RewriteCond Being Ignored? - apache

Question

I am trying to use mod_rewrite on a Ubuntu 12.04 server to make my URLs more readable, however I want to add an exception for images and css files.
My input URLs are in the format \controller\action which is then re-written to index.php?controller=controller&action=action. I want to add an exception so that if an image or css file is specified, the URL is not re-written, e.g. \images\image.jpg would not be re-written.
My .htaccess code is as follows:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.gif|\.jpg|\.png|\.css)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-z]+)/([a-zA-z]+)$ test.php?controller=$1&action=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-z]+)/([a-zA-z]+)/([^/]*)$ test.php?controller=$1&action=$2&$3 [L]
My re-write code is working fine and the URLs are coming out as intended, however even if I request an image, the URL is still being re-written. It appears that my RewriteCond is being ignored, anyone any suggestions as to why this might be?

Answer 1

The RewriteCond only applies to your first RewriteRule, it should be reproduced for the second rule. However, I think that is better to add a non-rewriting rule, before, to exclude existing stuffs.
# Do nothing for files which physically exist
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule .* - [L]
# your MVC rules
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-z]+)/([a-zA-z]+)$ test.php?controller=$1&action=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-z]+)/([a-zA-z]+)/([^/]*)$ test.php?controller=$1&action=$2&$3 [L]

Answer 2

The rewriteCond rule is only applied for the next RewriteRule.
So you need to at least repeat the rewriteCond for your seconde RewriteRule.
No there is certainly better things to do.
For example a usual way of doing it is to test that the url is matching a real static ressource. If all your php code is outside the web directory (in libraries directory, except for index.php) then all styatic ressources available directly on the the document root can only be js files, css files, or image files.
So this is the usual way of doing it:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-z]+)/([a-zA-z]+)$ test.php?controller=$1&action=$2 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-z]+)/([a-zA-z]+)/([^/]*)$ test.php?controller=$1&action=$2&$3 [L]
But this is a starting point. We could certainly find something to avoid doing 2 rules for this (maybe I'll have a look later)