Apache RewriteCond Question

[bustacapinya]

Hi,

Will the RewriteCond directive with the [OR] flag go to the next RewriteCond in the list even if the next RewriteCond is not directly below first?

Example (RewriteCond below are for example purposes only and not totally correct):

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mozilla.* [OR]
...
...
...
...
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^IE.* [OR]
...
...
...
...

... = rewrite rules satisfying condition(s)

Dan

[dklynn]

dan,

Yes. Do not merely copy each RewriteCond statement (changing the regex) as the last one should NOT have the [OR] flag.

Regards,

DK

[bustacapinya]

hi DK,

thanks for taking the time to reply, the reason I ask this is because I am currently deciding which approach (out of 2) to take.

The first being (where the id is hardcoded) :

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^referrals.* [OR]
RewriteRule ^referrals/accountants/$ r.php?n=ReferralCategory&cid=1 [L]
RewriteRule ^referrals/architects/$ r.php?n=ReferralCategory&cid=2 [L]
.. at least another 10 rules as abvove
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^ask.* [OR]
RewriteRule ^ask/accountants/$ r.php?n=AskCategory&cid=1 [L]
RewriteRule ^ask/architects/$ r.php?n=AskCategory&cid=2 [L]
.. at least another 10 rules as abvove

The second being (id is taken from url):

RewriteRule ^referrals/([a-zA-Z]+)/([0-9])$ r.php?n=ReferralCategory&cid=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^ask/([a-zA-Z]+)/([0-9])$ r.php?n=AskCategory&cid=$2 [L]

The second option has the negative impace of having a number at the end of the url, as in www.example.com/referrals/accountants/22, but drastically cuts down on the number of rules. I think the second may be a lot more efficient, but at the cost of increasing the length of the url.

Note: the rules presented are merely for example purposes and may contain mistakes.

Thanks again

[bustacapinya]

Hi,

The only probelm I can see with the second option above is that the url can easily be tampered with by users, for example :

http://ww.example.com/accountants/22/

Because its only the number (id) im interested in, a user could type anything in place of 'accountants' in the above example and still access the page, which in my opinion is not desirable.

Dan

[dklynn]

busta,

Hmmm, looking at your "amplification," the answer is a definite NO.

mod_rewrite (block) statements are terminated by the Last flag. You cannot extend a part of a block to another block as your code is attempting to do. It's a pain but you can set an environmental variable then look for that in successive blocks.

Regards,

DK

[bustacapinya]

DK,

Are you saying that :

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^referrals.* [OR]
RewriteRule ^referrals/accountants/$ r.php?n=ReferralCategory&cid=1 [L]
RewriteRule ^referrals/architects/$ r.php?n=ReferralCategory&cid=2 [L]
.. at least another 10 rules as abvove
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^ask.* [OR]
RewriteRule ^ask/accountants/$ r.php?n=AskCategory&cid=1 [L]
RewriteRule ^ask/architects/$ r.php?n=AskCategory&cid=2 [L]
.. at least another 10 rules as above

is not possible? And could you possibly explain more what you mean, ofcourse the last rewrite rule will not contain [OR].

Also I am decideing betwen the two options in my post above to use, Im not using them both

Thanks

PS Could I possibly send you my htacess file for you to have a look at? I dont really want to post it here.

[dklynn]

busta,

I'm not sure what you're trying to do with the RewriteCond lines.

What I was saying was that, UNLESS terminated by a Last flag, each successive mod_rewrite statement is ANDed with the next one.

Example:

RewriteRule ^/?([0-9]+)/test\.php$ $1/redirect1
RewriteRule ^/?([a-z]+)/test\.php$ $1/redirect2 [L]

In this example, using digits in the first subdirectory and using letters in the second subdirectory, redirect2 will NEVER be effected because the second RewriteRule is ANDed with the first and the digits can NEVER match the letters of the second.

Using the Last flag is similar to using ; in a single line PHP statement OR using } to close a PHP block statement. PHP will only provide an error if those characters are not used while mod_rewrite will "dummy-up" and try to proceed with what it thinks you want it to do (AND all statements until it finds a Last flag).

Yes (PM).

Regards,

DK