Problem with mod rewrite Rules in htaccess

Question

I'm seeting up a new website and want to rewrite some files with parameter in the urls.

The site isn't live right now and unfortunaly i haven't lots of experience in mod_rewrite.

So whats my Problem:

I have two files: category.php and single.php

on my index i have a menu that refers to all categories via url paramater. For instance on sitename.com/index.php you find links to:

sitename.com/category.php?c=First
sitename.com/category.php?c=Second
sitename.com/category.php?c=Third
and so on

On sitename.com/category.php?c=First for instance you find a list of all posts that refer to category first and linked to:

sitename.com/single.php?c=Frist&name=name1
sitename.com/single.php?c=Frist&name=name2
sitename.com/single.php?c=Second&name=name3
sitename.com/single.php?c=Third&name=name4
and so on

Now i try to rewirte the urls to the following structure:

sitename.com/category.php?c=First => sitename.com/First
sitename.com/category.php?c=Second=> sitename.com/Second
sitename.com/single.php?c=Frist&name=name2 =>sitename.com/First/name2
sitename.com/single.php?c=Second&name=name3 =>sitename.com/Second/name3

I used the following Code

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ categroy.php?c=$1 [L,QSA]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)/(.*)$ single.php?c=$1&name=$2 [L,QSA]
</IfModule>

Each RewriteRule works for its own but together i will not get the expected results.

so i tried it serval days now and i don't get it.
So hope someone here can help

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

There are several issues here with your attempt, but the main point is that you need to take care about the order of your rules. Since rules are applied from top to bottom you need to place more specialized rules first in the file (so further up), more general rules later ...

Here is a modified version to point you into the right direction:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [END]

RewriteRule ^/?(\w+)/(\w+)/?$ single.php?c=$1&name=$2 [END,QSA]
RewriteRule ^/?(\w+)/?$ category.php?c=$1 [END,QSA]

In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.

These rules will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a dynamic configuration file (".htaccess" file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a dynamic configuration file you need to take care that it's interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host's DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.

And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (".htaccess"). Those dynamic configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).