2

I've looked around for the answer to my question but only to be confused even more. I'm hoping somebody can help me...

I need to redirect this URL:

http://www.example.co.uk/ecommerce/cabinets/aluminium_cabinets

To:

http://www.example.co.uk/products/cabinets/?types[]=illuminated-aluminium-cabinets&types[]=non-illuminated-aluminium-cabinets

I'm using mod rewrite in .htaccess

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    Just to point it out, in terms of SEO this is a (small) step back :) Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 11:24
  • the square brackets are not URL safe characters. They don't appear to be serving any good purpose and I would recommend removing them. At the very least they should be escaped. Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 11:34
  • Do you need to redirect or rewrite to URLs like that? Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 12:17
  • @AndrewLott redirect 301 Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 15:38
  • @StephenOstermiller Apache/mod_rewrite will automatically escape the square brackets in the case of a redirect. The square brackets are often used with PHP, which will generate an array from the parameters (although more commonly used with POST form submissions). Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 15:41

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

No particular trickery is required. Using mod_rewrite in .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^ecommerce/cabinets/aluminium_cabinets$ /products/cabinets/?types[]=illuminated-aluminium-cabinets&types[]=non-illuminated-aluminium-cabinets [R,L]

Apache will escape (percent encode) the square brackets ([ and ]) by default, which are not strictly allowed unencoded in this context in the URL. (This won't affect reading the URL parameters using PHP's $_GET array.)

This is a temporary (302) redirect. To make it permanent, change R to R=301. Alternatively, to make it an internal rewrite, simply remove the R flag.

Improve this answer
5
  • Thanks for the answer but this doesn't work. I actually don't think it's possible. The destination URL is created when a user selects two filters. Your thoughts @w3d ? Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 15:42
  • Does it do anything? Do you get an error? Why don't you think it's possible?! There's no reason why this redirect shouldn't "work" (providing .htaccess/mod_rewrite is enabled etc.) However, whether it works with your web application and any existing directives is another matter. (Any external redirects need to go at the top of your .htaccess file if you have other directives - the order is important.) Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 16:06
  • Thanks for the reply @w3d It redirects to the page but missies off the query string information. I presume it's not possible because this page is only created when a user selects to filters on the page. There's no external redirects. Commented Jan 7, 2016 at 16:03
  • "There's no external redirects." - The rewrite above is an "external redirect" (so should go at the top of your file). If the query string is missing (in the address bar) then your site must be doing a secondary redirect. If the page doesn't exist then that may very well be the problem. Commented Jan 7, 2016 at 16:42
  • thanks @w3dk I think it's because the page doesn't exist unless the user selects filters to create the URL. We are going to redirect to another page that actually exists. Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 9:24

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.