mod_rewrite prefix problem - apache

Question

I'm having some difficulties with mod_rewrite. My directory structure (part of it) is:
index.php
.htaccess
app
controllers
models
views
...
public
javascripts
stylesheets
foo
bar
So, as you can see, all static files are in app/public. That's the reason I would like to route requests like:
http://www.example.com/images/logo.png => app/public/images/logo.png
http://www.example.com/javascripts/app.js => app/public/javascripts/app.js
http://www.example.com/uploads/blog/something => app/public/uploads/blog/something
If that file doesn't exist, then it should route to index.php, like:
http://www.example.com/news/show/42 => index.php
(Because file app/public/news doens't exist)
So, this is my current .htaccess, but I think it can be done in more elegant way.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (png|jpg|gif|bmp|ico)$ app/public/images/$1/$2.$3 [L]
RewriteRule ([^/.]+).js$ app/public/javascripts/$1.js [L]
RewriteRule ([^/.]+).css$ app/public/stylesheets/$1.css [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [NC,L,QSA]
Also, problem with this one is, it only handles images, javascripts and stylesheets, but not all other files.
I know there is:
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
But, I don't know how to route them with prefix "app/public/"? I tried:
RewriteCond app/public/%{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond app/public/%{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
But it doesn't work! I also tried using RewriteBase, but it didn't work out.
EDIT:
I'm using mod_expires, and I'd really like to automate requests like:
http://www.example.com/images/logo.42.png => app/public/images/logo.png
http://www.example.com/javascripts/app.42.js => app/public/javascripts/app.js
So, as you can see, I would like to have optional number between filename and extension, and that number should be ignored (it is only used for future expires).
Previously, I found:
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.(\d+)(_m_\d+)?\.([^\.]+)$ $1.$4 [QSA]
But I don't really understand how it works and does it always work in my example (multiple extensions maybe)?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Try this instead:
/.htaccess
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^$ app/public/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) app/public/$1 [L]
/app/.htaccess
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^$ public/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) public/$1 [L]
/app/public/.htaccess
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
Finally, create an index.php in your /app/public/ and put a dispatcher here:
<pre>
<?php
function dispatch($action, $request) {
echo 'action: ' . $action;
echo "\nparameters: " ;
print_r($request);
}
$fragments = explode('/', $_GET['url']);
dispatch($fragments[0], array_slice($fragments, 1));
?>
</pre>
Now say try accessing:
# these will go through php
/controller/action
/post/create
/post/delete/1
# these are static files
/stylesheets/
/foo/bar/myfile.txt