htaccess is not working in xampp in windows - php

Question

I have edited the httpd.conf file like:
changed to AllowOverride All
Here is my .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^shirts/$ /shirts/shirts.php
RewriteRule ^shirts/([0-9]+)/$ /shirts/shirt.php?id=$1
RewriteRule ^receipt.php$ /receipt/ [R=301]
RewriteRule ^contact.php$ /contact/ [R=301]
RewriteRule ^shirts.php$ /shirts/ [R=301]
RewriteRule ^(shirts/[0-9]+)$ /$1/ [R=301]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=([0-9]+)$
RewriteRule ^shirt.php$ /shirts/%1/? [R=301]
And the folder structure is like this:
shirts4mike
+ contact
+ css
+ img
+ inc
+ receipt
+ shirts
|_ shirt.php
|_ shirts.php
- .htaccess
- favicon.ico
- index.php
I've tried many times, but it still showing index file does not exits, when I click the shirts in the home page.
I think xampp does ignore the .htaccess file.
If so, How should I fix?

Answer 1

The problem seems to be that you try to rewrite an url in a subdirectory, but it links to the http-root directory. You need to have the .htaccess file in the subdirectory. You'll notice that a rule like RewriteRule ^test$ /testing-is-fun will match on an url http://example.com/shirts4mike/test, but rewrites to a file testing-is-fun in your http-root. We therefore need to fix the rewriting part of the rule.
The fix is having an relative url, instead of an absolute url. This can be done by removing the prefix /. For redirects, define RewriteBase with the subdirectory in it. I would add the [L] flag to every rule too. Your .htaccess should look something like this:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /shirts4mike/
RewriteRule ^shirts/$ shirts/shirts.php [L]
RewriteRule ^shirts/([0-9]+)/$ shirts/shirt.php?id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^receipt.php$ receipt/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^contact.php$ contact/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^shirts.php$ shirts/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^(shirts/[0-9]+)$ $1/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=([0-9]+)$
RewriteRule ^shirt.php$ shirts/%1/? [R=301,L]
As a side-note: I encourage you to do not use [R=301] while testing rewriterules. Some browsers cache a permanent redirect to increase performance. This is fine if your rules work as you expect them to work, but if that is not the case, further tests might link to your old page. This means when you change your .htaccess, you'll have to clear your cache to see the current situation.