htaccess 301 redirect help

[ergesa]

Hi,
I'm trying to redirect old urls of my old web site to new urls to my new web site.
There ara several urls to redirect and I need to redirect them one to one.
My old url is:

http://www.oldsite.com/index.php?page=old-address

And the new url is:

http://www.newsite.com/new-adress

I tried this;
######

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
redirect 301 /index.php?page=old-address http://www.newsite.com/new-adress

######

And this;
######

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
redirect 301 /index.php%3Fpage=old-address http://www.newsite.com/new-adress

######

but it didn't work. Do you have any idea to help me?

Thanks.

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld, ergesa!

the Redirect directive (part of the mod_alias apache module) doesn't recognize the query string, which starts after the question mark in the URL.

if your redirect depends on the query string you must use mod_rewrite and examine the %{QUERY_STRING} environment variable using the RewriteCond directive and then redirect using the RewriteRule directive.

there are many examples to study in this forum of Redirect with query string in URL:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/apache/3479175.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[lucy24]

mod_alias also doesn't recognize RewriteEngine On. That goes with mod_rewrite. So it was wrong before but is about to become right ;)

In any case you don't need the RewriteBase. First because / is the default, and second because the RewriteBase is only used in one situation, and it's a situation that will never occur. (Because you will never allow it to occur. It is within your control.)

What you do need is a rewrite to come after your redirect.* Both will use mod_rewrite and will say RewriteRule, but they will end up in different places.


* Every time I get the capitalization wrong, I promptly receive a reproachful Sticky Mail from You Know Who You Are :P

[g1smd]

mod_rewrite is the Swiss Army Knife of server configuration tools. You can use a RewriteRule directive to invoke an external redirect or configure it as an internal rewrite.

Once you learn how to use mod_rewrite, you forget that mod_alias and it's very limited functionality in Redirect and RedirectMatch ever existed.

[ergesa]

If we talk about the only url I gave before, what is the exact phrase to redirect it using mod_rewrite ?
Sorry about asking this but I'm really not good on this staff.

[g1smd]

You can only improve if you attempt to learn how it works.

Using any one of the previous couple of thousand examples posted in this forum at least have a go. :)

The linked-to example in an earlier post isn't all that different to what you want to do. It's mostly a substitution operation to get the code how you want it.

[lucy24]

There's a complication though. If the original post shows what the URLs really look like, then the old URL is php-plus-query while the new URL is extensionless. Or at least queryless.

So unless the new domain uses static html pages, or there's a CMS that takes care of this stuff, you will also need a rewrite pointing to where the content really lives. This part will happen on the new domain.

AND, if I'm reading all of the above correctly, the new domain will need a supplementary redirect for anyone who rashly types in newdomain.com/index.php?page=long-complicated-query. Or manually changes the bookmark.

"Will y'all stop blathering and just gimme the code?"

Nope. Once in a blue moon someone forgets himself and just spits out the two lines of code instead of the 20-line explanation, but you can't count on it.