How to clean url to accept ending slash or not with .htaccess-CodePudding

How do I clean URL http://localhost/mysitedirectory/contacts.php

to look like both:

http://localhost/mysitedirectory/contacts

http://localhost/mysitedirectory/contacts/

I want this because a user may add the ending trailing slash or leave it so I want .htaccess to configure such that it works both ways.

I noticed when I add the / at the end of the contacts it says "OBJECT NOT FOUND"...Error 404

How do I make it work even if I add the slash or not?

this is what I tried:

RewriteEngine On
Options -Indexes


RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^contacts$ contacts.php [L,QSA,NC]
RewriteRule ^home$ index.php [L,QSA,NC]

CodePudding user response：

CBroe answered in a comment section:

^contacts/?$ - slash at the end, made optional by the following quantifier question mark.

CodePudding user response：

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^contacts$ contacts.php [L,QSA,NC]
RewriteRule ^home$ index.php [L,QSA,NC]

The two RewriteCond directives (filesystem checks) are entirely superfluous and should be removed. (As are the QSA flags on the RewriteRule directives.)

However, instead of allowing both /contacts and /contacts/ (strictly speaking two different URLs) resolve to the same content (which would necessitate the need for a rel="canonical" tag) you should externally redirect from one to the other (canonical) URL.

By the look of it, the URL without the trailing slash is canonical, so remove the trailing slash with an external redirect. The only thing to be careful of is that you should not remove the trailing slash from physical directories (which would ordinarily cause a redirect loop).

For example:

Options -Indexes -MultiViews

RewriteEngine On

# Canonical redirect to remove trailing slash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (. )/$ /$1 [R=301,L]

# Internal rewrites
RewriteRule ^contacts$ contacts.php [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^home$ index.php [L,NC]

The NC flag on the RewriteRule directives makes contacts, CONTACTS and CoNtAcTs all resolve to the same content. (So the rel="canonical" tag is still required to resolve this ambiguity.)