Troubleshoot an htaccess problem

by RayCassidy

Posted: 11 years ago 17 replies

PROGRAMMING

I'm a bit of a beginner when it comes to this htaccess stuff but I read around the topic here and elsewhere and thought I had come up with a solution... sadly it ain't working.

here is an extract of the htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^solwaytimberengineering.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]
Redirect 301 http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk/home.html [url=http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk[/url]
Redirect 301 Joinery manufacturers|sash windows|wood door|Solway Timber Engineering Joinery manufacturers|sash windows|wood door|Solway Timber Engineering

There are several pages of old content which I am trying to redirect to their new versions. I suspect 1 of 3 things:
a) it's to do with the fact the site was built in directories for each page;
b) the space characters in the URLs; or
the host server isn't allowing rewrite.

The site owner wnated the site to stay on www.so I have also trioed to canonicalise everything to www.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

Forgot it wouldn't let me send URLs up yet. If anyone can help I'll upload a segment of the file.
Cheers,
Ray

#htaccess #problem #troubleshoot

cgimaster 11 years ago

Can you put your htaccess code between code tags and remove the links so it is clear to read your current htaccess and possible see what the issue is ?
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Mkj

11 years ago

Try this:

Code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^solwaytimberengineering.co.uk[nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk/$1 [r=301,nc]
Redirect 301 /home.html http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

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RayCassidy

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Mkj

Try this:

Code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^solwaytimberengineering.co.uk[nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk/$1 [r=301,nc]
Redirect 301 /home.html http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html

I've tried that out for the home.html file and it has worked just luvverly. Thankyou for that Mkj.

I presume that I should just apply that logic now to the rest of the redirects even though they are in their own little folders?
Ray

Thanks

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RayCassidy

11 years ago

Hi cgimaster, sorry I didn't pick up on this quicker, been buried in stuff after a house move. Many thanks for responding. In the code snippet below, I have replaced the "http etc. domain dot co dot uk" with WWW-DOMAIN and in one instance where I am trying to set canonical url I have used NON-WWW-DOMAIN. I hope that that is clear. The remainder of the urls to different pages have been left in so that you guys might be able to tell me whether I have created a mistake or problem in the rest of the URL structure. In essence I am trying to redirect traffic from an old rather poor version of a page, to a better optimised version of the page's information.

Code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^NON-WWW-DOMAIN
 RewriteRule (.*) WWW-DOMAIN/$1 [R=301,L]
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/home.html WWW-DOMAIN
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Design%20Services/Design%20Services.html WWW-DOMAIN/timberframedesign/timberframedesignSTE.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Timber%20Kits/Timber%20Kits.html WWW-DOMAIN/timberframe/timberframehousekits.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Roof%20Trusses/Roof%20Trusses.html WWW-DOMAIN/rooftrusses/Roof-TrussesSolwayTimberEngineering.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Floor%20Cassettes/Floor%20Cassettes.html WWW-DOMAIN/floorcassettes/FloorCassettesSTE.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Joinery%20Products/Joinery%20Products.html WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Quality%20Assurance/Quality%20Assurance.html WWW-DOMAIN/qualityassurance/Quality%20Assurance.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Enviromental%20Policy/Environmental%20Policy.html WWW-DOMAIN/enviromentalpolicy/Environmental%20Policy.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Our%20HIAB/Our%20HIAB.html WWW-DOMAIN/STE-HIAB/Our%20HIAB.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Our%20People/Our%20People.html WWW-DOMAIN/STEpeople/Our%20People.html

Many thanks for offering your experience.
Ray

Thanks

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cgimaster 11 years ago
Your problem is that you are doing:

domain/link on the first step of the Redirect 301 while it should be only the path.
Code:

Redirect 301 /home.html WWW-DOMAIN Redirect 301 /joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html Redirect 301 /Design%20Services/Design%20Services.html WWW-DOMAIN/timberframedesign/timberframedesignSTE.html Redirect 301 /Timber%20Kits/Timber%20Kits.html WWW-DOMAIN/timberframe/timberframehousekits.html Redirect 301 /Roof%20Trusses/Roof%20Trusses.html WWW-DOMAIN/rooftrusses/Roof-TrussesSolwayTimberEngineering.html Redirect 301 /Floor%20Cassettes/Floor%20Cassettes.html WWW-DOMAIN/floorcassettes/FloorCassettesSTE.html Redirect 301 /Joinery%20Products/Joinery%20Products.html WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html Redirect 301 /Quality%20Assurance/Quality%20Assurance.html WWW-DOMAIN/qualityassurance/Quality%20Assurance.html Redirect 301 /Enviromental%20Policy/Environmental%20Policy.html WWW-DOMAIN/enviromentalpolicy/Environmental%20Policy.html Redirect 301 /Our%20HIAB/Our%20HIAB.html WWW-DOMAIN/STE-HIAB/Our%20HIAB.html Redirect 301 /Our%20People/Our%20People.html WWW-DOMAIN/STEpeople/Our%20People.html
Also you may need to scape the % symbol not entirely sure but if it doesnt work add before each % this \
- Thanks
- 1 reply
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- RayCassidy 11 years ago
  
  cheers cgi I'll try that out now. funny how the home.html worked fine. ?
  Ray
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  cgimaster 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by RayCassidy
  
  cheers cgi I'll try that out now. funny how the home.html worked fine. ?
  Ray
  
  As I can see above ONLY the home.html is without domain as /home.html on the first step all the others have domain/path.
  
  Thanks
  
  2 replies
  
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  RayCassidy 11 years ago
  
  Are you looking at the first version or the later version cgi? In the second version I have taken out the domain statement in the first step of each url (as far as I understand this) and next thing to try will be escaping the spaces(?) I presume that's what you meant.
  Many thanks for your time.
  Ray
  
  Thanks
  
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  RayCassidy 11 years ago
  
  Are you looking at the first version or the later version cgi? In the second version I have taken out the domain statement in the first step of each url (as far as I understand this) and next thing to try will be escaping the spaces(?) I presume that's what you meant.
  Many thanks for your time.
  Ray
  
  Thanks
  
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cgimaster

11 years ago

Code:

Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/home.html WWW-DOMAIN
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Design%20Services/Design%20Services.html WWW-DOMAIN/timberframedesign/timberframedesignSTE.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Timber%20Kits/Timber%20Kits.html WWW-DOMAIN/timberframe/timberframehousekits.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Roof%20Trusses/Roof%20Trusses.html WWW-DOMAIN/rooftrusses/Roof-TrussesSolwayTimberEngineering.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Floor%20Cassettes/Floor%20Cassettes.html WWW-DOMAIN/floorcassettes/FloorCassettesSTE.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Joinery%20Products/Joinery%20Products.html WWW-DOMAIN/joinerymanufacturers/STEJoineryProducts.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Quality%20Assurance/Quality%20Assurance.html WWW-DOMAIN/qualityassurance/Quality%20Assurance.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Enviromental%20Policy/Environmental%20Policy.html WWW-DOMAIN/enviromentalpolicy/Environmental%20Policy.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Our%20HIAB/Our%20HIAB.html WWW-DOMAIN/STE-HIAB/Our%20HIAB.html
Redirect 301 WWW-DOMAIN/Our%20People/Our%20People.html WWW-DOMAIN/STEpeople/Our%20People.html

NONE of the above work, why ? because you have after 301 the domain instead of the path alone.

Why does the home.html work in there ?

The home.html is not working from those it is working from your main condition at:

Code:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^solwaytimberengineering.co.uk[nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.solwaytimberengineering.co.uk/$1 [r=301,nc]

To put it simple, the Redirect syntax is as follow:

Redirect 301 PATH DESTINATION

Where PATH is the path after the domain of what you want to redirect.

So let's say you want to redirect www.mydomain.com/rosesarered.html to www.mydomain.com/roses.php, it will look like this:

Code:

Redirect 301 /rosesarered.html www.mydomain.com/roses.php

and next thing to try will be escaping the spaces(?) I presume that's what you meant.

In regards the space, you can use it like this:

Code:

Redirect 301 "/Design Services/Design Services.html" WWW-DOMAIN/timberframedesign/timberframedesignSTE.html

See how I am wrapping it around double quotes and replacing %20 with a normal space ? I have tested it and works just fine.

You can always check the mod_rewrite file in your ftp to catch any errors, sometimes its saved all inside error_log file in case it fails the error message might be helpful to nail what is the problem.

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1 reply

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RayCassidy

11 years ago

Thanks cgi - I appreciate you taking the time to explain to me. It's one of those mental blocks that just refuse to go away . I will have a go at your instructions later this evening.
Cheers muchly,
Ray

Thanks
2 replies

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carleywatson 11 years ago

you can change of .htaccess into htaccess.text.your problem maybe solve.

if you need fly to Kuala Lumpur from London at dearflight
- Thanks
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cgimaster

11 years ago

Originally Posted by RayCassidy

No problem, if you want I can assist you further on skype and see how things are going for you just drop me a pm or post here either way works, GL.

[ 1 ] Thanks

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RayCassidy

11 years ago

Hi cgi - just a quick update, I still haven't taken action on this, as other circumstances landed on me. I've just about crawled out from under that pile of rubble. I will be speaking to the business owner of the website tomorrow and hopefully will put into action what you have suggested fairly soon.
Many thanks again.

Thanks
1 reply

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cgimaster

11 years ago

Originally Posted by RayCassidy

No problem feel free to contact me if u have any other questions.

Thanks

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RayCassidy 11 years ago

Hi cgi the tale continues. I finally got the thing working with that advice about escaping the spaces, Many many thanks for taking the time to explain to an old fart! ;-)
- Thanks
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cgimaster 11 years ago

Glad it worked well for you anything let me know.
- Thanks
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Troubleshoot an htaccess problem

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