How can I rewrite URL's of a certain directory? - php

Question

Ok, vague question title, I know. Wasn't sure how to summarize this in one line. I have two applications in my CodeIgniter installation: frontend and admin. There are two front controllers for each that set to the correct application folder. Currently, I use index.php/home for the home page of the frontend and admin.php/home for the home page of the admin panel.
I finally got around to removing index.php from the URL of the frontend. For the admin cp, I would like to use example.com/admin instead of example.com/admin.php. So I basically need to rewrite any uri that has admin as the first segment to admin.php. I figured that adding RewriteRule ^admin/(.*)$ admin.php/$1 to my htaccess would do the trick, but apparently it doesn't... Not completely anyway. I get 404 Page Not Found for every single page in my admin cp. What am I doing wrong?
# Deny OR Allow Folder Indexes.
# Since we disable access to PHP files you
# can leave this on without worries.
# OR better yet, create a .htaccess file in
# the dir you want to allow browsing and
# set it to +Indexes
Options -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks
# Set the default file for indexes
DirectoryIndex index.php
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# mod_rewrite rules
RewriteEngine on
# The RewriteBase of the system (if you are using this sytem in a sub-folder).
# RewriteBase /CodeIgniter_1.6.3/
# This will make the site only accessible without the "www."
# (which will keep the subdomain-sensive config file happy)
# If you want the site to be accessed WITH the "www."
# comment-out the following two lines.
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$ [NC]
# RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
# If a controler can't be found - then issue a 404 error from PHP
# Error messages (via the "error" plugin)
# ErrorDocument 403 /index.php/403/
# ErrorDocument 404 /index.php/404/
# ErrorDocument 500 /index.php/500/
# Deny any people (or bots) from the following sites: (to stop spam comments)
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} nienschanz\.ru [NC,OR]
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} porn\.com
# RewriteRule .* - [F]
# Note: if you are having trouble from a certain URL just
# add it above to forbide all visitors from that site.
# You can also uncomment this if you know the IP:
# Deny from 192.168.1.1
# If the file is NOT the index.php file
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !index.php
# Hide all PHP files so none can be accessed by HTTP
RewriteRule (.*)\.php$ index.php/$1
# If the file/dir is NOT real go to index
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^admin/(.*)$ admin.php/$1
</IfModule>
# If Mod_ewrite is NOT installed go to index.php
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
ErrorDocument 404 index.php
</IfModule>

Answer 1

You need to add your rule before you index.php routing rule. It's because ^(.*)$ is matching admin/whatever, so your admin rule will never get executed. You should also add -Multiviews to your options so it looks like this:
Options +FollowSymLinks -Multiviews
Then right under RewriteEngine On, add your rule:
RewriteRule ^admin/(.*)$ admin.php/$1 [L]