using .htaccess to mask sub-directory as root with segments

Question

I want to move my app to the root of my server. I'm having trouble masking the subdirectory with segments.

Current URLs: mysite.com/client/kelloggs/sketches/image1.png

Current htaccess: RewriteRule ^client/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+) /client_view/_show_mocks.php?client_name=$1&milestone=$2&image=$3 [NC]

How can I remove client/ and instead have a URL like this? mysite.com/kelloggs/sketches/image1.png

Hoping for: mysite.com/kelloggs/sketches/image1.png

Answer 1

For making your http server respond to the URL pattern you imagine you just have to make minor adjustments to your current rule. Most important is to remove the client/ prefix from the matching pattern, as @AleksG suggested in his earlier comment. I made some small additional changes to make the rule more robust.

It often makes sense to take care of the opposite direction too, so to redirect clients still using the "old" URL pattern, so I added that too:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (?:^|&)client_name=([^&]+)&milestone=([^&]+)&image=([^&]+)(&|$)
RewriteRule ^/?client_view/_show_mocks\.php$ /%1/%2/%3 [R=301]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ /client_view/_show_mocks.php?client_name=$1&milestone=$2&image=$3 [END]

It is a good idea to start out with a 302 temporary redirection and only change that to a 301 permanent redirection later, once you are certain everything is correctly set up. That prevents caching issues while trying things out...

In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.

This rule will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a dynamic configuration file (".htaccess" file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a dynamic configuration file you need to take care that it's interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host's DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.

And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (".htaccess"). Those dynamic configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).