mod_rewrite for multiple application in codeigniter - php

Question

I am new to url re-writng and is currently facing problems with rewriting url for multiple applications in codeigniter. I have scanned the whole stackoverflow with some potential answers but it is still not solving my problems entirely
My directory at the root is as such
-application
--administrator
--frontend
What I am looking for is for my users to access my web site (frontend) with http://www.mydomain.com/ And my admin (backend) as http://www.mydomain.com/admin/
my current .htaccess is as such
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
# If the user types just "admin".
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^admin$ administrator.php [L,QSA]
# If the user enter in any admin section, like "admin/section".
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^admin\/(.*)$ administrator\.php/$1 [L,QSA]
# If the user types any site section, like "site/section".
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index\.php/$1 [L,QSA]
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
</IfModule>
code from CodeIgniter multi-application .htaccess problem
I can get what I desire at the front end with the above .htaccess, but I can't get it working on my back end. Basically, www.domain.com/admin gives a 404 page not found error.
Please advice me on the problem. Also, please guide me on where I should place this .htaccess file? at the root? inside the application folder? or inside the frontend and administrator folder respectively.
Many thanks.
Regards.

Answer 1

Why not something like this in your root directory.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|update\.php|assets|admin|robots\.txt|favicon\.ico)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
This will basically ignore any directories such as "admin" to route to the frontend application. You will have to set your config.php and remove index.php from the controller.

Answer 2

Found a way to work with this problem already. It is not a very smart way of doing it but it at least worked.
First, I created an 'admin' folder in the root, with a copy of the application's index.php
Which effectively make my directory looking like this.
-admin
--.htaccess
--index.php
-application
--frontend
--administrator
-index.php
-.htaccess
For this solution you will need to have two .htaccess files in different location.
For the .htaccess at the root, it should look like this.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|update\.php|administrator\.php|assets|admin|robots\.txt|favicon\.ico)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
</IfModule>
For the .htaccess in the admin folder
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
</IfModule>
While this works on localhost, it is noteworthy that it may not work on rented servers because the file system in your host may be different.