Apache ignoring rewrite rules when using mod_proxy

Question

I am trying to get Apache to rewrite the URL based on certain conditions but it is failing. I have tried searching for the answer but have come up empty handed. We are using Apache as our webserver and proxying the requests to Tomcat for using our Coldfusion/Lucee code.

Basically what is happening is that the rewrite is working fine for when I am accessing an HTML file but when I try to access a CFM or CFC (Coldfusion) file it will ignore the rewrite rule completely. What I want is to have the URL rewritten before passing through the proxy but for some reason I can not get that to work.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me solve this.

This is in my httpd.conf file:

Here is the Virtual Host file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName dev.xxxxx.com
  DirectoryIndex default.cfm index.cfm index.htm index.html
  DocumentRoot "Z:/XXXXXXXXX"

  <Directory "Z:/XXXXXXXXX">
      Require all granted
      Allow from all
      Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
      AllowOverride All
      Order allow,deny
  </Directory>


    <Proxy *>
       Allow from 127.0.0.1
    </Proxy>
    RewriteEngine On
    DirectoryIndex index.cfm
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyPassMatch ^/(.+\.cf[cm])(/.*)?$ ajp://localhost:7009/$1$2

</VirtualHost>

Snippet towards the bottom of httpd.conf

<IfModule proxy_module>
  <Proxy *>
    Allow from 127.0.0.1
  </Proxy>

  ProxyPreserveHost On
  ProxyPassMatch ^/(.+\.cf[cm])(/.*)?$ ajp://127.0.0.1:7009/$1$2
  ProxyPassMatch ^/(.+\.cfchart)(/.*)?$ ajp://127.0.0.1:7009/$1$2
  ProxyPassMatch ^/(.+\.cfml)(/.*)?$ ajp://127.0.0.1:7009/$1$2
  ProxyPassReverse / ajp://127.0.0.1:7009/
</IfModule>

This is in .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*) /index.cfm/$1 [L]

Answer 1

You will need to use the [P] flag which causes the request to be handled by mod_proxy, and handled via a proxy request.

For example

RewriteRule ^(.*) /index.cfm/$1 [L]

becomes

RewriteRule ^(.*) /index.cfm/$1 [PL]

or if you need the first forward slash like

RewriteRule ^/(.*) /index.cfm/$1 [PL]

Also take a look at the [PT] flag.

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/rewrite/flags.html

Updating the answer with what I have working in my Apache config file (I don't have a virtual hosts config and I don't have .htaccess because I don't need them in my case)

My rule is that if I have /x/ in request url then I call index.cfm from /xml/ subfolder.

ProxyRequests Off

ProxyVia Off

ProxyPreserveHost On
 
<Proxy *>
  AddDefaultCharset off
  Order deny,allow
  Allow from all
</Proxy>

ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/


RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/x/(.*)$ /xml/index.cfm [PT]