mod_rewrite Configuration for No Extensions and PHP Handling

Question

I am trying to drop extensions and enable access such that requests for "/", "/index", and "/index.ext" all return the same resource.

At the same time, I want every such resource to go through a PHP script that includes a header, footer, and does other processing before sending it back to the client as the resource they requested.

How do I do this using only .htaccess? Even with MultiViews off, I've hit a brick wall where every attempt results in an infinite rewrite loop.

Answer 1

RewriteEngine on

# Route all requests on non-existent directories and files to index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) /index.php [L,QSA]

You might also check out AskApache's excellent HowTo's for more mod_rewrite recipes.

Answer 2

Exclude static files (.js, .css etc):

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule !\.(js|ico|gif|jpg|png|css)$ /index.php

Exclude the same static files but allow real files and directories:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule !\.(js|ico|gif|jpg|png|css)$ /index.php

As recommended by the Zend Framework.