Mapping folder to a different server via htaccess - apache

Our website currently servers images from a website.com/images/ folder.
Thing is we have limited bandwidth on that server and the images are sucking it up.
We have another server with a lot more free bandwidth.
Is there any way to maps /images/ to goto the other server where we'll upload that folder? This would save us from needing to change the paths of every image across all the pages.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^images/(.*) http://your.images.storage.site/images/$1 [L,QSA,R=302]
It requires Apache to have mod_rewrite installed.

try this:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^images/(.*)$ http://otherwebsite.com/images/$1 [L,R=302]

Related

.htaccess Redirect Media File Requests to a Different Domain/Server

Simply speaking, I want to substitute one file path for another in the URI, but only for certain file types.
I have a load of image files (PNG, GIF and JPG) on one server and a wordpress installation on another server. I can't put them all on the same server at the moment (for reasons too complicated to go into).
So, when I get a request for a PNG, GIF or JPG file on e.g.
http://www.server1.com/images1/image1.png
I want to be able to divert this request to the same image, but on server 2, potentially in a different top level subfolder e.g. "allimages" such as:
http://www.server2.com/allimages/images1/image1.png
Then, say divert:
http://www.server1.com/images2/image2.png
to
http://www.server2.com/allimages/images2/image2.png
I tried to make a start with .htaccess (on SERVER1) but haven't got very far. I put a .htaccess file in the root of Server 1, with these lines in:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.png|\.jpg|\.gif|)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.server2.com/allimages/$1 [L,R=301]
But I know this isn't correct. Can anyone help? Many thanks!
Try with:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.+(?:\.png|\.jpg|\.gif))$ http://www.server2.com/allimages/$1 [L,R=301]

htaccess RewriteRule problems

I have a web page which works fine on live server. However some links to files (jpg, pdf and others) which are created with cms editor contain relative paths.
When I run that page on my local test server which serves the pages out of a sub folder of localhost the relative paths to the files are wrong since they are missing the subfolder at the beginning. The html page loads fine. It's just some files in it that have wrong path and won't load.
page loads from http://localhost/level1/
files are trying to load from http://localhost/level2/ and I get 404s.
They should be loading from http://localhost/level1/level2/
So I setup a RewriteRule to correct the path but no matter what I have tried I can't get it to work. I have tried various flags including [R,L] but nothing changes the URI in the html.
currently I have:
RewriteRule ^/level2/(.*)$ /level1/level2/$1 [R]
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Sounds like those links are not relative paths but absolute ones (starting with a leading slash (/). That is why the issue occurs at all. Relative paths make much more sense.
This would be the version to be used inside your http servers host configuration:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/level2/(.*)$ /level1/level2/$1 [L,QSA]
Here the version for .htaccess style files (note the missing leading slash):
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^level2/(.*)$ /level1/level2/$1 [L,QSA]
You could use a version that can be used in both situations:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?level2/(.*)$ /level1/level2/$1 [L,QSA]
Note however that in general one should always prefer to place such rules inside the http servers host configurations. .htaccess style files are notoriously error prone, hard to debug and they really slow down the server, often for nothing. .htaccess style files only offer a last option for those who are using a really cheap web hosting provider. Or for situations where a web application has to write its own rewrite rules, which obviously is a security nightmare on its own...

.htaccess rewrite root to folder, yet block direct urls to same folder

I've been researching and trying for a week to accomplish this, but I haven't been able to find my solution. I'm sure it's possible, but I'm just not an expert in the depths of voodoo magic.
The setup:
An installation of MantisBT located in
mysite.com/mantisbt/currentver/mantis-1.3.19
When I perform an upgrade, I want to archive all old versions and old
database dumps to /mantisbt/oldversions/ to keep things tidy.
I also have other utilities and pages in various subdirectories, for
instance "mysite.com/utils"
The goal:
I want users to type in mysite.com/ (root) and have the URL rewritten
(transparently) to /mantisbt/currentver/mantis-1.3.19/ so that they
don't see my directory structure and it looks like the mantisbt app is
located in the root directory.
I also want protection from anyone trying to directly access a
subdirectory beginning with "/mantis". For instance, if
someone directly types mysite.com/mantisbt/currentver/mantis-1.3.19/
into their browser, I want them redirected back to the root directory
so they access the site from root just like everyone else.
I also need to allow my other subdirectories like mysite.com/utils to
be accessible if I type in the full path to them.
The biggest problem I've encountered is that Apache loops through your .htaccess file again every time the URL changes. So I get stuck in these rewrite loops. I've tried looking at every possible tool that Apache offers, but I'm seriously outgunned here. I could provide examples of what I've tried, they're obviously not correct, but ask me and I can post them.
You'd be far better off altering the DocumentRoot in your httpd.conf, and mapping in the utils directory, via a Location directive. It will be far cleaner, and Apache won't have to do some trickery with every request.
Anyway something along the following lines should work.
# Stop direct access
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !mysite.com [NC]
RewriteRule /?mantisbt/currentver/mantis-1.3.19 / [NC,L,R=301]
# Internally Rewrite everything apart from /utils to /mantisbt/mantis-1.3.19/
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !mysite.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/utils [NC]
RewriteRule .* /mantisbt/currentver/mantis-1.3.19%{REQUEST_URI} [L]

mod_rewrite inserting full path to file

I need to create a rewrite to take traffic going to mp3/mp4 files in a specific subdirectory and then route them to a PHP file that tracks download stats etc before routing them to the actual file location since iTunes requires your podcast RSS contain actual media file extensions (.mp3, .mp4, etc)
I have created rewrites before with no problem but now I am running into an odd issue on this company's server.
My .htaccess located at www.company.com/companytools/podcasts
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/(.*).mp3$ /test.php?file=$1 [r=301,L]
Right now it is partially working it does act upon the mp3 file but ends up including the full path to test.php after the domain, so I end up with a 404 page looking for this URL:
www.company.com/www/internal/docs/companytools/podcasts/test.php?file=test
basically I need the path, but only the /companytools/podcasts part.
Any help is appreciated.
You may not need R=301 here to hide actual PHP handler.
Try this rule with RewriteBase:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /companytools/podcasts/
RewriteRule ^(.+?)\.mp3$ test.php?file=$1 [L,QSA]

rewritemap for SEO and pretty URLs

I am attempting to redirect & rewrite some dynamic PHP URL's to pretty and SEO friendly URLs. I have manged to do this successfully through .htaccess with the following code:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^somevar=green&nodescription=([a-zA-Z0-9_-]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /green\/%1\/? [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^green/([^/]*)/$ /script.php?somevar=green&nodescription=$1&rewrite=on [L]
This creates a somewhat pretty URL as follows:
http://www.mysite.com/green/aA43-/
As I say, this works absolutley fine. Apart from one thing. The parameter nodescription contains a non-descriptive random set of letters, numbers and other characters.
I would like to rewrite the nodescription parameter to a more descriptive one. I understand that I can do this with a rewritemap through Apache. However, I have no experience at doing soemthing like this, and I'm not entirely sure where to start.
Normally I would simply alter script.php so that it contains more descriptive parameters, but this time I have no control over the script; I am pulling it from another site using cURL.
Can anybody give me an example of how to pull this off?
Thanks!
Matt
Well, to answer my own question, to pull this off you need access httpd.conf file on your apache server. My shared hosting company didn't allow access to this file (I doubt any would allow you access).
So I bit the bullet and purchased a VPS. I will post the steps I took here in order to set the rewritemap up in the hope that it will help a lost soul :) Ok, here goes...
My VPS has WHM installed, so in WHM I went to:
Server Configuration >> Apache Configuration >> Include Editor
Pre Virtual Host Include >> All Versions
This feature takes any text you put in and includes it in your httpd.conf file without worrying that it will be overwritten at a later stage. If you don't have WHM on your server then you can add the text directly to your httpd.conf file; make sure it is outside and before any virtual hosts.
OK, so I included the following map declaration and rewrite rule:
#Map to redirect (swaps key and value)
RewriteMap rwmap txt:/home/*/public_html/rdmap.txt
<Directory /home/*/public_html/test>
Options All -Indexes
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^url/([^/]*)/$ /script.php?foo=${rwmap:$1|$1}&rewrite=on [L]
</Directory>
The actual map is a simple text file containing key/value pairs - you need to place this file in the directory declared in RewriteMap rwmap txt:/home/*/public_html/rdmap.txt.
And there you go. Apache now rewrites my URLs for me and I now have some nice and pretty SEO optimized links thanks to my rewrite map! Hoorah!
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^green/([^/]*)/(.*)$ /script.php?somevar=green&nodescription=$1&rewrite=on [L]
This rewrite will allow you to pass "arbitrary text" that has nothing to do with the rewrite. For example:
http://www.mysite.com/green/aA43-/some-seo-boosting-title
Will still reroute correctly to script.php; the latter part will simply be ignored by the rewrite.