How do you rewrite a URL using htaccess?

Question

I'm attempting to use htaccess to write my urls as localhost/username instead of localhost/profile.php?id=username

I looked it up and this is what I found to be the solution

DirectoryIndex index.php
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /profile.php?id=$1 [L]

That's an exact copy from this stackoverflow question htaccess rewrite for query string however, for some reason it always returns a 500 error. I'm not sure why it's giving me this since I'm no expert with htaccess. I pretty much just find code modify it to fit my use.

Mod_rewrite is definitely turned on. So I know that can't be the issue. Any idea what is wrong with the code I have?

Edit:

This is what the apache error log returned.

[Sat Apr 27 14:20:10.558122 2013] [core:error] [pid 3244:tid 1688] [client 127.0.0.1:58653] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.

What does the apache logs say? Are you sure you're allowed to override DirectoryIndex or to issue Rewrite directives? — Denis de Bernardy, Apr 27 '13 at 18:26
Sorry, I'm not great as a web admin. How do I access the apache logs on xampp? — , Apr 27 '13 at 18:27
@Denis I edited the post to include the error. It seems as if there's a redirect loop. Any idea why that would be happening? — , Apr 27 '13 at 18:29

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 27 '13 at 18:35

1

If it's really a redirect loop per your comment, try adding this line immediately before your rule:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !-f

answered Apr 27 '13 at 18:35

Denis de Bernardy

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Thanks, I think we're close. Unfortunately it still threw an error. But I changed the rule to `RewriteRule ^(.*)$ profile.php?user=$1 [L]` taking away the front slash before profile.php and now if I type in localhost/username it shows the profile.php template but doesn't query the database. Do I have to use $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] in my php code? – Apr 27 '13 at 18:51
Add a `var_dump($_GET)` in your code somewhere to see what's wrong, and double check your php and mysql details. (Methinks this ought to be a new SO question, too) – Denis de Bernardy Apr 27 '13 at 18:56
If I can't get it to work after some of my own work I'll make a new question. Thanks again. – Apr 27 '13 at 19:05

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 27 '13 at 18:36

0

The part where it says /profile.php?id=$1 is where it will rewrite you to. If that;s not a file then it would show up with an error so change that to whatever file you want it to rewrite you to.

Hope this helped

Kevin

edited Apr 27 '13 at 18:36

AKS

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answered Apr 27 '13 at 18:24

Kevin Harrison

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How do you rewrite a URL using htaccess?

2 Answers2