URL rewriting using php not working - php

Question

I have my url as
http://public_html.com/sub-products.php?catid=42
I want it to look like
http://public_html.com/sub-products/catid/42
I have made a .htaccess file too. but still there is no change in my url
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php
RewriteRule ^sub-products/catid/([0-9]+)/?$ sub-products.php?catid=$1 [L]
Do i need to change anything in my php file also?
what code is required for php file to use .htaccess file?

Answer 1

Your rule in .htaccess rewrite only incoming seo-pretty URls to URL with php script filename. But if you need construct url as /sub-products/catid/42 you have to change you PHP code, that render HTML output.
for example
while ( $products as $product ) {
echo '<a href="/sub-products/catid/"'.$product['id'].'>'.$product['name'].'</a>;
}

Answer 2

Maybe there is a purpose to your line
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php
But i can't see it for the need you have, so i guess a
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^sub-products/catid/([0-9]+)/?$ /sub-products.php?catid=$1 [L]
should work.
Edit :
This should work if you are trying to access the http://public_html.com/sub-products/catid/42 url
(or http://public_html.com/sub-products/catid/42/ btw)
If what you want is going from
http://public_html.com/sub-products.php?catid=42
to
http://public_html.com/sub-products/catid/42/
You might need something like this :
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^catid=([0-9]+)$
RewriteRule ^sub-products.php$ /sub-products/catid/%1/? [R=301,L]
And then, you can use what i said before.

Answer 3

I am not sure if you switched your first statment around, but it looks in your .htaccess file you want to rewrite the other way around. Maybe this would work.
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} catid=([0-9]+)$
RewriteRule ^/?sub-products.php /sub-products/catid/%1 [R,L]
If you want to have a more generic rule, and not just for catid this RewriteRule could work:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ([a-zA-Z]+)=([0-9]+)$
RewriteRule ^/?sub-products.php /sub-products/%1/%2 [R,L]
Hope it helps you forward.
EDIT: Made some changes after testing it on my system.