Question

This is what my .htaccess file looks like:

# Original
# If you modify this file then change the above line to: # Modified
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine On
   # Certain hosts may require the following line.
   # If vanilla is in a subfolder then you need to specify it after the /. 
   # (ex. You put Vanilla in /forum so change the next line to: RewriteBase /forum)
   # RewriteBase /
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php\?p=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

I just read that with rewrite rules in .htaccess, I can create URL aliases, which can be used to shorten long URLs. I want to create a wildcard rewrite rule so that all the files in this directory: http://example.com/cache/Sitemaps/ are shortened (not redirected) to http://example.com/*.

For example, if file1.xml, file2.xml, file3.xml… and so on are files residing in http://example.com/cache/Sitemaps/, I want:

http://example.com/cache/Sitemaps/file1.xml → http://example.com/file1.xml
http://example.com/cache/Sitemaps/file2.xml → http://example.com/file2.xml
http://example.com/cache/Sitemaps/file3.xml → http://example.com/file3.xml
…and so on! (where → stands for ‘aliases or shortened to’)

How do I do this? And where should I add it in my .htaccess file (shown above)? Thanks.

Answer 1

Here is your modified .htaccess, place it in DOCUMENT_ROOT itself:

# Modified
# If you modify this file then change the above line to: # Modified
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine On
   # Certain hosts may require the following line.
   # If vanilla is in a subfolder then you need to specify it after the /. 
   # (ex. You put Vanilla in /forum so change the next line to: RewriteBase /forum)
   RewriteBase /

   # shorten /cache/Sitemaps/foo.xml to /foo.xml
   RewriteRule ^((?!cache/Sitemaps/).*\.xml)$ cache/Sitemaps/$1 [NC,L]

   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]

</IfModule>