.htaccess redirect for new template group name

Question

I had to change a template group name for a blog channel from news-and-blog to news-and-forum. I am trying to create a redirect in .htaccess that would redirect the old URL along with any of the blog posts.

The redirect I created works but it is redirecting all of the channel entries to the index page instead of just changing the first segment.

For example, the old URL https://mywebsite.com/news-and-blog correctly redirects to https://mywebsite.com/news-and-forum, but https://mywebsite.com/news-and-blog/my-blog-entry also gets redirected to https://mywebsite.com/news-and-forum. I need it to redirect to https://mywebsite.com/news-and-forum/my-blog-entry

Here is my .htaccess code:

    RewriteEngine On
    
    RewriteRule ^news-and-blog/(.*)$ /news-and-forum/$1 [L,R=301,NC]
    
    # Redirects to https & www
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteRule .* https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
    RewriteRule .* https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
    
    # Removes index.php
    RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

I have also tried changing the order of the rewrite rule but always get the same result. And I have tried it with & without the https & www redirect.

Any insight is appreciated.

Answer 1

There is nothing wrong with your additional RewriteRule - a version of it works just fine on my test system.

You don't say which version of EE you are using, but the latest recommended .htaccess file is a bit different to the one you are using.

The various forms of .htaccess file are documented here; the suggestion is something like this

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /

    # Removes index.php from ExpressionEngine URLs
    RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET.*index\.php [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/system/.* [NC]
    RewriteRule (.*?)index\.php/*(.*) /$1$2 [R=301,NE,L]

    # Directs all EE web requests through the site index file
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Adding in your additional code ends up with something like this:

 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /

    RewriteRule ^news-and-blog/(.*)$ /news-and-forum/$1 [NC,R=301,L]
    
    # Redirect to https
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteRule .* https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

    # Force use of www prefix
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
    RewriteRule .* https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

    # Remove index.php from ExpressionEngine URLs
    RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET.*index\.php [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/system/.* [NC]
    RewriteRule (.*?)index\.php/*(.*) /$1$2 [R=301,NE,L]

    # Direct all EE web requests through the site index file
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Might be worth trying that to see if works any better.

HTH