Rewrite: query_string -> page

mod_rewrite redirect query string

[Kurieuo]

I've been attempting to use rewrite in a htaccess file to redirect a page like:

/page.html?p=end
to
/index.html

After spending a few hours browsing the messages here, reading up on regular expressions and so on, I was finally able to come up with what I required:
rewriteCond %{query_string} p=end
rewriteRule ^page.html$ /index.html? [R,L]

It works, but I'm still thinking what I did may be dodgy - that is, there might be a better way? Something I did have trouble with was it would attach the query string (?p=end) to index.html - however I placed a '?' at the end and that got rid of it. :)

Are there any better ways of doing the redirect from a query string to another page without the query string being attached?

Thanks,
Kurieuo.

[jdMorgan]

Kurieuo,

Your solution looks OK to me!

You may want to escape the period in the "page.html" pattern, since otherwise, it means "any character."

RewriteRule ^page\.html$ /index.html? [R,L]

Also, do you want or need an external redirect? That is, do you want the visitor to see the new URL in his browser's address bar? If not, use

RewriteRule ^page\.html$ /index.html? [L]

HTH,
Jim

[gethan]

Not tested but does

RewriteRule ^page\.html\?p=end$ /index.html [R,L]

work?

[jdMorgan]

gethan,

If I understand your question, then no it doesn't, because the query string is not available to the RewriteRule; It has already been moved to the QUERY_STRING environment variable by the time mod_rewrite is activated in a per-directory .htaccess context.

Jim

[gethan]

I've always worked the other way round with mod_rewrite - sending static urls to dynamic contents...

So without the rewrite condition grabbing the query string - would the simple one liner work?

(Don't have access to a mod_rewrite equiped server atm :()

[incywincy]

hi guys,

i'm very interested in this discussion because i am half way through developing a cgi script for a large directory and i want the site to look as if it is totally static html.

is it possible to use static looking urls e.g. www.a.com/widget/red.html , rewrite them to www.a.com/cgi-bin/my.cgi?product=widget&color=red, then dynamically generate the html but leaving www.a.com/widget/red.html in the browser bar? ie the entire site looks static in the browser address bar and also in all of the links on each web page?

[oLeon]

Just to have understood it completely correct:

the first possibilty

RewriteRule ^page\.html$ /index.html? [R,L]

is an internal redirect where I can see the required domain in the adress bar,
the second one

RewriteRule ^page\.html$ /index.html? [L]

redirects to the main domain.

Where should I implement the kind of redirect, i.e. 301 or whatever? Should it be in the brackets, too?
(Of course, only in the first solution: [R=301,L] - correct?)

[andreasfriedrich]

The [R] flag forces an external redirect. The response code is specified in the square brackets: [R=301]. If you use the [R] flag the substitution argument needs to be a valid URI.

So the first RewriteRule [httpd.apache.org] does an external redirect while the second rule will just do an internal rewrite.