.htaccess - Force https, force to subfolder, force www, don't break site

Question

I have been having a very difficult time editing my .htaccess file to do these three things together. I have been able to get each part separately but I just do not understand how the logic flow works to get them all to work.

This is the best I have been able to pull together using the demo at bluehost support http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/000347

I appreciate any help resolving this issue.

# Use PHP5 Single php.ini as default
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5s .php
# Bluehost.com
# .htaccess main domain to subdirectory redirect
# Copy and paste the following code into the .htaccess file
# in the public_html folder of your hosting account
# make the changes to the file according to the instructions.
# Do not change this line.
RewriteEngine on
# Change yourdomain.com to be your main domain.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?sampleurl.com$
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/folder/
# Don't change this line.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /folder/$1
# Change yourdomain.com to be your main domain again.
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain
# followed by / then the main file for your folder, index.php, index.html, etc.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?sampleurl.com$
RewriteRule ^(/)?$ folder/index.php

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sampleurl\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.sampleurl.com/$1 [L]

# For security reasons, Option all cannot be overridden.
# Options All -Indexes
# Options ExecCGI Includes IncludesNOEXEC SymLinksIfOwnerMatch -Indexes

Update:

Well after a long time using the following I have run into issues.

IndexIgnore *
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/site/
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.example.com/site/$1 [L,R]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/site/
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.example.com/$1 [L,R]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 443
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/site/
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.example.com/site/$1 [L,R]

New Issues.

1. Bluehost has an application that quickly installs and updates open source applications like wordpress, joomla, phpbb etc. Well apparently my new super .htaccess file completely breaks their system. The only way I can run updates and installs is to move the .htaccess to .htaccess.bak until the upgrade or install is complete. Then move it back.

2. I can't create any .htaccess on other sites that I host in other directories. e.g. I have a master account that I store in /www/site/ that this script forces requests into. Unfortunately my other sites stored in /www/site2/ and /www/site3/ don't work well. First I have to create a blank .htaccess to prevent it from pulling the .htaccess above found in /www/. For some reason if I try to do anything like force www.site2.com I get 500 error's saying I am forcing too many redirects.

I have a theory that my solution above needs to be a little more specific, to make sure it only effects request sent to example.com. (I think the line with anything not containing /site/ is a little to broad).

I appreciate any support resolving this. Would save me a bit of headaches!

Update II:

I do not believe I have access to apache config. Only option I see in cpanel is apache handlers (not really sure what that section does).

I will submit a ticket to see what location the simplescripts server runs from. I believe it runs from "https://www.simplescripts.com". What edit would you recommend I add to ignore this domain?

My host bluehost starts you with a primary account and then subdomains. The primary account's location is set at user\www. Unfortunatly this gets messy when you try to host multiple domains. That is why I use .htaccess to force requests that hit that directory into the \site\ directory. Thus trapping the primary site into the \site\ directory.

I think the relocation issue I was having with one of my subdomains was due to wordpress trying to force a domain without www and then me writing an .htaccess file forcing www. That caused the infinite loop, not my .htaccess file this thread is about. If I can resolve the simplescripts issue I am gmoney ;)

Answer 1

I'd think something like this would work

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/folder/
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.example.com/folder/$1 [L,R]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/folder/
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.example.com/$1 [L,R]

but I confess I haven't tested. You can add in all the don't redirect if the file exists, etc., if you want.

In case you haven't seen it, here is the mod_rewrite documentation.

edit:

In response to updated question:

The first thing I notice is that it appears you may have enough control over your setup to put the rewrites in the Apache config files (in the VirtualHost sections) instead of in htaccess files, that'll immediately solve your problem with your other sites.

The first problem, it sounds like you'll need to add RewriteCond to exclude whichever URLs the Bluehost software uses. Either that, or access the Bluehost software under a different VirtualHost (once you've put the rewrite stuff inside the VirtualHost blocks).

If you can't edit your Apache config, then the easiest fix for the other sites it to not make them a subdirectory (on the filesystem) of your main site. That's rather weird, anyway. Move your main site to a sub-directory of /www as well if need be.

Personally, I put all sites in /srv/www/com.site-name.www on my servers (that is, reverse order, with the top-level-domain first, it makes related stuff group together when sorted alphabetically. E.g., when you have www.example.com and static.example.com)