How to rename url's using rewrite_mod? - php

Question

I am not a professional but with help from SO I was able to rename the profile page URL's for users on my project using Rewrite_mod using:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/$ profile.php?username=$1 [QSA]
This works good. But I can't figure out how to give a specific name to a particular page. For example I have a page profile_settings.php when users go to that page I want it to be example.com/settings in the address bar. Tried few ways from SO like removing .php thought it will remove php extension for all files but It did not work at all. Now my .htaccess looks like:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$ profile.php?username=$1 [QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]
Was hoping example.com/profile_settings.php to be example.com/profile_settings but it did not work it's still full address with file extension. Moreover It will be good if I can deal with single file separately as besides removing extension I also want it to give desired name.

Answer 1

Rewrites for specific cases like /settings -> /profile_settings.php need to be handled separately and before other generic rules like this:
RewriteEngine On
# specific rewrite rules
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /profile_settings\.php[\s/?] [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /settings [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^settings/?$ profile_settings.php [L,NC]
# add .php extension if corresponding .php file exists
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+?)/?$ $1.php [L]
# handle profile page
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([\w-]+)/?$ profile.php?username=$1 [QSA,L]