Apache mod_rewrite: URL slug not updating - php

Question

There are a few SO questions about mod_rewrite such as here and here, but so far I cannot find one that works with my example.
I have an Apache webserver running my PHP website at the root var/www/html. at /var/www/html/news I have a .htaccess file which will be used to convert ugly $_GET filled url string into SEO friendly urls.
My current url looks like this:
https://mywebsite.com/news/article.php?id=2&title=myfirstarticle
I would like my url to look like this:
https://mywebsite.com/news/2/myfirstarticle
Here is my .htaccess file, currently redirecting to the indended url structure.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /article.php?id=$1&title=$2
So far my URL is not being changed to the SEO friendly URL, what am I missing?

Answer 1

You need to handle both directions: the external redirection and the internal rewriting:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (?:^|&)id=(\d+)&title=([^&]+)(?:&|$)
RewriteRule ^article.php$ /news/%1/%2 [R=301]
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ /article.php?id=$1&title=$2 [END]
It is a good idea to start out with a 302 temporary redirection and only change that to a 301 permanent redirection later, once you are certain everything is correctly set up. That prevents caching issues while trying things out...
In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.
This rule will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a dynamic configuration file (".htaccess" file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a dynamic configuration file you need to take care that it's interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host's DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.
And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (".htaccess"). Those dynamic configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).

Answer 2

Try the below htaccess rule:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^news/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /news/article.php?id=$1&title=$2