rewriteCond request with htaccess - php

Question

I would like to accomplish the followings (rewrite not redirect):
searchPage.php?crs_category=variable like searchPage.php?crs_category=business to category/business or category/business/ case in-sensitive
You can also directly access category/name which is the rewrite of searchPage
index.php/name to page/name case in-sesitive. note this is a rewrite not a redirect and i would like access the index.php/name just with a clean url.
You can also directly access page/name which is the rewrite of index.php/name
Note:
- it needs to take into account spaces such as if a user click on searchPage.php?crs_category=html%20and%css it would rewrite the url to category/html and css
Tried:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /searchPage.php\?crs_category=([^\s]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^category/%1? [NE,NC,R,L]
RewriteRule ^category/([^/]+)/?$ /searchPage.php?crs_category=$1 [QSA,L,NC]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php/(\S+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /page/%1 [NE,R,L]
RewriteRule ^page/([^/]+)/?$ index.php/$1 [NC,L]
Problem:
For some reason the request doesn't work for these lines:
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /searchPage.php\?crs_category=([^\s]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^category/%1? [NE,NC,R,L]
In addition, I am not sure who take into account white space. where if its searchPage.php?crs_category=html%20andcss it leads to category/html and css disregarding the spacing code
Update:
Options +FollowSymlinks -MultiViews
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
# keep replacing space to hyphen until there is no space use internal rewrite
RewriteRule ^([^\s%20]*)[\s%20]+(.*)$ $1-$2 [E=NOSPACE:1]
# when there is no space make an external redirection
RewriteCond %{ENV:NOSPACE} =1
RewriteRule ^([^\s%20]+)$ $1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /searchPage\.php\?crs_category=([^&]+?)\s [NC]
RewriteRule ^ category/%1? [NE,R,L]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php/(\S+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ page/%1 [NE,R,L]
RewriteRule ^category/([^/]+)/?$ searchPage.php?crs_category=$1 [QSA,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^page/([^/]+)/?$ index.php/$1 [NC,L]

Answer 1

You should be matching / after index.php not ?:
You can use these rules:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /searchPage\.php\?crs_category=([^&]+?)\s [NC]
RewriteRule ^ category/%1? [NE,R,L]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php/(\S+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ page/%1 [NE,R,L]
# keep replacing space to hyphen until there is no space use internal rewrite
RewriteRule ^(\S*)\s+(.*)$ $1-$2 [E=NOSPACE:1,DPI]
# when there is no space make an external redirection
RewriteCond %{ENV:NOSPACE} =1
RewriteRule ^(\S+)$ $1 [NE,R=302,L]
RewriteRule ^category/([^/]+)/?$ searchPage.php?crs_category=$1 [QSA,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^page/([^/]+)/?$ index.php/$1 [NC,L]