Shorten the URL from example.com/page.php?var=letters to example.com/letters

Question

I'm kinda new to URL Rewriting in .htaccess , and I tried to do it myself following some tutorials. No success though ....

I want to shorten http://www.example.com/page.php?var=letters to http://www.example.com/letters (letters is only an example).

Any help is very welcomed. Can't get this done myself. :(

Answer 1

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f # if the requested file does not exist
    RewriteRule ^(.+)$ page.php?var=$1 # rewrite the request
</IfModule>

Answer 2

A more generic approach, to have all the links you want as domain.tld/person/jon/

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# rewrites all urls to index.php/url
RewriteRule .* index.php/$0 [PT]

Answer 3

TRiG's answer should get you up and running however, I would strongly suggest you check out:

.htaccess tips and tricks

It is an excellent tutorial which should help you get your head round this stuff, part 2 covers mod_rewrite.