301 Redirection is appending ?_url - php

Question

I'm trying to setup 301 redirections for a website that's build with Phalcon Framework.
The Problem
My redirection is working fine, but it's appending a ?_url= with the old url after the redirection.
Default .htaccess
Here's what comes with the Phalcon Framework in the .htaccess:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?_url=/$1 [QSA,L]
Example
When a user is going on http://example.net/fr/le-circuit/a-propos, it's redirecting to http://example.net/fr/circuit?_url=/fr/le-circuit/a-propos
As you can see, the ?_url= is the extra that I'm trying to remove.
My .htaccess
Here's my .htaccess without the redirection:
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
# Redirection for old website links
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^fr [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ /fr/ [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^en [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ /en/ [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^$ /fr/ [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?_url=/$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>
Attempt #1
I've tried the following Redirect directive before and after the default rewrite rules that came with Phalcon.
Redirect 301 /fr/le-circuit/a-propos /fr/circuit
Attempt #2
I thought my first attempt wasn't strict enough so I decided to use regex and RedirectMatch:
RedirectMatch 301 ^/fr/le-circuit/a-propos/?$ /fr/circuit
Just like before, I've tried it before and after the rules that came with Phalcon and it's appending the old url after the redirection.
Attempt #3
I've tried to hardcode the url in the redirection to see if the ?_url= would still append and ... yes it does.
RewriteMatch 301 ^/fr/le-circuit/a-propos/?$ http://example.net/fr/circuit
Does anyone know the problem or have an idea why it's appending the old url after the redirection?

Answer 1

Keep redirect rules before your other rules:
RewriteEngine On
# Redirection for old website links
RewriteRule ^fr/le-circuit/a-propos/?$ http://example.net/fr/circuit [L,NC,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^fr [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ /fr/ [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^en [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ /en/ [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^$ /fr/ [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?_url=/$1 [QSA,L]
Make sure to clear your browser cache while testing this change.

Answer 2

Make sure you clear your cache when working with 301 permanent redirects. Always debug them as 302 temporary redirects. Make sure your cache clearing prevents the redirection from happening when you comment out the redirects in your .htaccess file. Once you've done that, you can try the following suggestion:
Ditch the "_url" altogether by using REQUEST_URI from your bootstrap instead:
Use RewriteRule .* index.php [L] instead of: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?_url=/$1 [QSA,L]
Then use this line in your index.php bootstrap:
echo $application->handle(strtok($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"],'?'))->getContent();
Rather than echo $application->handle()->getContent(); which defaults to handle $_GET['_url'].