Redirect the URL from one query string to another

Question

I have spent a great many hours trying to find a solution to this and tried many different approaches but nothing I have tried has worked so far.

I would like to redirect a URL with a query string to another URL that contains the value of that query string.

I want to redirect:

https://example.com/component/search/?searchword=XXXXXXXXX&searchwordsugg=&option=com_search

to

https://example.com/advanced-search?search=XXXXXXXXX

Answer 1

You can do something like the following using mod_rewrite at the top of your root .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (?:^|&)searchword=([^&]*)
RewriteRule ^component/search/?$ /advanced-search?search=%1 [NE,R=302,L]

The RewriteRule pattern matches against the URL-path only, which notably excludes the query string. To match against the query string we need a separate condition that checks against the QUERY_STRING server variable.

%1 is a backreference to the first capturing group in the preceding CondPattern , ie. the value of the searchworld URL parameter.

The regex (?:^|&)searchword=([^&]*) matches the searchworld URL parameter anywhere in the query string, not just at the start (as in your example). This also permits an empty value for the URL parameter.