Using .htaccess to change directory in url

Question

I am trying to change the url that is displayed in the address bar from mysite.com/blog/wedding-hair/ to mysite.com/services/wedding-hair/ using .htaccess.

Using answers from:

I added to the .htaccess file. Here is the .htaccess file, I added the last rewrite rule:

Options -Indexes
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mysite.com$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/www\.mysite\.com" [R=301]
RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /services/$1 [L]

the non-www redirect works but not the blog-services rewrite. I thought maybe I had the directory names reversed but changing them around doesn't work either. I have tried adding and removing /'s around the directory names in all of the different combinations. I tried adding

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /blog/

before my RewriteRule. Nothing I Have tried has worked, the displayed url remains mysite.com/blog/wedding-hair/

I am sure this is pretty straight forward for someone but I am unable to get this correct. Any help would be appreciated.

When I was working on this yesterday I didn't think about the fact that the blog directory is a WordPress install. Here is the .htaccess file that is in the blog directory:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

I have tried adding my RewriteRule in this file but still no joy.

butlerblog · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-08 06:36:30Z

5

The problem here is that RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /services/$1 [L] internally rewrites the URI, so that the browser doesn't know it's happening, this happens entirely on the server's end. If you want the browser to actually load a different URL, you need to use the R flag like you are in your www redirect, though it's only redirecting requests to root. If you want it to redirect everything to include the "www", you want something like this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Then to redirect "blog" to "services", just add the R flag (or R=301 if you want the redirect to be permanent).

RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /services/$1 [L,R]

And, if for whatever reason your content isn't actually at /blog/, you need to internally rewrite it back

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /services/
RewriteRule ^services/(.*)$ /blog/$1 [L]

But this is only if your content is really at /blog/ but you only want to make it appear that it's at /services/.

edited Jun 8, 2016 at 6:36

butlerblog

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answered May 20, 2013 at 22:22

Jon Lin

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3 Comments

user1480853 Over a year ago

Thanks for the response. Adding the R didn't work. It did dawn on me this morning that because the blog portion is WordPress the blog directory has its own .htaccess file. Here is its contents:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>   RewriteEngine On   RewriteBase /blog/   RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d   RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]   </IfModule>

Jon Lin Over a year ago

@ACordry If the /blog/ directory has its own htaccess file, then it will supercede the rules in the parent htaccess, you need to add the 2nd rule to the /blog/ htaccess above the wordpress rules, but slightly modified: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /services/$1 [L,R], though this being wordpress, all of this is unlikely to work. You are better off just renaming /blog/ to /services/ and be done with it.

user1480853 Over a year ago

Sorry I didn't include the wordpress info in my original question. You are correct, it didn't work. Thanks for your help.

Lumiere de Lune · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-09 01:07:05Z

0

Actually, in such case, as you have a specific field in Wordpress options to handle the display of a different url, it CAN'T work with .htaccess is the WordPress rules are executed at the end.

And it would be much simpler to use the field "Site Address (URL)" in the General Settings, and enter "mysite.com/services/"

If you don't do that, in spite of your .htaccess, the WP internal rewriting will use you installation repertory

answered Nov 9, 2014 at 1:07

Lumiere de Lune

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