Rewrite with repeated strings

[toumimi]

Hi all,

I know quite well Apache rewriting, but now, I need your help for a special RewriteRule...

Url to match (simplified) :
mysite.com/TYPE-LOC/rents-TYPE-LOC/TYPE-NBROOM-LOC.html

LOC is a locality name and is repeated three times.
TYPE is a property type (house,appartment,parking,...) and is repeated three times too.
NBROOM is another string to match.

I need to match this url (if possible in one rule with RewriteConds).
Easy.
But I need to make sure first LOC is the same as second LOC, as would be TYPE param.

Of course I can catch all and send it to a php script to check but it would be better to achieve it in my .htaccess

Here is my rewrite rule that I want to have :

RewriteRule ^([^-]+)-([^/]+)/rents-[^-]+-[^/]+/[^-]+-([0-9])-.*\.html page.php?type=$1&loc=$2&nbroom=$3 [QSA,L]

And if I could be more specific for type of property I want to match, it would be perfect, but I don't want to repeat the complete list, if you know what I mean :)

RewriteRule ^(house|appartment|parking)-([^/]+)/rents-[^-]+-[^/]+/[^-]+-([0-9])-.*\.html page.php?type=$1&loc=$2&nbroom=$3 [QSA,L]

---

So, question is :
How would you do this kind of urls, which seems to be impossible in Apache Rewrite system ?

I tried something like that, but $1 and $2 are only available in test string (not pattern).

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$1-$2/rents-$1-$2/$1
RewriteRule ^(house|appartment|parking)-([^/]+)/rents-[^-]+-[^/]+/[^-]+-([0-9])-.*\.html page.php?type=$1&loc=$2&nbroom=$3 [QSA,L]

I also tried something like that, but %1 and %2 are only available in test string (not pattern).

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(house|appartment|parking)-([^/]+)/
RewriteRule ^%1-%2/rents-%1-%2/%1-([0-9])-%2\.html page.php?type=%1&loc=%2&nbroom=$1 [QSA,L]

Thanks in advance :D
Florian

[g1smd]

If you capture the first LOC in backreference %x and the second LOC in %y, you can use a RewriteCond to compare the two. Beware that you can have only a maximum of 9 backreferences in a condition or rule.

Or you could use a RewriteCond to compare "%1>$2" and "$1>%2" where ">" is an arbitary character that does not appear in any real URL.

[toumimi]

Hey,

Thanks for your answer !

I tried something like that but it's not working.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(house|appartment|parking)-([^/]+)/ # Catch type and locname
RewriteCond $1_$4_$6 ^%1_%1_%1$ # Check property types
RewriteCond $2_$5_$8 ^%2_%2_%2$ # Check locality names
RewriteRule ^([^-]+)-([^/]+)/(rent)-([^-]+)-([^/]+)/([^-]+)-([0-9])-(.+)\.html [...]

I'll check in RewriteLog for more informations...

Any idea about that solution ?


Florian

[g1smd]

Actually I am thinking you don't need %n at all, you could compare just $n, with two conditions for each part. One checks $1_$2 = $2_$1 and the other checks $1_$3 = $3_$1.

I haven't tested these ideas, as I'm actually in the middle of some complicated PHP code and took a break from that for a few minutes.

[toumimi]

I'm afraid this is not possible to use back-references in pattern string.
Neither % or $ are interpreted and Apache is trying to match invalid strings :

input='appartment_appartment' pattern='^$4_$1$' => not-matched

So I don't understand how you want to do a check like this: $1 = $3.


Problem still here...

[g1smd]

I'll have to look back at how jdMorgan has done types of these comparisons in the past. The exact syntax evades me right now.

[toumimi]

Hey !

Has anybody an answer for my small problem ?

[toumimi]

I don't think it's possible.

I will be forced to use php to check each string equality.

Please tell me if someone knows how to achieve that...


Thanks,
Florian

[jdMorgan]

There is no variable-to-variable compare in mod_rewrite.

However, on servers which support PCRE regular-expressions, you can use an "atomic back-reference" within the regular-expressions pattern-matching engine to do this.

The technique is based on commutativity -- that is, if A+B is equal to A+A, then A=B. This applies to both numerical and lexical compares.

Here is a simple example you can apply to your task:

# Rewrite if "A" and "B" are equal in the URL-path /<a>/<b>
RewriteCond $1<>$2 ^(.*)<>\1$
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/(.+)$ <some-target-path> [L]

"\1$" is the atomic back-reference and is not at all the same thing as $1.

And note again that this technique requires that your server support PERL-Compatible Regular Expressions. Most Apache 2.0 and later servers do, while most Apache 1.x servers do not.

Jim

[toumimi]

Thanks you very much !

I knew that we could do this back-reference in php but never seen that in any .htaccess example.

In fact, I didn't test this back-reference in a RewriteCond and that was the key !

An easier solution for your code is using REQUEST_URI and then match immediately what I want.
So RewriteRule don't need to be complicated, and everything takes place in RewriteCond.

Here is what I am using and it's working very well :)

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(house|appartment|parking)-([^/]+)/rents-\1-\2/\1-([0-9])-.*\.html$
RewriteRule .? page.php?type=%1&loc=%2&nbroom=%3 [QSA,L]

This post is what I was searching for :D
Thanks, Florian