^pending/([0-9]+)$ pending/index.php?id=$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z_]+)/?([a-zA-Z_+]+)?/?([0-9]+)?/? $1.php?action=$2&id=$3 [L,QSA]

Basically, i changed rules order, since your "first" one was matching pending/[0-9]+$ as well and control never reached beyond that point.

2.2. Leveraging MultiViews

Although this won’t be a pure configuration-only solution (will require some changes in php files), this may let you avoid using mod_rewrite…

So, in order to do this, you need to enable MultiViews option:

Options +MultiViews

Then you just construct a "pretty" URL like "/article/123/edit" and, if there’s a file called article.php, it will be invoked, although you didn’t mention the .php extension
Then, article.php file can grab $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] and parse it the way it sees fit…

As for the pending/* – it is possible to use ErrorDocument inside pending folder for this scenario

ErrorDocument 404 index.php

And then also check $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]

So, there you have it… both with and without mod_rewrite 😉 The decision is yours 😉