Need help with 301 redirect and mod_rewrite

[spenland]

I just changed the DNS to launch a new website and I need a little help. I've done plenty of 301 redirects before for individual files, but how do you do a redirect for an entire folder? Also many of the pages on the old site had urls like 'news.php?id=4" Is it possible to do a redirect for any URL containing 'news.php' id, and a number to the home page?

I appreciate any help.

[wige]

An entire folder can be redirected rather easily. For example, to redirect domain.tld/oldfolder/file.html to domain.tld/newfolder/file.html, you would use the following code in your .htaccess file:

RedirectMatch ^/oldfolder/(.*) http://domain.tld/newfolder/$1

I am not sure, however, if that will properly redirect query strings as well. If it doesn't, you may need to use mod_rewrite.

[Jean-Luc]

I would try this :

RedirectPermanent /old_folder/ http://www.new_domain.com/new_folder/
RedirectPermanent /news.php http://www.new_domain.com/?

Jean-Luc

[AjiNIMC]

Redirection using .htaccess is quite simple, keep 3 things in mind:

1) Do you have POST variables to these old urls, while posting a variables, it will lose values.
2) Make sure you don't lose the value of links that old urls had but doing proper redirection.
3) Links from internal pages needs to change to new urls as fast as possible to improve user experience.


Lets take things one by one:

news.php?id=4 , if the new urls in a pattern like something-4.html, it can be done at .htaccess like
RewriteRule news.php?id=(.*) /foldername/$1.html [R=301,L]

Now if the new URLs doesn't have a pattern
RewriteRule news.php?id=(.*) /redirect/index.php?id=$1 [L]

Now the redirect/index.php can get the new url from the DB and do a 301 redirection.


Folder redirection can happen like
RewriteRule ^/oldfolder/(.*) http://domain.tld/newfolder/$1

More matching and complex things can be done with referring variables from condition comparisons. Do let me know if you need more help.

Regards,
Aji Issac

[TrafficProducer]

You may find some help here, (above ^^ notes looks like good tips):-

Apache open-source software and Apache Servers. Mod Rewrite.

and

.htaccess Files and .htaccess Help. How use to .htaccess

[spenland]

Great thanks for the tips guys!

AjiNIMC, I have one question about your suggestion. If I want to do as you suggested with this example:

RewriteRule ^/oldfolder/(.*) http://domain.tld/newfolder/$1

what does the '$1' do in this example? Is it a variable of some type? Can I leave it out?

Thanks!

[spenland]

Also, what if I want to create a catch all for any old pages that follow the news.php?id=* format?

i.e.

news.php?id=anything forwards to www.mywebsite.com/news/

[wige]

Originally Posted by spenland

Great thanks for the tips guys!

AjiNIMC, I have one question about your suggestion. If I want to do as you suggested with this example:

RewriteRule ^/oldfolder/(.*) http://domain.tld/newfolder/$1

what does the '$1' do in this example? Is it a variable of some type? Can I leave it out?

Thanks!

Whatever is in parenthesis in the first section is put into a numbered variable in the destination. So for

RewriteRule /(.*)/(.*).html showpage?subject=$1&article=$2

$1 would correspond to the first .* and $2 would correspond to the second.