htaccess RewriteRule issues - something wrong with my syntax? - apache

Question

I want my sites to redirect following this protocol :
/weddings/ >> ?q=weddings
/editorial/one/ >> ?q=editorial&z=one
so I made the following rewrite rule :
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)/$? /?z=$1&q=$2 [nocase]
which when implemented totally screwed everything up.
what simple thing am i doing wrong!?
my current .htaccess
DirectoryIndex index.html.var index.htm index.html index.shtml index.xhtml index.wml index.perl index.pl index.plx index.ppl index.cgi index.jsp index.js index.jp index.php4 index.php3 index.php index.phtml default.htm default.html home.htm index.php5 Default.html Default.htm home.html
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^elijahhoffman\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.elijahhoffman\.com$
RewriteRule ^journal$ "http\:\/\/elijahj\.tumblr\.com\/" [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^elijahhoffman\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.elijahhoffman\.com$
RewriteRule ^blog\/?$ "http\:\/\/elijahj\.tumblr\.com\/" [R=301,L]

Answer 1

To prevent a rewrite loop, you'll need to guard against real files or directories (such as your index) being rewritten. Append a [L] flag to stop on the first match.
RewriteEngine On
# First do your journal/blog rewrites
# Only need one condition to match both domains
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?elijahhoffman\.com$
# Combine these into one rule (dots & slashes don't need escaping on the rewrite side)
RewriteRule ^(journal|blog)/?$ http://elijahj.tumblr.com/ [R=301,L]
# Then the generic one...
# If it isn't a real file or directory...
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# Rewrite those with only one component up to /
RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)/?$ index.php?q=$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# Rewrite those with 2 components
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^./]+)/?$ index.php?q=$1&z=$2 [L]