Re: [tlug] [OT] Creating user-friendly URLS with mod_rewrite/Apache [SOLVED]

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

Josh,

Thank you for your help.

I'm happy to report that the issue is solved. I am getting nice friendly 
URLs, so mod_rewrite seems to be working.

It should be noted, though, that even though mod-rewrite is working, it 
isn't listed when I run "/usr/sbin/apache2 -l". I don't know if that's 
odd behaviour or not, just that it seemed like it was supposed to be 
listed there.

For my own reference as well as others, although the path to the answer 
was a little stumbly, here are the steps that I think ultimately lead to 
getting everything to work:

1. # sudo a2enmod rewrite

2. Confirm that the "rewrite.load" file is in /etc/apache2/mods-enabled

Currently I have the following files in that directory:
cgi.load  php5.conf  php5.load  rewrite.load

3.  # sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

Find where it says:
   <Directory /var/www/>
       Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
       AllowOverride None
       Order allow,deny
       allow from all

And change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride all". (I noticed that 
"None" was in upper case, and "all" was lowercase. Don't know if case is 
important, but this is the way that it worked for me).

Some sites said to edit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default, or 
sometimes "default-000", but they are just symlinks to 
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default (at least in my case).

4. #  sudo gedit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Add the following lines:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
</IfModule>

No other editing of httpd.conf was necessary, despite some sites that 
said to use "LoadModule".

5. Reload the apache modules and restart Apache.

# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload
# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

6. Create an .htaccess file (if there isn't one already) in the 
directory where one wants to create "user friendly URLS", and add the 
following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php

As David explained, this should set it so that "If the requested URI 
matches a real file or directory, proceed as normal.  If not, call 
index.php (or whatever you set it to) which then needs to take care of 
the request one way or the other (for example send 404 if it's a missing 
image file)"

If anyone can see problems in the above, or if I've misunderstood some 
part, please let me know.

Thanks to Josh, David, Godwin, Stephen, Romans, Edmund, and all of TLUG 
for their ever-present great support.

--
Dave M G