How to use .htaccess to redirect a string?

Question

I need to set up a redirect for several thousand always changing URLS.

FROM THIS - example.com/product?product_id=blue_alwayschanging

TO THIS - example.com/widget?product_id=blue_alwayschanging

With my limited knowledge, I'm thinking something like the below is a step in the right direction. What am I missing? It's not working.

RewriteEngine on
RedirectMatch 301 ^/product?product_id=blue_.* /widget?product_id=.*

Answer 1

RewriteEngine activates mod_rewrite. Whereas RedirectMatch is a mod_alias directive. RedirectMatch also does not match against the query string, but then you don't need to, since the query string simply needs to be passed onto the target unchanged.

Try replacing your current code with the following one-liner:

RedirectMatch 301 ^/product /widget