url rewriting - Pretty URL via Rewrite

I'm building a dynamically populated profile page for my site users. This currently uses the following URL structure:

/?&uid=XX

I'd like to improve the look of the URL by inserting the user's nicename to create this URL structure:

/{nicename}/?uid=XX

I know I should be able to do this using a fairly simply rewrite rule in .htaccess, but haven't been able to get the right rule setup.

How can I get this structure / rewrite setup?

I'm building a dynamically populated profile page for my site users. This currently uses the following URL structure:

https://example/members-list-profile/?&uid=XX

I'd like to improve the look of the URL by inserting the user's nicename to create this URL structure:

https://example/members-list-profile/{nicename}/?uid=XX

I know I should be able to do this using a fairly simply rewrite rule in .htaccess, but haven't been able to get the right rule setup.

How can I get this structure / rewrite setup?

• url-rewriting
• htaccess
• rewrite-rules
• mod-rewrite

Share Improve this question edited Dec 19, 2018 at 0:35 MrWhite 3,89111 gold badge2020 silver badges2323 bronze badges asked Dec 18, 2018 at 20:20 Phill HealeyPhill Healey 37811 gold badge77 silver badges2020 bronze badges 5

• 1 What have you tried? Presumably you have already changed the URLs in WordPress (in your internal links) and you need to "remove" (not "insert") the {nicename} part of the URL? – MrWhite Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 22:46
• Any reasoning for the downvote, downvoter? You're entitled to your opinion but it helps no-one if you don't clarify the perceived problem. – Phill Healey Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 11:56
• @MrWhite The building the link is not an issue. It's the redirect in htaccess that will route the "pretty" url into the real querystring based url that is the issue. – Phill Healey Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 11:58
• It wasn't me who downvoted. (I agree, downvotes without comments are not particularly helpful.) I guess the downvote might be because you've not shown what you have tried? But anyway... – MrWhite Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 12:01
• @MrWhite I didn't think it was you, sorry if it came across as if I did. As for the reasoning, it doesn't matter. Donwvoted without a comment helps no-one. I may have a low score on this exchange but I know my way around SO. Downvoting without any comment is just a bit arrogant IMHO. – Phill Healey Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 12:33

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1 Answer 1

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It's the redirect in htaccess that will route the "pretty" url into the real querystring based url that is the issue.

So, it would seem you need to "remove" the /{nicename} portion from the "pretty" URL of the form https://example/members-list-profile/{nicename}/?uid=XX.

Try something like the following at the top of your .htaccess file (before the WordPress front-controller) using mod_rewrite:

RewriteRule ^(members-list-profile/)[^/]+/$ $1 [L]

However, unless this maps to a physical file (in which case you should rewrite directly to that file, rather than let mod_dir issue a subrequest) then this might not work with WordPress, since WP still routes the URL based on physical/visible URL - it doesn't necessarily see the rewritten URL. You could issue an external redirect to get around this, but that really defeats the point of having {nicename} in the URL to begin with.

Something like this should probably be done entirely within WordPress, not .htaccess.