mod redirect and rewrites ( Part 2 )

Further to my previous questions i am getting my self into a mess, so i will try and lay my problem/s out as best as i can here.

I am tidying up my URL structure but have the problem that my urls are well indexed in Search engines, so i need to rewrite my urls while also redirect them.

With help earlier on a previous question i currently have the following in my .htaccess

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

# Rewrite all index.php to root: / ( with perm redirect )
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [R=301]

# Rewrite A newly added section rewrite ( no redirect required )
RewriteRule ^products/digital_imaging/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /products/digital_xray.php?id=$1&product=$2 [L]

# Rewrite dental news article to neat nice url
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=$1&title=$2&redirect [L]

#Conditional rewrite of old news article path to new one with 301 redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} article=([0-9]*)&title=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [L,R=301]

So, this is all working as expected, but i have another url that ends in a index.php that sometimes but not always has php variables, this i also need to rewrite and redirect, by trying to do it myself i am creating a conflict of some sorts, and its not working as expected.

The URL i need to rewrite & redirect with a 301 is below

http://www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=February&year=2011

With the previous index.php rule it currently displays as

http://www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/?month=February&year=2011

Half way there i guess... I need it to be the following

http://www.mydomain.com/dental_news/February/2011

Baring in mind that the url sometimes has no variables as below

http://www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/index.php

Which is currently with the index.php rule above is showing as

http://www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/

This needs to be

http://www.mydomain.com/dental_news/

So yes, i am totally crap at this stuff, it is entirely new to me, so if i can get this sorted ill be a very happy bunny indeed!

Thanks All

EDIT

Ok my current .htaccess looks as below.

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

# Rewrite all index.php to root: / ( with perm redirect )
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [R=301]

RewriteRule ^products/digital_imaging/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /products/digital_xray.php?id=$1&product=$2 [L]

# Rewrite dental news article to neat nice url
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=$1&title=$2&redirect [L]

#Conditional rewrite of old news article path to new one with 301 redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} article=([0-9]*)&title=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule 开发者_Go百科(.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} month=([^&]*)&year=([^&]*)
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [R=301]
RewriteRule news/dentistry_dental/$ /dental_news/ [R=301]
RewriteRule ^dental_news/$ /news/dentistry_dental/index.php [L]

As it stands with this, The following occurs

www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/index.php 
-> www.mydomain.com/dental_news/ 

( ^ Correct )

www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=May&year=2011 
-> www.mydomain.com/dental_news/April/2011 

( ^ Wrong : Showing right path in url bar, but displaying article_detail.php instead of index.php with variables)

I am guessing that 2 of the rules are similar and one is picking up the index.php with year and month variables and sending to article_detail page. I might be wrong however and i have no idea how to fix.

EDIT #2

Current .htaccess as below.

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

rewritecond %{http_host} ^dentalsupportuk.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.dentalsupportuk.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

# Rewrite all index.php to root: / ( with perm redirect )
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.dentalsupportuk.com/$1 [R=301]

RewriteRule ^products/digital_imaging/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /products/digital_xray.php?id=$1&product=$2 [L]

# Rewrite dental news article to neat nice url
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([0-9]*)/([^/]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=$1&title=$2&redirect [L]

#Conditional rewrite of old news article path to new one with 301 redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} article=([0-9]*)&title=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} month=([^&]*)&year=([^&]*)
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [R=301]
RewriteRule news/dentistry_dental/$ /dental_news/ [R=301]
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([a-zA-Z]*)/([0-9]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=$1&year=$2&redirect [L]

www.mydomain.com/dental_news/ is now rewriting to www.mydomain.com/dental_news/ which doesnt exist so 404 error ( should be rewriting to www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/ )

www.mydomain.com/dental_news/100/some-title is now rewriting as expected to www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php with the variables ( working )

www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=100&title=some-title is redirecting as expected to www.mydomain.com/dental_news/100/some-title and displaying correctly ( working )

www.mydomain.com/news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=May&year=2010 is redirecting but crashing out Firefox stating ( Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete. ) ( Not Working, is this some sort of loop causing this? )

www.mydomain.com/dental_news/July/2010/ the rewriting is giving me a 404 error.

So yes, im all over the place, maybe ive put in wrong order or something, but the more i mess the more im scared of breaking everything. Any ideas?

Regards M

Try adding the follow two rules:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} month=([^&]*)&year=([^&]*)
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [R=301]

RewriteRule news/dentistry_dental/$ /dental_news/ [R=301]

I don't believe it causes any conflicts, and seems to cover the two scenarios you described.

EDIT

OK, so if I'm getting this correct, the URLs that are /dental_news/2968/Redefining-oral-hygiene-intervention should be rewritten to /news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php with the proper querystrings. And then the /dental_news/April/2011 should be rewritten to /news/dentistry_dental/index.php. So...if that is the case, you should be able to add the following rule:

RewriteRule ^dental_news/([a-zA-Z]*)/([0-9]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=$1&year=$2&redirect [L]

It would also probably make sense to make the following update:

Current: RewriteRule ^dental_news/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=$1&title=$2&redirect [L]

Updated: RewriteRule ^dental_news/([0-9]*)/([^/]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=$1&title=$2&redirect [L]

The difference there being that it is more specific, and the first regex group will only match a group of digits, and will help to avoid conflict with your rule that is rewriting to the index.php file.

EDIT 2 I believe I tested all of the URLs you provided, and they seem to be working now. There were a couple of redirect loops that we weren't accounting for. Hopefully this will help...

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

# Rewrite all index.php to root: / ( with perm redirect )
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [R=301]

RewriteRule ^products/digital_imaging/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /products/digital_xray.php?id=$1&product=$2 [L]

RewriteRule dental_news/$ /news/dentistry_dental/?rewrite [L]

# Rewrite dental news article to neat nice url
# Protect from looping because of previous rules
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !rewrite 
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([0-9]*)/([^/]*)$ news/dentistry_dental/article_detail.php?article=$1&title=$2&rewrite [L]

#Conditional rewrite of old news article path to new one with 301 redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} article=([0-9]*)&title=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/dental_news/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} month=([^&]*)&year=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) /dental_news/%1/%2? [R=301]


# Protect from looping because of previous rules
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !rewrite 
RewriteRule news/dentistry_dental/$ /dental_news/ [R=301]

# Protect from looping because of previous rules
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !rewrite 
RewriteRule ^dental_news/([a-zA-Z]*)/([0-9]*)/?$ news/dentistry_dental/index.php?month=$1&year=$2&rewrite [L]

Hope this helps.