apache 2.4 module rewrite error - apache

Question

trying to generate dynamic Urls using Module rewrite , it seems like m doing something wrong and getting Server error! server encountered an internal error
i used this code
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
#Enable mod_Rewrite
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /project
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ .*/index\.(php|html?)\ HTTP
RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.(php|html?)$ $1 [R=301,L]
</ifModule>
the project is aliased to C:/project
any pointers to achieve what m trying to?? m using apche 2.4 should the .htacess be saved in project folder ?? or conf folder ??
i want to achieve something like this
localhost/project/index.php?departmentId=2/
localhost/project/science-d2/
both should load same page

Answer 1

You are using an infinite loop, like this:
Suppose that your apache is configured like this in some config file:
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.cgi index.pl index.xhtml
Your rewrite rule may result in:
/project/index.php => /project => /project/index.php => /project => ...
In this case, you've no need of rewrite. So the solution here is comment out all the instructions:
#<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# #Enable mod_Rewrite
# RewriteEngine on
# RewriteBase /project
# RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ .*/index\.(php|html?)\ HTTP
# RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.(php|html?)$ $1 [R=301,L]
#</ifModule>

Answer 2

Since you are using Apache 2.4 try to replace <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> with <IfModule rewrite_module>
So the final code looks like this:
<IfModule rewrite_module>
#Enable mod_Rewrite
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /project
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ .*/index\.(php|html?)\ HTTP
RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.(php|html?)$ $1 [R=301,L]
</ifModule>
Of course make sure you comment out rewrite_module in .conf file so it is indeed loaded.