Removed .php extension but now it says page does not exist - php

Question

I was able to get the .php off my files but now when I go to the pages they do not exist(and it's forcing a WordPress 404 page when the target files are actually on the server outside of WordPress). I think the problem might be that it's on a server with WordPress and these files lie outside of word press. There's already rewrite rules for WordPress and maybe it's conflicting with my rewrite rules for other files?
.htaccess file:
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
# Remove .php extension on files outside of wordPress
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /[^?\s]+\.php
RewriteRule (.*)\.php$ /$1/ [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(.+)/$
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%1.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ $1.php [L]
# Force trailing slash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule .*[^/]$ $0/ [L,R=301]
UPDATE - Full .htaccess
# BEGIN WP Hide & Security Enhancer
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
#WriteCheckString:1548706048_68906
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_MOD_REWRITE:On]
RewriteRule ^site(.*) /wp-login.php$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$
RewriteRule ^wp-login.php /index.php?wph-throw-404 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /enter$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /enter/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^enter(.*) /wp-admin$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$
RewriteRule ^wp-admin(.+) /index.php?wph-throw-404 [L]
</IfModule>
# END WP Hide & Security Enhancer
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Answer 1

You need to do something like this
#remove all PHP extensions from the url
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /[^?\s]+\.php
RewriteRule (.*)\.php$ /$1/ [L,R=301] #end and redirect
# Force trailing slash ( probably no longer needed, because `/$1/` )
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
#RewriteRule .*[^/]$ $0/ [L,R=301]
#add .php back in and continue.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(.+)/$
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%1.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ $1.php #no last flag as we can now continue to WP with our nice php extensions back on
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
I'm assuming those rewrite rules are correct. I would have to look them up I haven't worked heavily with Rewrites in a few years. Basically
first remove any php extensions and redirect (if they exist)
on a redirect (or a request without .php) add back the php extension to those urls where it was removed so you may need %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d just to be safe.
carry on as normal
Just as a general rule of thumb, it's best to do redirects first. That way you can get to the redirect with the shortest amount of work. A redirect is like changing the url and then putting that in the browser and running it again (ie. a brand new request).
Another way to do this is to redirect all requests to a certain folder to an index.php of your making that has a router.
Such as this one (that I made as an example)
https://github.com/ArtisticPhoenix/MISC/tree/master/Router
Then your URL's can be like this
http://yourdomain.com/somedir/index.php/controller/method/...args
#or without the index.php
http://yourdomain.com/somedir/controller/method/...args
Then in HTACCESS all you would do is remove index.php
#remove index.php and redirect
RewriteRule somedir/index.php/(.+)/?$ /somedir/$1/ [L,R=301] #end and
#add index.php back in
RewriteRule somedir/(.+)/?$ /somedir/index.php/$1/ [L]
//wordpress stuff
The nice thing about routers is you never have to touch Htaccess, and with a folder name to key in on it should make things simpler.
Using the router and the example files:
http://yourdomain.com/somedir/user/login
Should go to Controllers/user.php method login.