在mod_rewrite之后重定向URL？

Question

I'm trying to understand how the mod_rewrite works. For example, if I have a URL like:

example.com/user.php?id=123

And with the mod_rewrite I can create the URL Like:

example.com/user/123

Now this is ok, but on other locations in my application, I have linked to the user page using the old format , eg:

<a href="user.php?id=123">123</a>

Now does it mean that I would need to change all these links manually and should link according to the new format? eg:

<a href="user/123">123</a>

Or should this be done with the mod_rewrite too? I'm not using any PHP framework.

Answer 1

On the long run yes you would have to change it but you can also redirect that:

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# Externally redirect /user.php?id=123 to /user/123
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}\s/+(user)\.php\?id=([^&\s]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1/%2? [R=301,L]

# Internally forward /user/123 to /user.php?id=123
RewriteRule ^user/([0-9]+)/?$ /user.php?id=$1 [NC,L]

The external redirect is the one that changes the URL on the browser, the internally is the one that does not change the URL but shows the content of the other place in question.

While the above would redirect the user from:

example.com/user.php?id=123

To

example.com/user/123

It would be for the best if you change your links to use the SEO friendly ones to avoid the extra redirect all the time a user access or navigate on your website.