How to use .htaccess rewrite to completely rewrite the URL - php

Question

I'm trying to imitate a routing effect. In my setup the login.php file is located under localhost/session/login.php. I've already found out how to omit the .php file ending but that's not enough for me. Here is my .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php
This changes the URL to localhost/session/login but what I really need it an URL like this: localhost/login.. The trouble is that I don't really understand how the rewrite above works and I'm getting a lot of mixed answers.. don't know what to do exactly.
Is there a way to have my URL be localhost/login by using some RewriteCondition?

Answer 1

You may use following rules in your site domain .htaccess to enable use example.com/login rewriting to example.com/session/login.php:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/session/$1.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+?)/?$ session/$1.php [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/$1.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+)/?$ $1.php [L]

Answer 2

Enable mod_rewrite and .htaccess through httpd.conf and then put this code in your .htaccess.
Make sure to put this .htaccess in DOCUMENT_ROOT directory.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /session/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
Flags used are,
L - Last
This will serve the file at location localhost/session/login.php to localhost/login.php