.htaccess code showing 500 internal error - php

Question

Hi there I'm trying to make a blog demo and I'm having some pretty URL codes already.
i am having a url www.xyz.com
and a search url www.xyz.com/search/this+is+a+search+text
in search url the parameter search is a page name and this+is+a+search+text is a parameter that i'll be parsing
I'm having a .htaccess code below already
# code to make pretty URLS | we're using this code to achieve /category/slug
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\w-]+)/([\d]+)$ app/post.php?&category=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\w-]+)/([\w-]+)$ app/post.php?&category=$2&slug=$3 [L,QSA]
# code to make pretty URLS for search page
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\w-]+)/([\d]+)$ app/search.php?&searchstring=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\d]+)$ app/index.php?page=$2 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\w-]+)$ app/post.php?category=$2 [L]
I'm using the below code for serach page
# code to make pretty URLS for search page
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\w-]+)/([\d]+)$ app/search.php&searchstring=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
But while using the code I get a 500 internal error message, I'm not able to figure out what's the error!
I would really appreciate if anyone could help me out with this logic.

Answer 1

Rewrites in achieve /category/slug and for search page are the same. Search request matched with first - achieve rewrite and run app/post.php...

Answer 2

To answer your followup question to JarekBaran
JarekBaran: Rewrites in achieve /category/slug and for search page are the same.
What this means is that the RewriteCond are the same for the pretty URL code for the caterogy/slug page and the search page.
This means that the first match will always be used and so:
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\w-]+)/([\d]+)$ app/post.php?&category=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
will always be triggered before
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/([\w-]+)/([\d]+)$ app/search.php?&searchstring=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
This way you will not be able to use the search function. You could consider adding a parameter to identify if a search is made or not.

Answer 3

Your problem is that you are starting your rules with (.+) which will match one or more of anything. This means that you are also matching the / character. Some of your 2 parameter redirects are matching your urls with 3 parameters because of this. You would be better of starting with something like this - ([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)
Your search rewrite should probably be something like this - RewriteRule ^/?([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([\w+]+)/([\d]+)$ app/search.php?&searchstring=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
I tested that rewrite on this htaccess testing tool and it is working.
That said your other rules will need to be changed as well since they all start with (.+). After doing that your category rewrite will conflict with your search rewrite.
However, this would probably work for you:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?category/([\w-]+)/([\d]+)$ app/post.php?&category=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?category/([\w-]+)/([\w-]+)$ app/post.php?&category=$2&slug=$3 [L,QSA]
# code to make pretty URLS for search page
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?search/([\w+]+)/([\d]+)$ app/search.php?&searchstring=$2&page=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([\d]+)$ app/index.php?page=$2 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?category/([\w-]+)$ app/post.php?category=$2 [L]