Musings
ExpressionEngine - Removing index.php
16th July 2008
ExpressionEngine ships with no URL rewriting, and that means that every page on your ExpressionEngine website will be prefixed with index.php. To remove the .index.php from each page you’ll need to do some URL rewriting. ExpressionEngine have some documents detailing how to remove index.php 
on their website, but they don’t cover if you’re hosting your site from a subdirectory (www.mysite.com/subdirectory/expressionengine/)
To remove index.php from your pages, just create a file in the root of your ExpressionEngine install called .htaccess. This will tell Apache how to rewrite the url to remove the offending prefix. Here’s how to do that:
- Use your favourite text editor to create a file called .htaccess – chances are at this stage you might have to turn off extensions or put the name in quotes “.htaccess” to ensure it’s not affixed with a .txt extension or the like. Double check it’s right by showing hidden files and / or file extentions.
- There are two slightly different options now, depending on where you have installed your expressionengine site.
- Installed on the root
# BEGIN ExpressionEngine Rewrite <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?$1 [L] </IfModule> # END ExpressionEngine Rewrite
- Installed in a subdirectory
# BEGIN ExpressionEngine Rewrite <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /subdirectory/ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /subdirectory/index.php?$1 [L] </IfModule> # END ExpressionEngine Rewrite
- Save and upload
Both these methods will check for physical directories on the server, so if you have a directory called images etc. they won’t be rewritten.
I had some problems under some Apache installs with the rule, and recently altered it. You might notice that your rule is almost working but not quite – the page / template urls are loading, but only the home page is coming up? I fixed this by changing the trailing slash on the index.php in the rule to a ? that way there is no interpretation of the url, the variable is handed straight to the php.
That means the rule will read like (with no sub directory)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?$1 [L]Leevi Graham also pointed out that there might be some problems with images or other single file types, so I added the rule that would omit certain file-types from the rewrite:
RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC]@Carl pointed out that you’ll also need to alter your ExpressionEngine configuration so that the default page will not include index.php. To do that, login to your control panel and go to Admin > System Preferences > General Configuration remove the line were it says index.php and click update.
Discuss
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4th August 2008
The rewrite should work regardless of your expression engine version, it’s just looking for ‘index.php/directory’ in the url and then just removing the index.php.
First off, check that your server is Apache, you could do this by checking with your host, or creating a new php file and adding phpinfo(); to it then uploading and running it: somwhere in there it will have your web server detais.
Then make sure you’ve got mod rewrite enabled, and there’s a guide to do that here at Wallpaperama.
Last thing to check is that your .htaccess definitely has no other extensions that are being hidden by your OS and that it’s just called .htaccess and that it’s on the root of your web directory.
8th September 2008
Hey Wil,
There are a couple of major issues using the “File and Directory Check” method of URL rewriting. One of the biggest is no 404 errors for missing images and other files.
The other issue is a performance issue. If you are missing an image your site will render an entire EE page rather than a simple 404 error. Think of a page with 4 missing images; you would infact be rendering 5 EE pages which will slow down your site a whole bunch.
I always used the “Include Method” but it also had a couple of issue, namely manually generating the template groups and that pages were not included in the example.
I have solved this issue with LG .htaccess Generator which automatically generates your .htaccess file for you when an entry or template group is created or modified.
Check it out here: http://leevigraham.com/cms-customisation/expressionengine/lg-htaccess-generator/
Cheers Leevi
9th September 2008
Yes, I met all the technical server requirement just fine. Apache 2.xx, mod_rewrite, .htaccess and everything working out just fine with other cms such as textpattern and wordpress for the permalink structures.
But when it comes to EE, I tried my methods, they simply don’t work. Oh btw, I’m on site5.com as my hosting provider.
Many thanks linssen.
11th September 2008
@Leevi That’s a great point about the individual files, a nice way around that would be to add some extensions to the rule to be ignored. I’ve added a bit to the rule, that should stop that.
11th September 2008
@leonism Do you get any errors? If you load a page that should run the rule does your expression engine site load at all?
If you like I can take a look for you, get in touch and I’ll see if I can help.
22nd October 2008
@leonism after you have added the .htaccess file you need to go to your (EE) CP
Admin > System Preferences > General Configuration
and remove the line were it say Index.php and click update
that removed it for me if you havent done that already
3rd November 2008
Perfect! Thanks.
8th December 2008
ive tried this method, and it works and all. but when i try to use the search, it takes me to an 404 error page?
19th December 2008
What’s your site OJ? I’ll take a look.
18th March 2009
Great solution, it worked great.
Thanks
5th April 2009
Hi there. I tried hundreds pieces of codes for .htaccess. None of theme worked. I contacted my webhost, they said that they support mod_rewrite, so it’s possible. I copied the code and pasted into a .htaccess file, uploaded and reloaded my website. It won’t work. HELP ME!
5th April 2009
@Friso, you might want to check that your web server is Apache and that Mod rewrite is defintely on. There are some comments further down to help you with that, try them then let me know how you get on.
10th July 2009
Has anyone had issues with every page returning as a 404 when using a custom 404 template set in global template preferences with the index.php removed?
11th July 2009
awesome, thanks again!
13th July 2009
Hello. I have tried this method and it work apart from when I try to do a seach (as it does for @OJ) and just goes to the homepage
13th July 2009
@Jon do you have a template group for your search results?
13th July 2009
@wil.linssen I have created a ‘people’ section on my site and the search result templates are part of this group
14th July 2009
I ask because if you don’t have a 404 page set up if ExpressionEngine can’t find the page, it will just display your default template. Perhaps just double check your results and no results pages are present and correct? http://expressionengine.com/docs/modules/search/simple.html#par_no_result_page
27th August 2009
Wow. I have tried so many methods to remove the index.php and none worked until now. Your solution is the most direct and easiest to implement that I have found. Thanks!
7th September 2009
Hello.
If have added a 404 page but it wont work when your rewrite code is included within the same .htaccess file!
The search is working fine when I don’t try to hide the index.php (or eeindex.php as I’m using). If I use your code search does not work, although eeindex.php is hidden in the URL. Do you have any suggestions?
16th September 2009
nice one, fixed and lovely and shiney!
13th November 2009
You sir are a legend! I have been pulling my lovely locks out all week and bam! you had the answers all along! thank you!
13th November 2009
You’re most bloody welcome @Sarah, I hope you’ve got some lovely locks left.
8th December 2009
Thanks for the tutorial. Although, currently the homepage displays for all template groups. so…
domain.com/about
domain.com/story
All show the homepage
8th January 2010
Hi Wil - first, thanks for the quick fix. This seems far less complicated than the fixes on the EE forums.
However I’ve run into a snafu - after following your instructions to the letter, I’ve found that I still have the “?” remaining in the addresses. Instead of
http://www.jtroll.com/jtroll/projects_main/
I get
http://www.jtroll.com/?/jtroll/projects_main/
Odd things happen if I try to type in the address manually without the “?” as well. Any ideas? Run into this before, perhaps?
Cheers!
8th January 2010
@J.T. You might do well to check the Name of your site’s index page in CP Home › Admin › System Preferences › General Configuration. Just set it to nothing (blank)
15th January 2010
Great stuff, thanks for the tip there Wil. Much clearer to follow than the official documentation.
I had a 404 glitch and after much hair-pulling I realised that I had copied .htaccess to a subdomain by mistake! Annoying! Works fantastically now. It’s funny that this is much cleaner than the ‘rename index.php to some extensionless file’ method suggested by EE, and yet is more of a by-note.
Thanks for the effort.
1st March 2010
Thanks. Works like a charm, AFTER I realized I should have named the file .htaccess (with the dot) and not htaccess (without dot) 
10th May 2010
Does this interfere with google (search engine) indexing..?
Works great by the way, just concerned there may be a down side to it?
10th May 2010
@Trent It’s better for search engine indexing - the urls make more sense.
10th May 2010
OK.
And what about handling 404 errors?
I am struggling to get 404 working properly with the Structure plugin with invalid URL’s.
When I apply a template in Global Template Preferences for 404’s it treats everything as invalid URL.
Any help?
27th June 2010
Hey,
It worked for a minute but doesn’t for some reason where the home page works, but the sub pages like about, contact presents page not found. I am using the subdirectory method. I don’t know if it’s that I am using the expression engine 2.0 and this was written for previous version.
On the same note Leevi generator is stuck as the extensions manager is throwing an error of something like extension refresh thing. Please check!
27th June 2010
Hi,
I did some acessement of the subdirectory and it worked. However, for some of the pages such as news, i still see the index.php extension why?
Here are some details.
Host:a2hosting
Apache version 2.2.13
PHP version 5.2.9
EE 2.0
I am using the agile theme sample given to this version.
Thanks
16th July 2010
hey thanks for your opinoin..
it helped me to remove index.php from the url but i have a question mark in that place..
can anyone assist me in this
leonism
4th August 2008
None of the above method works for me, I’m on EE 1.6.2. Any ideas why? Many thanks.