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.htaccess file generator

From web form to .htaccess…

.htaccess files are apache files which you can modify to make your web site to some crazy things. You can:

  • Redirect to another url
  • Set default files (index.html) if the user just specifies a directory
  • Protect certain files
  • Password-protect directories
  • Specify mod_rewrite rules (a black art) as I do below
  • map files and folders
  • Specify 404 error and other pages
  • etc.

I create and modify .htaccess files a lot but am acutely aware that they can do a lot more than I’ve been using them for.

Enter the .htaccess Generator! What’s going to be great about this site, for me, is that I can experiment with the features and see what the exact right syntax looks like.

For instance, how do I redirect the standard stylesheet to one appropriate for mobile phones? I filled out the form as follows:

Htaccess_gen1

I then got this back:

RewriteEngine  on
RewriteCond %{ENV:GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE}  [NC]
RewriteRule ^test\.css$  [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}  ^Mozilla/[345].*Gecko*
RewriteRule ^test\.css$ firefox.css [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}  ^Mozilla/[345].*MSIE*
RewriteRule ^test\.css$ ie.css [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}  ^Mozilla/[12].* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}  ^Lynx/*
RewriteRule ^test\.css$ lynx.css [L]
RewriteRule ^test\.css$ other.css [L] 

Now, I suspsect that my mobile phone might give me back something more specific, which I could type in here but now that I know the pattern I think I can take it from here.

Neat stuff.

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