How-to? Vanity URL & ignore .PHP extension with .htaccess

Question

I've got the following .htaccess working perfectly:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule .* - [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/mypage.php?u=$1 [NC]

This will allow me to write urls like this:

http://www.mysite.com/peter  =>  http://www.mysite.com/mypage.php?u=peter

But what if I want have an aditional rule to avoid writing the .php extension for existing files?

http://www.mysite.com/contact   (contact.php exists on file)

I tried adding this to my curr htaccess (but doesnt work):

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php

In other words, I would like to have vanity urls and ignore the .php extension in the same .htaccess.

---

SOLVED! Thanks to Ulrich Palha and Mario (didnt know about the ordering and the LAST [L] flag!

RewriteEngine on
# Unless directory, remove trailing slash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/$ http://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

# Redirect external .php requests to extensionless url
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^(.+)\.php([#?][^\ ]*)?\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.php$ http://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule .* - [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/mypage.php?u=$1 [NC]

Answer 1

It's a matter of ordering. RewriteRules are applied in the order they are noted in the .htaccess
See Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mod_Rewrite Rules but Were Afraid to Ask?

Just add your new block as first rewrite statement, add a [LAST] flag, and it should work.

This rule works unconditionally (not guarded by any RewriteCond), so should always be the last of all RewriteRules:

 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ ...

(And all preceeding RewriteRules should preferrably carry a [L] flag. You have a bit of a workaround there.)

Answer 2

For me this code work:

in "/etc/apache2/sites-available/default" or "httpd.conf"

you must have (at least) these options in the default directory

...
    <Directory />
        ...
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        ...
    </Directory>
...

OR in the site specific site directory

...
    <Directory "/var/www/my-site">
        ...
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        ...
    </Directory>
...

and create or edit the ".htacces" in the directory of the site (for example "/var/www/my-site/.htaccess") and add this code:

AddType application/x-httpd-php htm html php
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .htm .html

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]