[pmwiki-users] I need help with clean URLs

Patrick R. Michaud pmichaud at pobox.com
Mon Aug 14 08:52:43 CDT 2006


On Sun, Aug 13, 2006 at 09:58:12PM -0700, info at theburroughsproject.com wrote:
> Hello again. I've talked with tech support at godaddy.com, and they
> claim that the mod_rewrite should work for what I'm doing, and have
> assured me that there are no restrictions to mod_rewrite whatsoever. So
> I just wanted to check with you one last time, to make absolutely sure
> that I'm doing this correctly. This is what I'm doing:
> 
> In my root document folder I have only two items: one folder named
> "pmwiki", and one .htaccess  
> file. This is an exact copy of what's in my .htaccess file:
> 
> # Use mod_rewrite to enable "Clean URLs" for a PmWiki installation.
> RewriteEngine On
> # The rewrite base will be the document root.
> RewriteBase /
> # Send requests without parameters to pmwiki.php.
> RewriteRule ^$           pmwiki/pmwiki.php  [L]
> # Send requests for index.php to pmwiki.php.
> RewriteRule ^index\.php$ pmwiki/pmwiki.php  [L]
> # Send requests to pmwiki.php, appending the query string part.
> RewriteRule ^([^/a-z].*) pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=$1  [QSA,L]

This looks exactly right to me.  You might try removing the
RewriteBase line and see if that helps.

Also, remove any index.php file that you may have in your
document root, and see if the url

    http://www.example.com/index.php

works (you should see the PmWiki home page if it does).
If that url doesn't work, try creating a _completely empty_
index.php file and see what happens.

I'm also wondering if the Apache webserver at GoDaddy is doing
the equivalent of "AcceptPathInfo Off" and returning the 404
error before ever trying the .htaccess or the mod_rewrite rules.  
You could try adding

    AcceptPathInfo On

to your .htaccess and see if that resolves the 404.

Also, do you happen to know what version of Apache is being used?
(You can set $EnableDiag=1; in local/config.php, then use ?action=phpinfo
to have PmWiki report the Apache version and configuration.)

Lastly, perhaps you could send me (privately if you want) the
actual url of the site so I could take a look?  

Thanks!

Pm

> <?php if (!defined('PmWiki')) exit();
> ## Use "Clean URLs".
> $EnablePathInfo = 1;
> $ScriptUrl = "http://www.example.com";
> ## more configuration settings...
> 
> The results are that Main.HomePage appears at www.example.com, that
> works fine - and all of the links now point to clean URLs (like
> "www.example.com/SomeGroup/SomePage"), but I get a 404 error on them.
> 
> I'm using a completely clean installation of pmwiki-2.1.12. Other than
> adding the config file and the .htaccess file, the installation is %100
> straight out of the box. The .htaccess file is definitely "functioning",
> meaning that the changes I make to it have an immediate effect. I'm
> hoping that there is something wrong with the above, because if it's
> not, then I'm pretty much out of ideas.
> 
> Thanks for everything,
> Phil
> 
> ----
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [pmwiki-users] I need help with clean URLs
> From: "Patrick R. Michaud" <pmichaud at pobox.com>
> Date: Sat, August 12, 2006 4:36 pm
> To: "H. Fox" <haganfox at users.sourceforge.net>
> Cc: info at theburroughsproject.com, pmwiki-users at pmichaud.com
> 
> On Sat, Aug 12, 2006 at 03:57:18PM -0700, H. Fox wrote:
> > On 8/12/06, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> > >On Fri, Aug 11, 2006 at 11:57:29PM -0700, info at theburroughsproject.com 
> > >wrote:
> > >> Right now my URLs look like this:
> > >> www.example.com/pmwiki.php?n=SomeGroup.SomePage
> > >>
> > >> I want my URLs to look like this:
> > >> www.example.com/SomeGroup/SomePage
> > >
> > >This looks like "Example Three" from the Cookbook.CleanUrls
> > >page, so you'll want to follow it.
> > 
> > Ironically it's more a lot like (more like?) Example One, ".htaccess
> > and pmwiki.php in the Same Directory".
> 
> Hmmm.  I was thinking it was more like Example Three, because
> Example One says:
> 
>   After: http://www.example.com/~someuser/pmwiki/Main/HomePage
> 
> while Example Three says
> 
>   After: http://www.example.com/Main/HomePage
> 
> which is obviously a lot closer to what the original poster wanted.
> This is a bit reinforced in the list of examples above where it says
> 
>       Example One:  http://www.example.com/~someuser/pmwiki/.htaccess
>       Example Two:  http://www.example.com/~someuser/.htaccess
>     Example Three:  http://www.example.com/.htaccess
> 
> where again Example Three appeared closest to desired ultimate result.
> 
> > Putting it this way is likely to be confusing for others who might be
> > searching the archives.
> > 
> > The .htaccess file goes in the directory that will be requested, not
> > the directory that holds pmwiki.php.  In this instance they happen to
> > be the same.
> 
> A very valid point -- in describing this particular example it
> was simpler to describe it as relative to pmwiki.php, but in
> general it's much more correct to say it should go in the directory
> of the request.
> 
> > When it came time to improve on ~someuser, other alternatives seemed
> > even less appealing.  :-|  In the end I just stuck with ~someuser
> > because I thought it might actually help experienced administrators
> > ("oh I see, it could be installed in a user directory").  This seemed
> > worth trading off some possible confusion for an administrator who's
> > unfamiliar with user directories.  Using ~someuser could also help
> > clarify the difference between "URL paths" and the "filesystem paths".
> > 
> > We can go ahead and try "just using 'path/to/pmwiki'" instead.  I
> > predict that will add confusion, not reduce it.
> 
> I totally agree, it still has a lot of potential for (adding) confusing.
> I'm just thinking that the case of installing PmWiki into a hosted
> environment (sans ~username) is a *lot* more common than using
> ~username.  
> 
> 
> > [snip]
> > >Your questions have already pointed out some important gaps
> > >in the current documentation, so this is a huge help to us all.
> > 
> > I'm disappointed to learn that I spent those hours rewriting the
> > CleanURLs recipe page only to leave holes and huge gaps.  
> 
> Please don't be disappointed; I wasn't intending to imply there
> are huge gaps in CleanUrls, my implication was more that the
> page has evolved to the point where it requires more specific/
> penetrating questions in order to see where potential confusion
> lies.  I think that the current CleanUrls page is a huge success,
> especially as evidenced by how few questions we now get on the
> mailing list about the topic.
> 
> > IMHO part of
> > the problem here was that the poster installed PmWiki in the web
> > docroot directory, which is not necessary and probably not
> > advisable.[1]
> 
> I thought the same thing at the time of my reply but didn't write it --
> preferring to remain focused on the immediate issue.  I totally
> agree that it's probably better to install PmWiki in a pmwiki/
> subdirectory somewhere, and then use mod_rewrite to make the
> urls appear at the server root, for the same reasons you cite
> in the CleanUrls note that was added.
> 
> Pm 
> 
> 




More information about the pmwiki-users mailing list