Clean URL Support in Abyss
This clean URL implementation has been tested on Abyss X1, one which has a properly set Custom Error Page 404 to any arbitrary file that, for this purpose, will be referenced as "/url_rewrite.php". Due to the generalized design of this solution, this method could theoretically work on virtually any webserver that can redirect missing URI location onto a php resource. The method described here works only on webservers with a singular host configuration.
One esoteric requirement is for the webserver to pass the server variable REQUEST_URI containing the value of the original resource requested. For more information on configuring Abyss X1 for this purpose, please visit this Aprelium forum resource.
This solution could be rendered academic if Aprelium finally decides to implement URL rewrite in Abyss internally. This method is useful for Abyss webservers version 2.3.2 and most other versions prior to this specific release. Another drawback is that the URL rewrite becomes only invisible to the machine but is always visible to the human.
The idea is to pass (or redirect) the missing URI location on the HTTP-404 handler "/url_rewrite.php". For illustrative examples, let's look at the following scenarios:
- http://www.example.com/node/add => "/node/add" not found, pass to 404 handler "/url_rewrite.php" => "/url_rewrite.php" determines "/index.php?q=node/add" exists and serves that instead.
- http://www.example.com/admin/settings => "/admin/settings" not found, pass to 404 handler "/url_rewrite.php" => "/url_rewrite.php" determines "/index.php?q=admin/settings" exists and serves that instead.
- http://www.example.com/no_exist/location => "/no_exist/location" not found, pass to 404 handler "/url_rewrite.php" => "/url_rewrite.php" determines "/index.php?q=no_exist/location" exists and serves that instead but lets Drupal display the proper "page not found" informational message.
Here are the steps in letting this method apply to your setup.
- Create the following file and save it as "/url_rewrite.php".
<?php
/* Add in this array the list of (old path => new path) pairs */
$redirection = array(
'^(.*)$' => 'index.php?q=$1'
);
if (!file_exists($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]))
/* Get the URI and trim leading slashes */
$uri = ltrim($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], "/");
{
foreach ($redirection as $key => $value)
{
if (eregi($key, $uri))
{
/* Convert the replacement string syntax - $1 -> \1 */
/* and perform the substitution */
$uri = str_replace("index.php","",substr($uri,0));
$new_uri = str_replace("?","&",$uri);
$new_uri = "/index.php?q=".$new_uri;
$new_uri = str_replace("%26","&",$new_uri);
break;
}
}
}
if (isset($new_uri))
{
header("Status: 307");
header("Location: $new_uri");
exit;
}
?>
<!-- Your 404 error page -->
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Not Found</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
The object <tt><?php echo $uri; ?></tt> is not available.
</BODY>
</HTML> - In the Abyss web console, enter the Custom Error Pages, add a 404 Status Code entry with the Associated URL value "/url_rewrite.php". Click OK and restart the Abyss webserver.
- Test for functionality by querying your website directly with URI's such as:
If the redirection works properly, proceed to the next steps. If the redirection would not work, check if the steps above have been strictly followed. Modify only those things that you have absolute knowledge of.
- Log on to your website and log on to your "/admin/settings" page. Under General Settings section, enable Clean URLs. If the Clean URLs option is grayed out, add the line "$conf['clean_url'] = 1;" in your settings.php, then repeat this step. Don't forget to click the "Save configuration" button.
- If things do not work out, completely remove the line "$conf['clean_url'] = 1;" from your settings.php. And browse to your http://www.example.com/index.php?q=admin/settings page to disable Clean URLs properly.