URL Rewrite

IIS (Windows)

Additional Resources

• URL Rewrite

  http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite

• URL Rewrite Community Forum

  http://forums.iis.net/1152.aspx

ISAPIRewrite (Windows)

Additional Resources

• ISAPI_Rewrite 3

  http://www.helicontech.com/isapi_rewrite/

• ISAPI_Rewrite 3 - Documentation

  http://www.helicontech.com/isapi_rewrite/doc/introduct.htm

Redirect Codes

301 - Moved Permanently

Built to be search engine friendly, the 301 redirect is best used for redirects which will not change. Robots will crawl and index these redirects.

There are no limit to how many redirects you can perform from "Site A" to "Site B". However, there is a limit to how many redirects you can chain together. (Example: Site A -> Site B -> Site C -> Site D -> Site E) Google suggest that you use no more than 3, as each redirect can cause a certain amount of latency.

"If you are getting up to the four or five hops, then that's starting to get a little bit dangerous, in the sense that Google might decide not to follow all of those redirects."

-Change page URLs with 301 redirects, video recording, Google Webmasters

302 - Found

The 302 redirect is an older standard than most. Today it is mainly used to redirect legacy browsers that do not support HTTP/1.1 (RFC 2616) status codes. (Such as 303 and 307)

303 - See Other

The purpose of the 303 status code, as defined by Semantic Web theory, is one way of responding to a request for a URI that identifies a real-world object.

An example of this would be if the URI, http://www.example.com/person/Brian, identifies a person, Brian, then it would not be appropriate for the server to return a "200" status code (OK) to the GET request, as the server cannot deliver the person "Brian". A 303 would redirect this request to a separate URI that has a description for the person "Brian".

304 - Not Modified

The status code 304 denotes that the requested resource has not changed since the version specified by the request headers. This is most commonly seen when the browser is serving cached objects for a website.

307 - Temporary Redirect

The 307 redirect is used when the request should be repeated with a different URI; however, future requests should still use the originating URI. In addition to this, the request method can not be changed when reissuing the original request. The the original request starts as a POST method, then the repeated request must also be a POST method.

308 - Permanent Redirect

The 308 status code is very similar to 302 and 301 redirects. There is a slight change to the rules however. Status code 308 does not allow for the HTTP method to change. All redirects must match the originating method.

Regular Expressions

Testing Tools

Below is a brief list of online tools to create and test regular expressions.

• Regular Expressions 101
  

  https://regex101.com/

• RegExr
  

  http://regexr.com/

• RegexPal
  

  http://regexpal.com/

• Rubular
  

  http://rubular.com

Additional Resources

Below is a list of useful online resource to help you learn and familiarize yourself with regular expressions.

• Regular Expression (Wikipedia)

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression

• Regular Expressions

  http://www.regular-expressions.info/

• Regular Expressions (Mozilla)

  https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions

• JavaScrip RegExp Reference

  http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_obj_regexp.asp

Common Rewrite Rules

Redirect to www

Linux (Apache)

# Add WWW Prefix
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]
</IfModule>

Windows (IIS)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Redirect to www" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^(.*)$"  ignoreCase="true" />
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="/http://www.example.com/{R:1}"  />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Redirect to non-www

Linux (Apache)

# Remove WWW Prefix
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
</IfModule>

Windows (IIS)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Redirect to non-www" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^(.*)$"  />
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="/http://example.com/{R:1}"  />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Redirect Single Page

# Redirect page
Redirect 301 /old.html /new.html

Redirect Entire Site

# Redirect entire domain
Redirect 301 / http://www.example.com

Redirect to Different File Extension

# Redirect to new file extension
RedirectMatch 301 (.*)\.html$ http://www.example.com$1.php

Redirect to New Domain

# Redirect to new domain
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.)?newdomain\.com$ [NC]
    RewriteRule .* http://newdomain.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.)?newdomain\.com$ [NC]
    RewriteRule .* https://newdomain.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

Redirect Unsecure (HTTP) to Secure (HTTPS)

# Redirect to HTTPS
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]
</IfModule>

Redirect Mobile Users

# Redirect mobile devices
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} "text\/vnd\.wap\.wml|application\/vnd\.wap\.xhtml\+xml" [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
    RewriteRule ^ http://m.example.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]
</IfModule>

Block IP Addresses

# Block IP addresses
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from 1.2.3.4

Block All Except IP Addresses

# Block all except IP addresses
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 1.2.3.4

Block Bad Bots

# Block bad bots
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On 
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Bot [OR]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^AnotherBotName
    RewriteRule ^.* - [F,L]
</IfModule>

Prevent Directory Listing

# Prevent directory listing
Options All -Indexes

Custom Error Pages

# Custom error pages
ErrorDocument 400 /error400.html
ErrorDocument 401 /error401.html
ErrorDocument 403 /error403.html
ErrorDocument 404 /error403.html
ErrorDocument 500 /error500.html

Follow Symbolic Links

# Follow symbolic links
Options +FollowSymLinks

Redirect to Maintenance Page

# Redirect to maintenance page
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^64\.207\.234\.198$
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/maintenance\.html$ [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|svg|swf|css|ico|js)$ [NC]
    RewriteRule .* /maintenance.html [R=302,L]
</IfModule>

Prevent Image Hotlinking

# Prevent hotlinking
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^https?://([^/]+)/ [NC]
    RewriteCond %1#%{HTTP_HOST} !^(.+)#\1$
    RewriteRule \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|swf|svg)$ - [NC,F,L]
</IfModule>

Compress Common Filetypes

# Compress common filetypes
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript

Application-Specific Rewrite Rules

CodeIgniter

# CodeIgniter permalinks
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

concrete5

# Concrete5 permalinks
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Joomla

# Joomla permalinks
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index\.php
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule .* index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Mura

Linux (.htaccess)

# Apache mod_rewrite Docs: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/rewrite/
# Intro: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/rewrite/intro.html
# Flags: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/rewrite/flags.html
 
Options All -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks
 
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
 
# Rewrite only nonexistent file or directory path
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
 
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# MURA REWRITE OPTIONS
#
# NOTE: If running on Tomcat with sites using the SiteID in the URL
# a custom servlet mapping will be required for each site.
# Instructions: http://docs.getmura.com/v6/installation-setup/how-to-add-a-servlet-mapping-for-your-siteid-to-tomcat/
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
# OPTION 1 :: WITHOUT SiteID
# In /config/settings.ini.cfm, set both siteidinurls and indexfileinurls to 0   
# and reload the Mura application
RewriteRule ^(.*) /index.cfm/$1 [NC,QSA,PT]
 
# OPTION 2 :: WITH SiteID
# In /config/settings.ini.cfm, set indexfileinurls to 0   
# and reload the Mura application
#RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_\-]{1,})/(.*) /$1/index.cfm/$2 [NC,QSA,PT]
 
# OPTION 3 :: Advanced Configuration
# To use the SiteID in the URL for SPECIFIC SITES ONLY, but not for all sites:
# First, add a custom getURLStem() method to the Site's contentRenderer.cfc,
# then ENABLE OPTION 1 above, adding a custom rewrite rule for each site:
#RewriteRule ^YourSiteID/(.*) /YourSiteID/index.cfm/$1 [NC,QSA,PT]
 
# 404 :: Redirect to 404.cfm with the requested URI as a query string 
# This assumes a custom file named 404.cfm exists in your root directory
#RewriteRule (.*) 404.cfm?%{REQUEST_URI}?%{QUERY_STRING}
 
# Forbid executable files from being downloaded
RewriteRule \.exe - [F]
</IfModule>
 
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# UTF-8 encoding
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
# Use UTF-8 encoding for anything served text/plain or text/html
AddDefaultCharset utf-8
 
# Force UTF-8 for a number of file formats
AddCharset utf-8 .css .js .xml .json .rss .atom
 
<FilesMatch ".(eot|ttf|otf|woff)">
Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*"
</FilesMatch>

WordPress

To enable permalinks within WordPress:

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard
2. Hover over Settings on the menu
3. Choose Permalinks from the menu that appears
4. Choose one of the available permalink structures
5. Click the Save Changes button

Linux (.htaccess)

This file is generated by WordPress automatically when Permalinks are enabled using the instructions above. It is provided here for reference.

# Wordpress permalinks
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Windows (web.config)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="WordPress Permalinks - Homepage" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^index\.php$" />
                    <action type="None" />
                </rule>
                <rule name="WordPress Permalinks - All Requests" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url=".*" />
                    <conditions>
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>