Redirect all to index.php using htaccess

Question

I\'m writing a simple PHP-based MVC-ish framework. I want this framework to be able to be installed in any directory.

My PHP script grabs the request uri and breaks

Answer 1

There is one "trick" for this problem that fits all scenarios, a so obvious solution that you will have to try it to believe it actually works... :)

Here it is...

   RewriteEngine On

   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}  -f [OR]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [L,QSA]

Basically, you are asking MOD_REWRITE to forward to index.php the URI request always when a file exists AND always when the requested file doesn't exist!

When investigating the source code of MOD-REWRITE to understand how it works I realized that all its checks always happen after the verification if the referenced file exists or not. Only then the RegEx are processed. Even when your URI points to a folder, Apache will enforce the check for the index files listed in its configuration file.

Based on that simple discovery, turned obvious a simple file validation would be enough for all possible calls, as far as we double-tap the file presence check and route both results to the same end-point, covering 100% of the possibilities.

IMPORTANT: Notice there is no "/" in index.php. By default, MOD_REWRITE will use the folder it is set as "base folder" for the forwarding. The beauty of it is that it doesn't necessarily need to be the "root folder" of the site, allowing this solution work for localhost/ and/or any subfolder you apply it.

Ultimately, some other solutions I tested before (the ones that appeared to be working fine) broke the PHP ability to "require" a file via its relative path, which is a bummer. Be careful.

Some people may say this is an inelegant solution. It may be, actually, but as far as tests, in several scenarios, several servers, several different Apache versions, etc., this solution worked 100% on all cases!