CodeIgniter htaccess

This is the CI .htaccess file that I use for my CodeIgniter PHP projects (some of these CodeIgniter htaccess rules can be used for any project, keep reading). CodeIgniter uses mod_rewrite to route all requests to the CI front controller. I’ve made some additions in an attempt to canocalize some of the CodeIgniter URL end points. The key benefit of a canocalized URL is that your search engine page ranking (page juice) is not spread across several pages, but instead, targeted to a single page.

htaccess Rule Breakdown

In your CodeIgniter project you will typically have a default controller and you will be able to access this controller at the following URLs:

/
/welcome
/welcome/
/welcome/index
/welcome/index/
/index.php

That’s a total of 6 URL end points pointing to the front controller. Additionally other controllers you’ve created will also have a default “index” method, consider the following:

/category
/category/index
/category/index/

Again, a total of 3 URL end points where there should only be one. The first set of rules in the .htaccess file prevent this:

# If your default controller is something other than
# "welcome" you should probably change this
RewriteRule ^(welcome(/index)?|index(\.php)?)/?$ / [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)/index/?$ $1 [L,R=301]

# Removes trailing slashes (prevents SEO duplicate content issues)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)/$ $1 [L,R=301]

With these rules the front controller will always be accessed at “/” and any other URLs pointing to a controller’s “index” method will be accessed at “/controller”. Notice that I also use a 301 redirect, this aids in maintaining or passing any existing search engine ranking (page juice) to the final redirected page.

So these:

/welcome
/welcome/
/welcome/index
/welcome/index/
/index.php

… would simple become:

/

… and:

/category
/category/index
/category/index/

… would become:

/category

Another important thing to note: for controllers with an “index” method which take any sort of parameter, these URLs will still work as such:

/welcome/index/123
/category/index/123

To be able to remove the “index” (or “welcome/index”) and still have parameters passed in, you will need to configure your routes file.

The next set of rules allow you to enforce “www” or enforce NO “www”, you will have to pick which you prefer and enable one or the other. Additionally, for those who may have subdomains, adding the subdomains to the list (if enforcing www) will safely exclude those subdomains from being redirected.

# Enforce www
# If you have subdomains, you can add them to
# the list using the "|" (OR) regex operator
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www|subdomain) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.tld/$1 [L,R=301]

# Enforce NO www
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www [NC]
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.tld/$1 [L,R=301]

The Full CodeIgniter htaccess File

Here is the entire .htaccess file that I use for my CodeIgniter projects. Remember that some of these rules are commented out, you will have to explicitly enabled them by removing the comments (removing the “#” from in front of the rule).

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /

    ### Canonicalize codeigniter URLs

    # If your default controller is something other than
    # "welcome" you should probably change this
    RewriteRule ^(welcome(/index)?|index(\.php)?)/?$ / [L,R=301]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)/index/?$ $1 [L,R=301]

    # Removes trailing slashes (prevents SEO duplicate content issues)
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.+)/$ $1 [L,R=301]

    # Enforce www
    # If you have subdomains, you can add them to
    # the list using the "|" (OR) regex operator
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www|subdomain) [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.tld/$1 [L,R=301]

    # Enforce NO www
    #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www [NC]
    #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.tld/$1 [L,R=301]

    ###

    # Removes access to the system folder by users.
    # Additionally this will allow you to create a System.php controller,
    # previously this would not have been possible.
    # 'system' can be replaced if you have renamed your system folder.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

    # Checks to see if the user is attempting to access a valid file,
    # such as an image or css document, if this isn't true it sends the
    # request to index.php
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>

    # Without mod_rewrite, route 404's to the front controller
    ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

</IfModule>

Apply These Final Touches to Clean Up the URL

Remember, once you have your CodeIgniter htaccess file setup, you will want to go into your “/system/application/config/config.php”, find the following:

$config['index_page'] = "index.php";

and change it to:

$config['index_page'] = "";

Because you are using Apache mod_rewrite, the above will set your config file so that “index.php” will NOT show up as part of the URL as such:

http://www.example.com/index.php/controller/method/variable

instead your URLs will be cleaner:

http://www.example.com/controller/method/variable

If you have comments or improvement suggestions please let me know.

Related posts

1. CodeIgniter NGINX Rewrite Rules
2. CodeIgniter Form Validation — Conditional Required Field