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PHP Enhancing a Simple PHP Application Cleaning URLs with Rewrite Rules Adding A Trailing Slash

Posted by Amin Khoshzahmat
Amin Khoshzahmat
12,342 Points

.htaccess

In an earlier code challenge, we wrote a rewrite rule so that the web page http://localhost/flavors/ executed the code at all_flavors.php. Unfortunately, this only works if the web address includes the trailing slash. If someone visits http://localhost/flavors, they will see a 404: Page Not Found error. We'll need another rewrite rule to redirect from /flavors to /flavors/. Add a new line to the htaccess file below to accomplish this.

RewriteEngine  On   
RewriteRule ^flavors/$ /all_flavors.php

what should i do after this?

2 Answers

Jason Jones
Jason Jones
18,663 Points
Jason Jones
Jason Jones
18,663 Points

RewriteRule ^flavors$ /flavors/ [R=301]

The key to this rewrite is the "$" which matches the end of the string. Remember though, this matches a position, not a character.

Outside of this challenge, I would do this

RewriteRule ^flavors/?$ /flavors/ [R=301]

The ? means optional in regular expression speak.

Amin Khoshzahmat
Amin Khoshzahmat
12,342 Points

thank you for your time janson, i test it, but it doesn't work, i don't know why!

Andrew McCombs
Andrew McCombs
4,309 Points
Andrew McCombs
Andrew McCombs
4,309 Points

This is just for anyone who views this for help on the challenge. I know that this one can be a little difficult..

RewriteEngine  On   
RewriteRule ^flavors/$ /all_flavors.php
RewriteRule ^(flavors)$ /$1/ [R=301]
Chris Collier
Chris Collier
17,774 Points
Chris Collier
Chris Collier
17,774 Points

Hi thanks for this. I was having a lot of trouble on this challenge and this is the only way I could get past it. I never would have figured this out. What I was doing different is:

RewriteRule ^(/flavors)$ /$1/ [R=301]

The only difference with mine is that I had the leading forward slash in my first part of the rewrite. I don't understand why it works when we match to flavors without the first forward slash and then serve back flavors with a forward slash afterwards AND before. Wouldn't that cause a double-forward slash at that part of the address before the word "flavors"?