How to redirect url to the url with htaccess - apache

Question

I didn't know how to question this but my problem is like this
I have written a rule for a url
RewriteRule ^mysite.com.pk/([a-zA-Z0-9]+) index.php?store=$1
RewriteRule ^mysite.com.pk/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/products index.php?store=$1&view=products
RewriteRule ^mysite.com.pk/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/products/([0-9]+) index.php?store=$1&view=products&category=$2
RewriteRule ^mysite.com.pk/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/single/([0-9]+) index.php?store=$1&view=single&product=$2
I am new to htaccess so I don't know much about it. Is there a way that even if a old url comes like index.php?store=abc&view=single&product=123
this will be redirected to a new one like mysite.com.pk/abc/single/123

Answer 1

You have to make some small modifications to your proposed rules to get them to work. And you have to add additional rewriting rules to achieve what you actually ask: redirecting "old" URLs to your new syntax.
This is probably what you are looking for:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?([a-zA-Z0-9]+)$ index.php?store=$1 [END]
RewriteRule ^/?([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/products$ index.php?store=$1&view=products [END]
RewriteRule ^/?([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/products/([0-9]+)$ index.php?store=$1&view=products&category=$2 [END]
RewriteRule ^/?([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/single/([0-9]+)$ index.php?store=$1&view=single&product=$2 [END]
# index.php?store=xyz&view=single&product=123
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} store=([^&]+)&?
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} view=single&?
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} product=([^&]+)&?
RewriteRule /?index.php$ /%1/single/%3 [END,R=301]
# index.php?store=xyz&view=products&product=123
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} store=([^&]+)&?
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} view=products&?
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} category=([^&]+)&?
RewriteRule /?index.php$ /%1/products/%3 [END,R=301]
# index.php?store=xyz&view=products
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} store=([^&]+)&?
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} view=products&?
RewriteRule /?index.php$ /%1/products [END,R=301]
# index.php?store=xyz
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} store=([^&]+)&?
RewriteRule /?index.php$ /%1 [END,R=301]
Those rules should work the same in a .htaccess style file and in the real http host configuration. Please see the note below about that.
If you are using an old version of the apache http server then you may have to replace the END flag by the L flag. Try that if you receive an "internal server error" (http status 500) and the server complains about the END flag in the error log file. You may have to add some additional conditions to prevent an endless rewriting loop in that case.
Please note that I did not test that rule set. I hope it does not contain any silly mistakes and you certainly will have to test it.
All of the above assumes that mysite.com.pk is meant to match your host name ("domain"). But that will not work, since the RewriteRules work on the request path, not the full URL. If you want to limit the application of the rules to a specific host, then you can add a leading condition to stop the rewriting process:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^mysite\.com\.pk`
RewriteRule .* - [END]
And a general hint: you should always prefer to place such rules inside the http servers host configuration instead of using .htaccess style files. Those files are notoriously error prone, hard to debug and they really slow down the server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have control over the host configuration (read: really cheap hosting service providers) or if you have an application that relies on writing its own rewrite rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).