htaccess: redirect old domain and all pages to a new domain

Question

I know that there is a lot of examples on Stackoverflow but I still miss something.

I'm trying to redirect http://old.domain.com/fr/ to http://brand.new-domain.com/fr/ with the following rules, but that doesn't work:

# Enable Rewrite Engine
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# Add a trailing slash to paths without an extension
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}|/)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1/ [L,R=301]

# Redirect domain
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^old.domain.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^other-old.domain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://brand.new-domain.com/$1 [r=301,L]

# Remove index.php
# Uses the "exclude method"
# http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Remove_index.php_From_URLs/#Exclude_List_Method
# This method seems to work best for us, you might also use the include method.
# http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Remove_index.php_From_URLs/#Include_List_Method
# Exclude root files
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php) [NC]
# Exclude EE folders
RewriteCond $1 !^(assets|ee-admin|images|templates|themes|fr|nl)/ [NC]
# Exclude user created folders
RewriteCond $1 !^(assets|css|img|js|swf|uploads)/ [NC]
# Exlude favico, robots, ipad icon
RewriteCond $1 !^(favicon\.ico|robots\.txt|pple-touch-icon\.png) [NC]
# Remove index.php
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^(ACT=.*)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^(URL=.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

It correctly redirect when I call the root URL, but not when I call a page. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Pv

Answer 1

When writing mod_rewrite rules, the rules get applied in the order that they appear.

To redirect an old domain to a new domain, you'll want that rule to be first in your .htaccess or httpd.conf file — all other rules should appear after it.

If you only want to redirect a certain directory, the following rule will do so, while allowing the rest of the site to function normally:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    # Redirect Only Matching Directories
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(fr|fr/.*)$
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://brand.new-domain.com/fr/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

If you want to redirect the entire site, the following rule will do so:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    # Redirect Entire Site to New Domain
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^old.domain.com$ [OR]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^other-old.domain.com$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://brand.new-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

If you care about letting crawlers know your content has moved and want to make the transition as seamless as possible, be sure to keep the 301 Redirect flag in the RewriteRule.

This will ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page.

---

While we're on the subject, as part of the EE 2.2 release, EllisLab now "officially" offers limited technical support for removing index.php from ExpressionEngine URLs.

Simply add or update your code to the following, making sure to consider any rules you may already have in place:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    # Removes index.php
    RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

    # If 404s, "No Input File" or every URL returns the same thing
    # make it /index.php?/$1 above (add the question mark)
</IfModule>

Answer 2

Try to use the following ruke as the first one:

# Redirect domain
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^old.domain.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^other-old.domain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://brand.new-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Also mind the upper case R with is the short form for the lower case redirect.

Answer 3

Have you tried using mod_alias simple redirect instructions (a core module that you have), before trying the hacky-mod-rewrite thing?

I would do a VirtualHost with ServerName old.domain.com and in this VH I would add this rule:

Redirect /fr http://brand.new-domain.com/fr

from doc:

Then any request beginning with URL-Path will return a redirect request to the client at the location of the target URL. Additional path information beyond the matched URL-Path will be appended to the target URL.

So get a separate VirtualHost for brand.new-domain.com (with ServerName brand.new-domain.com) and in this one do not set the Redirect Rule.

If you still want to handle the 2 domains in the same VirtualHost then you'll have to use mod-rewrite as even RedirectMatch cannot check the request domain on the query.