.htaccess - How to redirect uppercase and accented letters to unaccented lowercase in url?

Question

I use the RewriteEngine with the following htaccess rules to remove accented and capitalized letters from urls:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(A|Á|á|Â|â|Æ|æ|À|à|Å|å|Ã|ã|Ä|ä)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1a%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(B)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1b%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(C|Ç|ç)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1c%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(D)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1d%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(E|É|é|Ê|ê|È|è|Ð|ð|Ë|ë)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1e%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(F)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1f%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(G)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1g%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(H)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1h%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(I|Í|í|Î|î|Ì|ì|Ï|ï)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1i%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(J)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1j%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(K)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1k%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(L)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1l%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(M)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1m%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(N|Ñ|ñ)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1n%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(O|Ó|ó|Ô|ô|Œ|œ|Ò|ò|Ø|ø|Õ|õ|Ö|ö)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1o%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(P|ß|Þ|þ)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1p%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(Q)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1q%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(R)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1r%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(S)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1s3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(T)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1t%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(U|Ú|ú|Û|û|Ù|ù|Ü|ü)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1u%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(V)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1v%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(W)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1w%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(X)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1x%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(Y|Ý|ý|Ÿ|ÿ)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1y%3 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*?)(Z)(.*?)$
RewriteRule . %1z%3 [R=301,L]

How can I improve or make this code shorter whitout using RewriteMap or mod_speling as suggested in this reference: http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/rewrite-uppercase-lowercase.html

UPDATE ANSWER According to Samurai8's answer I have set an environment variable in order to prepare all changes first and redirect at the end. Here is the htaccess save as UTF-8:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(A|Á|á|Â|â|Æ|æ|À|à|Å|å|Ã|ã|Ä|ä)(.*)$ $1a$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(B)(.*)$ $1b$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(C|Ç|ç)(.*)$ $1c$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(C|Ç|ç)(.*)$ $1c$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(D)(.*)$ $1d$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(E|É|é|Ê|ê|È|è|Ð|ð|Ë|ë)(.*)$ $1e$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(F)(.*)$ $1f$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(G)(.*)$ $1g$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(H)(.*)$ $1h$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(I|Í|í|Î|î|Ì|ì|Ï|ï)(.*)$ $1i$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(J)(.*)$ $1j$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(K)(.*)$ $1k$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(L)(.*)$ $1l$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(M)(.*)$ $1m$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(N|Ñ|ñ)(.*)$ $1n$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(O|Ó|ó|Ô|ô|Œ|œ|Ò|ò|Ø|ø|Õ|õ|Ö|ö)(.*)$ $1o$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(P|ß|Þ|þ)(.*)$ $1p$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Q)(.*)$ $1q$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(R)(.*)$ $1r$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(S)(.*)$ $1s$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(T)(.*)$ $1t$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(U|Ú|ú|Û|û|Ù|ù|Ü|ü)(.*)$ $1u$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(V)(.*)$ $1v$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(W)(.*)$ $1w$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(X)(.*)$ $1x$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Y)(.*)$ $1y$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Z)(.*)$ $1z$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R=301]
RewriteCond %{ENV:Redirect} =1
RewriteRule ^ - [R,L,E=!Redirect]

HELPFUL REFERENCES

With modrewrite, you can possibly prepare all changes first, then redirect. You can set an environment variable to help with that. (e.g. `RewriteRule ^(.*)(B)(.*)$ $1b$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R]` with `RewriteCond %{ENV:Redirect} =1` and `RewriteRule ^ - [R,L,E=!Redirect]` at the end. — Sumurai8, Oct 19 '13 at 09:06
This is the methode I am looking for. I am trying to implement it but if you have any working solution before do not hesitate :) — RafaSashi, Oct 19 '13 at 09:29
Remember that you'll need 1 RewriteCond for every RewriteRule. As far as the 404 error: Find out what the url is rewritten to. It might be a problem with character sets. [This question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14780875/french-characters-with-rewrite-rule) might have some additional information. — Sumurai8, Oct 19 '13 at 10:18

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:04

The way I got it to work is by saving the .htaccess file as utf-8. An explanation on how to do that can be found here for vim. If you use an other editor, you'll need to search a bit. If the .htaccess file isn't saved as an utf-8 file, but as an ascii file instead, the RewriteRules will leave 'strange characters'. localhost/à would be rewritten to localhost/a¡ for example. I can only guess the reason for that, but I assume this is because Apache assumes strings to have an other character encoding than they actually have.

If everything works as expected, you can change [R] to [R=301] to make the redirect permanent. Permanent redirects are cached by the browser, reducing the load on the server for future requests, but they mess up rewrites if you are still testing, because an old rewrite could be cached.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Á|á|Â|â|Æ|æ|À|à|Å|å|Ã|ã|Ä|ä|A)(.*)$ $1a$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD}  !=POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)(B)(.*)$ $1b$3 [E=Redirect:1,N,R]

#etc...

RewriteCond %{ENV:Redirect} =1
RewriteRule ^ - [R,L,E=!Redirect]

This is all correct from Á to Z! thanks for the ressources and the code. I always save as utf8 without bom but I gess it is equivalent in this case. — RafaSashi, Oct 19 '13 at 11:13

.htaccess - How to redirect uppercase and accented letters to unaccented lowercase in url?

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