REQUEST_URI is not overridden by using APACHE RewriteRule?

Question

Problem :

Am using Kohana/PHP to develop a hosted website for other companies. I get the customer to put in a CNAME entry in their DNS server to point to my domain. Eg. http://invites.somecompany.com is pointing to http://www.mydomain.com.

Thus, the %{HTTP_HOST} entry on my apache server is 'invites.somecompany.com'

I want to rewrite http://invites.somecompany.com/invite to http://www.mydomain.com/invites/invite

Even though Apache seems to be doing that, the $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] is still "/". The problem is Kohana uses $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] to route the request to the appropriate controller code. In this case, it routes it to the base index controller, instead of the 'invites' controller.

Facts :

The Apache mod_rewrite directives i am using (in the .htaccess file) :-

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.mydomain.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*invites.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ invites/$1

# For Kohana
RewriteRule .* index.php?kohana_uri=$0 [PT,QSA,L]

in the index.php, i do :

var_dump($_SERVER);

and i get :

'REQUEST_URI' => string '/',
'QUERY_STRING' => string 'kohana_uri=invites/index.php&kohana_uri=invites/invite'
'REDIRECT_QUERY_STRING' => string 'kohana_uri=invites/invite'

So the mod_rewrite does not modify the REQUEST_URI ?

Need :

'REQUEST_URI' => 'invites/invite',
'QUERY_STRING' => string 'kohana_uri=invites/invite',

How do I get that?

====================== Edit

Rewrite Log Entries :-

strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/invite -> invite
 applying pattern '^(?:application|modules|system)\b.*' to uri 'invite'
 strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/invite -> invite
 applying pattern '\.git' to uri 'invite'
 strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/invite -> invite
 applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'invite'
 rewrite invite -> invites/invite
 add per-dir prefix: invites/invite -> /Users/project/invites/invite
 strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/invites/invite -> invites/invite
 applying pattern '.*' to uri 'invites/invite'
 rewrite invites/invite -> index.php?kohana_uri=invites/invite
 add per-dir prefix: index.php -> /Users/project/index.php
 strip document_root prefix: /Users/project/index.php -> /index.php
 internal redirect with /index.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
 strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/index.php -> index.php
 applying pattern '^(?:application|modules|system)\b.*' to uri 'index.php'
 strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/index.php -> index.php
 applying pattern '\.git' to uri 'index.php'
 strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/index.php -> index.php
 applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'index.php'
 rewrite index.php -> invites/index.php
 add per-dir prefix: invites/index.php -> /Users/project/invites/index.php
 strip per-dir prefix: /Users/project/invites/index.php -> invites/index.php
 applying pattern '.*' to uri 'invites/index.php'
 rewrite invites/index.php -> index.php?kohana_uri=invites/index.php
 add per-dir prefix: index.php -> /Users/project/index.php
 initial URL equal rewritten URL: /Users/project/index.php [IGNORING REWRITE]

Answer 1

1.) Does this link work if you call it manually? http://www.mydomain.com/invites/invite

2.) RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.mydomain.com$needs to be escaped like RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.mydomain\.com$

3.) RewriteRule .* index.php?kohana_uri=$0 [PT,QSA,L] is a infinite loop as index.php fits to the regex .*, too.

4.) You need the R flag to redirect the user to invite/ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ invites/$1 [R=301]. The %{REQUEST_URI} is the same uri as in the browser address bar.

5.) If you don't want to redirect the visitor you could "hack" the kohana system and set $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = $_GET['myURI']; in the first line of the index.php if this would be the only option to get it running. The myURI can be filled through mod_rewrite as you wish.