Hide Page Extensions (Like StackOverflow)

Question

I want to hide page extensions like stackoverflow does. How does the following work?

http://stackoverflow.com/tags/foo
http://stackoverflow.com/tags/bar
         


        

Answer 1

If you're using Apache and you simply want to hide the file extensions of static HTML files you can use this .htaccess code:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f       # if the requested URL is not a file that exists
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d       # and it isn't a directory that exists either
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.html -f  # but when you put ".html" on the end it is a file that exists
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1\.html [QSA]         # then serve that file

Apache mod_rewrite has been called "voodoo, but seriously cool voodoo".

The actual .htaccess code I use on a few sites is like that, but not identical:

    RewriteEngine on

    #RewriteRule ^$ index.php [QSA]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
    RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1\.php [QSA]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.+)$ index.php/$1 [QSA]

And here is some much longer but far more readable code to do the same thing on a Zeus server. On Zeus, it's called rewrite.script.

# http://drupal.org/node/46508


# get the document root
map path into SCRATCH:DOCROOT from /
# initialize our variables
set SCRATCH:ORIG_URL = %{URL}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = %{URL}

match URL into $ with ^(.*)\?(.*)$
if matched then
  set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = $1
  set SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING = $2
endif

# prepare to search for file, rewrite if its not found
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME = %{SCRATCH:DOCROOT}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME . %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}

# check to see if the file requested is an actual file or
# a directory with possibly an index.  don't rewrite if so
look for file at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
  look for dir at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
  if not exists then
    look for file at  %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}.php
    if exists then
        set URL = %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}.php?%{SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING}
    else
        set URL = /index.php/%{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}?%{SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING}
    endif
  endif
endif
goto END