Need help with rewrite problem

[whitemank]

I am using an seo url contribution on my oscommerce store. When I upgraded to Mysql 5, one of my queries broke and it resulted in the URLs being written as:

mysite.com/-c-145.html

instead of

mysite.com/my-category-c-145.html

Now I've fixed the query, but I want to redirect anybody going to the former url to my url rewriting function (see below). I already am using the following redirect code:

RewriteRule ^(.*)-c-(.*).html$ index.php?cPath=$2&%{QUERY_STRING}

which rewrites the old style urls to the new style. I need to figure out how to modify that rewrite rule or add another one that also redirects the request if the "my-category" portion is missing and it starts with "-c-".

Thanks! I am regex challenged, so please be easy on me.

[dklynn]

wm,

I agree.

The first thing to do is to get rid of the (.*) as it's more trouble than it's worth. It appears that the first one should be replaced with ([-a-z]+) and the second with ([0-9]+).

Since your problem has arisen from not having a cPath value, let me assume that NO cPath value should be assigned my-category and say that you should preceed your RewriteRule with another which specifically tests for a null value in the URI (your /-c-145.html) and redirect that WITH the my-category value for cPath.

Second, adding {QUERY_STRING} is a poor excuse for not using the QSA flag which automatically appends a pre-existing query string.

Of course, had you taken the time to read the tutorial Article linked in my signature, you'd know all that already!

Regards,

DK

[whitemank]

Thanks for the guidance. I've quickly browsed through your article. It's very informative. Unfortunately, being regex challenged (aka a complete regtard), I now know what I need to do, but seem to be having trouble actually doing it.

What is the regex string that tests for -c- immediately after the / ?

[dklynn]

wm,

It depends upon whether you're on Apache 1.x or 2.x (leading / treatment is different) but the following will work for the "one off" -c- => my-category-c- RewriteRule for either flavor:

RewriteRule ^/?-c-([0-9]+)\.html$ index.php?cPath=my-category [QSA,L]

The / is required for Apache 1 and assumed by Apache 2 so the optional leading slash ( /? ) will work for both. The QSA flag will append the pre-existing query string and the Last flag terminates that RewriteRule (so it's not automatically ANDed with the next mod_rewrite block).

Sorry, I'd thought that the regex in the beginning and code samples would have helped with your aversion to regex.

Regards,

DK

[whitemank]

Cool. The redirect condition is now being detected and is now calling the new URL. However, for the page url to be rewritten correctly I need to send the redirect to the old style url like in the example in my first post.

From:
mysite.com/-c-###_###_###

to:
mysite.com/index.php?cPath=###_###_###

The ###_###_### is a series of category IDs that shows the full path to the current category (there can be from 1-n ### in a given string). How do I separate the ###_###_###_... from the -c- when appending the string to the new URL?

Thanks again for all your help. I'm ordering a book on Regex so I am not so challenged next time I encounter this...

Now the [QSA,L] directive is appending -c-###_###_### to the new url. What I need is to remove the "-c-" from the string that is appended.

[whitemank]

After re-reading your document and playing around with it, I am now using the following:

RewriteRule ^/?-c-([0-9_]+).html$ index.php?cPath=$1 [QSA,L]

It is displaying the correct page, but the URL is not being reformated like the

RewriteRule ^(.*)-c-(.*).html$ index.php?cPath=$2&%{QUERY_STRING}

rewrite string does. BTW, I will fix the formatting on that one, too.

[dklynn]

wm,

Ah, the good news is that you're learning regex (as applied to URLs) but I can't determine if there was a follow-on question.

For what it's worth (and this is repeated from an earlier thread), Master Regular Expressions by Friedl is the Bible of regex and The Definitive Guide to Apache mod_rewrite by Bowen is specific to mod_rewrite (although it applies mostly to httpd.conf).

Regards,

DK

[whitemank]

DK,
Thanks again. The unexpected behavior appears to be in my php code and not with the redirect. I think I have it all working properly now.

Regards,
Kenja

[dklynn]

wm,

Yeah, that happens a lot, too!

Regards,

DK