Rewriting with a query string

I'm entering the last round, and Apache is winning...

[civgroup]

This should be so simple, but it's going on 6hrs now and I just don't know what else to try.

We're moving from one script to another (same server & domain) and the new script will be residing in the same subfolder as the old one (/downloads).

This is the sort of redirect that we're trying to accomplish:

OLD: http://www.example.com/downloads/?dlid=123
NEW: http://www.example.com/downloads/viewfile/123.html

...and here is the current applicable part of our htaccess file (in the web root):

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^dlid=(.*)$
RewriteRule ^downloads/$ http://www.example.com/downloads/viewfile/$1.html? [R=301,L]

This is the output we're getting right now:
http://www.example.com/downloads/viewfile/.html

No matter what I try, I simply cannot get that backreference to pass into the substitution string.

My sanity skipped out hours ago. What am I doing wrong?

[marke]

Maybe try this:

RewriteRule ^downloads/([a-zA-Z0-9])$ http://www.example.com/downloads/viewfile/$1.html? [R=301,L]

[civgroup]

Thanks Marke, but that produced no match at all (the page just loaded with no redirection being attempted).

From my apache manual reading (quite a lot today) I think the issue lies in the fact that RewriteRule does not see the query string at all, which is why I tried to set the proper backreference with RewriteCond. I'm just stumped though at why that backreference isn't being carried forward!

[marke]

How about this:

RewriteRule ^downloads/$ http://www.example.com/downloads/viewfile/%1.html? [R=301,L]

Notice the %1 instead of $1

[marke]

Try it with the RewriteCond statement included.

[civgroup]

Well if you were within 50 miles I'd drive over tonight just to shake your hand. That worked!

I'm off to dig into the apache manual again to determine when %1 is the proper way to call a backreference (rather than the $1 I've read everywhere else).

Thank you again!

[marke]

%1 is passed from RewriteCond. $1 comes from RewriteRule :)

If you can help me figure this out I'd be grateful:

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