Hi,

I would like to show my URL links as always ending in '.html' but I
want to map those URLs to a specific path and file type. Lets say, for
example:

Steps
-----
1. User submits to http://example.com/login.html
2. The server receives the request and it 'knows' to forward the
request to http://example.com/login.php
3. The script is executed and a new page is generated.
4. The user receives a new page and on her browser she sees
http://example.com/accountHome.html
5. For a second request, the server receives
http://example.com/accountHome.html?search=contacts&lastname=brown and
it forwards it to http://example.com/accountHome.php?search=contacts&lastname=brown

I would like to have at least a clear summary of what is used in these
cases (i.e. using mod_rewrite, mod_proxy, ...) and not just a list of
links.

I'm looking for a list of general steps to achieve this configuration.
What I would find valuable are your comments based on experience for
any special conditions or bugs.

Environment: Apache/2.0.54 (Win32) PHP/4.4.0

Hi, a simple step to solve the 5 points:
Try with this sentence at httpd.conf file after <VirtualHost *> directive

RedirectMatch (.*)\.html$ $1.php

With this directive, if exist or not the .html file, always it will be
redirect to the .php file.

I hope it'll be helpful for you.

Thank you for your comment <b>adrianc-ga</b>

I tried RedirectMatch but it only worked going one way:
1. I typed example.com/myTest.html and it did call example.com/myTest.php
2. But... the url on the browser is then changed to '.php'

I would like that my urls still show '.html' when receiving a response
from the server.

So I suspect we got half of the problem solved. Could it be that this
is where that magic with mod_rewrite or mod_proxy comes in?

Yes surely.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule (*)\.html$ $1.php

hope it helps.

sorry for the mistake,
its

RewriteRule (.*)\.html$ $1.php

i missed the '.' in (.*)

Thank you anoopshukla-ga!!

That did the trick. I updated my httpd.conf by doing the following steps:

1. The loading of mod_rewrite is commented out on a default Apache
install, so I made sure to remove the '#':

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

2. Then on my virtual host block I added the lines you provided:

NameVirtualHost *
<VirtualHost *>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias *.example.com
    DocumentRoot "C:/apacheroot/example.com"
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule (.*)\.html$ $1.php
</VirtualHost>

I just wanted to add that the above solution has one side effect or "feature":

- The server will only deliver php files (rewritten as html) but will
ignore (as in 404) real html files.

What I did was to rename the files (ren *.html *.php) for now. That
solved the problem but I suppose it would require a little more
tweaking on the rewrite rule.

Cheers,
SV.

If you add a RewriteCond directive like this, the RewriteRule will be
invoked only in cases where the .html file doesn't exist:

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule (.*)\.html$ $1.php

Thanks tomclegg-ga.

But I'm sorry to say that it did not take effect on my server. After
adding the rule I added two files with the same content sample1.html
and sample2.php

The file Sample2.php loaded with no problems, like before and I got a
404 for sample1.html.

/Weird