How to rewrite all 404's to index.php using cPanel URLs? - apache

Question

I'm trying to rewrite all 404's to index.php where I use PHP's parse_url() to determine which file to include (e.g. about-us.php, contact-us.php) and I'm getting some really weird results.
I'm working on a 'dev' URL automatically created by cPanel:
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/~mySite/
Current Method
My .htaccess file contains the following:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /~mySite
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9-_.]+)$ index.php
And the results are a mixed bag:
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/~mySite/contact-us renders just fine.
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/~mySite/contact-us/phone throws a 404 that isn't caught by mod_rewrite.
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/~mySite/about-us rewrites to the server root (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/index.php).
Previously Tried
ErrorDocument 404 /~mySite/index.php
And I get the similar results, except for the following:
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/~mySite/contact-us/phone rewrites to index.php but all my CSS and JS includes are off because they're trying to load relative to /~mySite/contact-us instead of /~mySite.
Any help? I'm going out of my mind. Especially the fact that contact-us works fine, but about-us doesn't?

Answer 1

First don't use cPanel preview. That is not a good way to view your dev site. Who knows how it will affect the rules. Also control panels do weird things anyway.
Preview your site using your real site domain name. You can do that my modifying your HOST file on your computer so that only you can view it by the domain name. This little guide will show you how to edit it. It takes like 2 minutes.
Then that should help to check things better.
Most likely why the error document doesn't work because ~mySite is most likely not your document root. That is typically how cpanel does it's preview links. So your real error document should probably be as Marc B stated.
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
If you want a mod_rewrite solution, this should also work. But I wouldn't use both.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ / [R=301,L]
On a side note, I think it's usually good to use a 404 page so that users know that the requested page is not a real page instead of some people thinking something is just wrong with your site because it redirects to the home page. Like facebook, it gives you a big thumbs up with a bandage on it saying it the page is not available. I've seen many custom 404 pages that were pretty clever so maybe it might be time to just get creative.