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Apache ModRewrite Language .htaccess

I am working on a multi-language website, which is available in both Korean and English: www.lvdesignbox.com. Right now, the language content of a page is determined by a URL parameter, which is appended at the end of the URL.

For example, to view a page in Korean: www.lvdesignbox.com/?lang=kr

For example, to view a page in English: www.lvdesignbox.com/?lang=en

Can someone who understands Apache’s mod_rewrite module so he can explain me how to write directives in .htaccess so that www.lvdesignbox.com?lang=kr would rewrite to www.lvdesignbox.com/kr/.

So far, I have this: 

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^(.*)?lang=([A-Za-z]{2})$  /$2/$1  [R,L]
</IfModule>
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2

Answers


  1. 0

    You probably will implement a two step approach:

    1. you want to redirect all current links with the language selector specified as a query argument to the desired URL pattern.

    2. you want to rewrite all requests to URLs with the language selector specified as first path token to the internal pattern relying on a query argument.

    The tricky part is not to scramble any other potential query arguments…

    Here is an example for this implementing the two explicitly mentioned language selectors you named. It is possible to keep this more general, for arbitrary languages, but that raises the risk of pattern collisions, so you’d have to add conditional which would raise complexity again. Which is why I would advise against it and suggest the following: 

    RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^((?:.*)&)?lang=(kr|en)(&(?:.*))?$
RewriteRule ^/?(.*)$ /%2/$1?%1%3 [R=301,QSD]

RewriteRule ^/?(?:kr|en)/(.*)/?$ /$1?lang=kr [END,QSA]

    It is a good idea to use a 302 redirection first and to change it to a 301 redirection only later when you are certain everything works as desired to prevent caching issues whilst trying around.

    In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.

    This rule will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a dynamic configuration file (“.htaccess” file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a dynamic configuration file you need to take care that it’s interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host’s DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.

    And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (“.htaccess”). Those dynamic configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).

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  2. 0

    Try this for kr only :

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ?lang=(kr)sHTTP.*$
RewriteRule ^/?$     /%1/?  [L,R]
RewriteRule ^(kr)     /?lang=$1 [L]
</IfModule>

    If you need general rules for both kr & en try this:

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ?lang=(kr|en)sHTTP.*$
RewriteRule ^/?$     /%1/?  [L,R]
RewriteRule ^(kr|en)     /?lang=$1 [L]
</IfModule>

    Note: clear browser cache the test .

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