htaccess: redirect old domain and all pages to a new domain

Question

I know that there is a lot of examples on Stackoverflow but I still miss something.

I'm trying to redirect http://old.domain.com/fr/ to http://brand.new-domain.com/fr/ with the following rules, but that doesn't work:

# Enable Rewrite Engine
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# Add a trailing slash to paths without an extension
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}|/)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1/ [L,R=301]

# Redirect domain
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^old.domain.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^other-old.domain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://brand.new-domain.com/$1 [r=301,L]

# Remove index.php
# Uses the "exclude method"
# http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Remove_index.php_From_URLs/#Exclude_List_Method
# This method seems to work best for us, you might also use the include method.
# http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Remove_index.php_From_URLs/#Include_List_Method
# Exclude root files
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php) [NC]
# Exclude EE folders
RewriteCond $1 !^(assets|ee-admin|images|templates|themes|fr|nl)/ [NC]
# Exclude user created folders
RewriteCond $1 !^(assets|css|img|js|swf|uploads)/ [NC]
# Exlude favico, robots, ipad icon
RewriteCond $1 !^(favicon\.ico|robots\.txt|pple-touch-icon\.png) [NC]
# Remove index.php
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^(ACT=.*)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^(URL=.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

It correctly redirect when I call the root URL, but not when I call a page. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Pv

Answer 1

When writing mod_rewrite rules, the rules get applied in the order that they appear.

To redirect an old domain to a new domain, you'll want that rule to be first in your .htaccess or httpd.conf file — all other rules should appear after it.

If you only want to redirect a certain directory, the following rule will do so, while allowing the rest of the site to function normally:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    # Redirect Only Matching Directories
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(fr|fr/.*)$
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://brand.new-domain.com/fr/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

If you want to redirect the entire site, the following rule will do so:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    # Redirect Entire Site to New Domain
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^old.domain.com$ [OR]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^other-old.domain.com$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://brand.new-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

If you care about letting crawlers know your content has moved and want to make the transition as seamless as possible, be sure to keep the 301 Redirect flag in the RewriteRule.

This will ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page.

---

While we're on the subject, as part of the EE 2.2 release, EllisLab now "officially" offers limited technical support for removing index.php from ExpressionEngine URLs.

Simply add or update your code to the following, making sure to consider any rules you may already have in place:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    # Removes index.php
    RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

    # If 404s, "No Input File" or every URL returns the same thing
    # make it /index.php?/$1 above (add the question mark)
</IfModule>