htaccess - Remove Query String from URL but Leave Value

Question

I have searched all over Stackoverflow and Googled wide and far, but I cannot get this seemingly simple task done.

I'm trying to set a rule in htaccess to clean the URL by removing the query string, but leaving its value intact:

http://example.local/?p=subscribe

Becomes:

http://example.local/subscribe

I have tried these various methods:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule (.*)  /$1? [R=301,L]

or,

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^p=$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(/?)?$ $1? [R=301,L,NC]

or,

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /\?([^\ ]+)
RewriteRule ^$ /%1? [R=301,L]

But nothing works!

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Sorry, but it is unclear what you actually ask. What exactly do you mean by "removing the query string". Which is the URL requested in the browser and what request should that URL get rewritten or redirected to? — arkascha
– arkascha, Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 20:17
Basically rewrite the url so that the query string "?p=" gets removed. But without removing the last part "subscribe". /?p=subscribe becomes /subscribe — AlanW
– AlanW, Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 21:24

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-11 16:24:01Z

2

Have it like this in your .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \s/([^?]*?)/?\?p=([^\s&]+)\s [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1/%2? [R=301,L,NE]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([\w-]+)/?$ ?p=$1 [L,QSA]

edited Jan 11, 2019 at 16:24

answered Jan 9, 2019 at 21:17

anubhava

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8 Comments

AlanW Over a year ago

Perfect! - Thank you Anubhava, that did the trick. I appreciate your help.

AlanW Over a year ago

New problem: I updated the .htaccess on the live server, where phpList is in a subdirectory: http://example.com/mailinglist/?p=subscribe Now the rules are no longer working. I've tried adding RewriteBase /mailinglist/ to the rule set, but it did nothing. I also tried removing trailing / dashes, and even typing mailinglist/ where I thought it would work. Help!

AlanW Over a year ago

The .htaccess file is in the /mailinglist subdirectory. The parent, example.com is a Wordpress installation with it's own, separate htaccess file.

AlanW Over a year ago

Well, with the updated code, the site first redirects to http://example.com/mailinglist//subscribe (yes, that's two slashes) but immediately after it redirects back to the root http://example.com/mailinglist/.

AlanW Over a year ago

Yes, the double slash is gone. But somehow all links are redirecting to the root for no apparent reason. I'm not a programmer, but perhaps this behavior is being triggered by something in the php code inside phpList. I should clarify that the redirection happens this way: http://example.com/mailinglist/?p=subscribe -> http://example.com/mailinglist/subscribe -> http://example.com/mailinglist/. Perhaps I should inquire in the phpList discussion group to see if I can get any insights on this anomaly. Thanks Anubhava.

|

R. Martin · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-09 10:50:19Z

0

You can use % to retrieve a rewriteCond Variables

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^p=(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)?$ %1? [R=301,L,NC]

Will convert any url http:/site.com/url?qs to http:/site.com/qs

answered Jan 9, 2019 at 10:50

R. Martin

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4 Comments

AlanW Over a year ago

Thank you R. Martin, but the result ends up being a '404' error: Typing http://tssl-list.dev/?p=preferences is not found and the url changes to: http://tssl-list.dev/home/alan/Public/tssl-list/preferences

anubhava Over a year ago

@AlanW: Try: RewriteRule ^$ /%1? [R=301,L]

AlanW Over a year ago

@anubhava - Thank you, it almost worked. The query string did disappear and the URL is properly formed: http://tssl-list.dev/preferences. However, it still throws a 404 Not Found.

AlanW Over a year ago

I'm not sure if this is relevant or not, but the site is actually a phpList implementation.

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