Maybe it will seem a very simple question, my website's url are awfully written, so I want to rewrite them. So I am preparing to activate mod_rewrite. The question is the following:
Suppose my url switches from site_url/index.php?page=mypage&type=mytype
to site_url/mypage/mytype
, what will happen if one refresh the page, is it necessary to put in the .htaccess file the converse process for proceeding to rewriting ?
You need a combination of redirect and rewriting. A draft outline of URL rewriting process would be:
- If URL contains
.php
, 301/302 redirect the request to its SEO friendly version. This will change the address in browser address bar.
- If SEO friendly URL was requested, rewrite it to its PHP version. This will not change the address in browser address bar.
Here is a very basic example of rewrite rules that do both of the above:
#
# redirect /index.php?page=somepage&type=sometype to friendly url
#
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} page=(\w+)&type=(\w+)
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ /%1/%2? [R,L]
#
# rewrite /somepage/sometype to index.php
#
RewriteRule ^(\w+)/(\w+)$ index.php?page=$1&type=$2
In .htaccess, you should be making a forward which maps...
^/(mypage)/(mytype) to index.php?page=$1&type=$2
But the reverse should be left alone. So a direct request to site_url/index.php?page=mypage&type=mytype
would simply be passed as is.
So, a refresh won't change anything.