HTML to PHP

[tenaki]

Hi all

When we set up our website we were very new to it all and just went with the flow and created all our pages in html.

Now however, certain new pages and things like the gallery, forum etc are in php.

I have tried to use php includes on html pages for things like random photo's or forum threads but it just aint working.

The only way I can see is to change my index.html to index.php,

So to the question/s

What will happen to the thousands of links, especially those on search engines? if I create a redirect will those links still find my pages?

Any ideas appreciated

[ranjan]

http://www.desilva.biz/apache/rewrite.html

[carbonize]

Why would he want to use modrewrite when all he wants is to redirect?

Make a .htaccess file and place it in the root folder of your site (the main folder where your index page is). The redirect code you need in the htaccess file is

Redirect permanent /oldpage.htm http://www.domain.com/archive/oldpage.htm

for a little more info goto http://www.carbonize.co.uk/Webdesign/htaccess.php

BUT when alls said and done the index page will be served to the visitors regardless of it's extension. So long as you only have a single index page the server will send that to the visitors browser.

[tikanet]

The php initialization (configuration) file has to be told where include files can be found (what path to use to get to them). Check with your host and/or sys admin to get all that sorted out.

[tenaki]

Thanks both

I have looked in my control panel and there is a "manage redirects" where you can set up temp and permanent redirects.

Would this do the same job? and would Google links etc still find the pages I don't want loads of 404 errors

[cyanide]

Yes that would work.

You have to be careful though.
If you have alot of stuff in the .htaccess already,
then doing it through the control panel could give you error messages.

In that case, you should do it manually.
as suggested by carbonize

[tenaki]

Thanks all, another plus for webPro

I went for the alteration to the .htaccess file in the end as I was a bit worried about errors with a redirect, and I am so paranoid about upsetting my search engine results lol.

thanks ranjan for the link and thanks to desilva.bz for working it through with me.
http://www.desilva.biz/apache/rewrite.html

[carbonize]

Using a .htaccess redirect will not affect search engine placement. The redirect works by sending the people to the new page when they request the old page and search engine bots are coded to expect this sometimes.

[le_gber]

tenaki, if all you want to do is changing page extensions but you keep the same page name and domain name you may want to try the following:

#forward spiders and visitors to the new php pages.
RedirectMatch permanent ^(.*)\.htm $1.php

Leo