mod_rewrite not always showing the "clean" URL

[galvin]

Just curious what would cause a URL "hidden" by mod_rewrite to SOMETIMES show in the browser?

 

For example, I have this code below in my htaccess file which rewrites www.example.com/whatever to www.example.com/play.php?url=whatever.  95% of the time, when I enter www.example.com/whatever into the browser, it stays that way in the location bar.  But every once in a while, it will change to show the "hidden" URL of www.example.com/play.php?url=whatever.

 

I'm new to mod_rewrite so maybe this is normal? Or should it never do that?  If the latter, any idea what possibly might cause it to happen?

 

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>	
RewriteEngine On		
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/?$ play.php?url=$1 [L]
</IfModule>

[trq]

Maybe your clicking a link to the ugly url?

[galvin]

Not that I remember. It's always been me copying the good URL and pasting it into a browser location bar and it changes to the bad one. Weird. Not ruling out me doing something stupid but I don't think so . Anyway just curious if this was a known issue. Not a huge deal.

[trq]

The rewrite rule you posted could not possibly be responsible for doing what you have described.

[cags]

header redirect in the actual php file?

[galvin]

Ok, I found that when I enter the www version of my domain, it shows the "clean" url.  But without www, it shows the "ugly" url. 

 

For example, entering "www.mydomain.com/whatever" keeps that same, clean URL in the address bar.  But if I leave off the "www" and enter just "mydomain.com/whatever", it changes to "www.mydomain.com/play.php?url=whatever"

 

So I think that means the problem has to be with my mod_rewrite rules in my htaccess files, right?

 

This is how I had them...

 

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>	
RewriteEngine On		
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/?$ play.php?url=$1 [L]
</IfModule>

#sending all non-www requests to www
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc] 

 

I then changed it by putting the www redirect rules FIRST, but it didn't help. 

 

Something's got to be missing/wrong in my rules above that is causing non-www versions to show the ugly URL. 

 

Anyone see the problem?