force user's language preference in the URL - rewriterule?

Question

I want to specify the user\'s language preference in the URL. Is it possible to use .htaccess rewrite rule to add a segment to the url, if missing.

URL should normal

Answer 1

Use a RewriteCond to look for the 2 letter lang code at the beginning of the URI:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# If the URL doesn't match /xx/otherstuff
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^([a-z]{2}/)(.*)$
# Rewrite to /en/
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}/en/$1 [L,R,QSA]

If you are using more than 2 character lang codes, like up to 4, use [a-z]{2,4} instead.