Question

So I rewrote my paths to something like: URL/really/nice/paths/ using mod_rewrite rules like this:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [PT,L]
</IfModule>

The question is how could I rewrite the paths for js/css/image files too, so when they are requested with a relative path from URL/really/nice/path/ to be served from URL/scripts/, URL/styles/ and URL/images/ folders instead? Can this be done without using RewriteBase?

Answer 1

When URLs are rewritten, the client doesn’t know it. So when a client looks at a page at the URL “example.com/some/url/” and the page references an image in “images/image.jpg”, the client looks for the image in “example.com/some/url/images/image.jpg” even though the page actually resides in “example.com/some/other/url/”. That’s the problem you’re facing, right?

There are three main solutions to this problem:

1. Use absolute paths to resources instead of relative ones.
2. Use the <base> tag to ensure that the client knows the root upon which to build its relative URLs is different from the page’s apparent URL.
3. Add a new rule for “some/url/images/” in your rewrite rules.

Option 1 is probably the best idea, and you’ll find that most sites that use URL rewriting use it, including Stack Overflow itself. Option 2 is frowned upon, but works and is relatively easy. Option 3 is the most difficult to maintain, as URL rewriting exceptions and special cases can appear as you’re defining new rules.

The most maintainable solution is to use absolute URLs.