Rewrite URL string for username in root directory Apache - php

Question

Currently I have the following .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}% !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}% !-f
RewriteRule \.(js|css)$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^/?u/(.*?)/?$ /user-profile?user_id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ index.php [QSA,L]
It rewrites all files and directories to index.php, which does further routing, ignoring static js/css files.
With this line:
RewriteRule ^/?u/(.*?)/?$ /user-profile?user_id=$1 [L]
I am redirecting all requests to something like website.com/user-profile?user_id=timm to website.com/u/timm. I'm trying to figure out how to make it redirect to simply website.com/timm, but everything I have tried so far has given me a 500 error.

Answer 1

Here is the solution I ended up going with, if anyone ever finds themselves in a similar situation. It might not match up to anyone else's use case, but you never know.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}% !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}% !-f
RewriteRule \.(js|css)$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^/?edit-list/(.*?)/?$ /edit-list?list_id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?username-router=$1 [QSA,L]
My entire router looks like this:
// Routing
$redirect = $_SERVER['REDIRECT_URL'];
$method = $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'];
// Get the path after the hostname
$path = ltrim($redirect, '/');
// Check if path matches a user
$username = $userControl->getUserByUsername(ltrim($path));
// Get controller name by converting URL of dashes
// (such as forgot-password) to uppercase class names
// (such as ForgotPassword) and assign to the proper
// controller based on URL.
$controllerName = getControllerName($redirect);
$controllerPath = $root . "/src/controllers/{$controllerName}.php";
// Load index page first
if ($controllerName === '') {
$controller = new Index($session, $userControl);
}
// If the controller exists, route to the proper controlller
elseif (file_exists($controllerPath)) { // to do: add approved filenames
$controller = new $controllerName($session, $userControl);
}
// If path matches user in the database, route to the public
// user profile.
elseif ($username) {
$controller = new UserProfile($session, $userControl);
}
// If all else fails, 404.
else {
$controller = new ExceptionNotFound($session, $userControl);
}
// Detect if method is GET or POST and route accordingly.
if ($method === 'POST') {
$controller->post();
} else {
$controller->get();
}