Setting up clean URLs in drupal

Setting up clean URLs Drupal URLs have the format http://www.molecularsciences.org/?q=node/11. ‘?q=’ does not look very nice in the URL. It also hinders using meaningful URLs. Search engines such as google and yahoo prefer clean URLs. To enable clean URLs:

Administer > Site Configuration > Clean URLs > Run the clean URL test

You should get a message like follows:

“This option makes Drupal emit “clean” URLs (i.e. without ?q= in the URL.) You have successfully demonstrated that clean URLs work on your server. You may enable/disable them as you wish.”

If you get this message:

Enabled > Save Configuration

Troubleshooting

If you do not get the desired results from the Run the clean URL test, you need to modify your .htaccess file located in your drupal root folder. My drupal root is located at c:\www\drupal :

1. Backup your .htaccess file
2. Uncomment RewriteEngine on
3. Add Options All in the following line
4. Uncomment RewriteBase /drupal. If you drupal root is not ‘drupal’, change it your drupal root.
5. Uncomment the following lines and save the fileRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

What do these odd three lines of code actually do. 1. If requested file exists, serve it. 2. If requested directory exists, serve it depending on how index option is configured. 3. Otherwise, send all requests to index.php, setting parameter ‘q’ as the path of the original request, and then append the rest of the query string.

Following is what my .htaccess file looks like. If nothing else works, try copy pasting this:

#
# Apache/PHP/Drupal settings:
#

# Protect files and directories from prying eyes.
<FilesMatch "\.(engine|inc|info|install|module|profile|po|sh|.*sql|theme|tpl(\.php)?|xtmpl)$|^(code-style\.pl|Entries.*|Repository|Root|Tag|Template)$">
 Order allow,deny
</FilesMatch>

# Don't show directory listings for URLs which map to a directory.
Options -Indexes

# Follow symbolic links in this directory.
Options +FollowSymLinks

# Customized error messages.
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

# Set the default handler.
DirectoryIndex index.php

# Override PHP settings. More in sites/default/settings.php
# but the following cannot be changed at runtime.

# PHP 4, Apache 1.
<IfModule mod_php4.c>
 php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
 php_value register_globals                0
 php_value session.auto_start              0
 php_value mbstring.http_input             pass
 php_value mbstring.http_output            pass
 php_value mbstring.encoding_translation   0
</IfModule>

# PHP 4, Apache 2.
<IfModule sapi_apache2.c>
 php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
 php_value register_globals                0
 php_value session.auto_start              0
 php_value mbstring.http_input             pass
 php_value mbstring.http_output            pass
 php_value mbstring.encoding_translation   0
</IfModule>

# PHP 5, Apache 1 and 2.
<IfModule mod_php5.c>
 php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
 php_value register_globals                0
 php_value session.auto_start              0
 php_value mbstring.http_input             pass
 php_value mbstring.http_output            pass
 php_value mbstring.encoding_translation   0
</IfModule>

# Requires mod_expires to be enabled.
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
 # Enable expirations.
 ExpiresActive On
 # Cache all files for 2 weeks after access (A).
 ExpiresDefault A1209600
 # Do not cache dynamically generated pages.
 ExpiresByType text/html A1
</IfModule>

# Various rewrite rules.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 RewriteEngine on
   Options All

 # If your site can be accessed both with and without the 'www.' prefix, you
 # can use one of the following settings to redirect users to your preferred
 # URL, either WITH or WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix. Choose ONLY one option:
 #
 # To redirect all users to access the site WITH the 'www.' prefix,
 # (http://example.com/... will be redirected to http://www.example.com/...)
 # adapt and uncomment the following:
 # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [NC]
 # RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
 #
 # To redirect all users to access the site WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix,
 # (http://www.example.com/... will be redirected to http://example.com/...)
 # adapt and uncomment the following:
 # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$ [NC]
 # RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]

 # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory and
 # the rewrite rules are not working properly.
 RewriteBase /drupal

 # Rewrite old-style URLs of the form 'node.php?id=x'.
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
 RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=([^&]+)$
 RewriteRule node.php index.php?q=node/view/%1 [L]

 # Rewrite old-style URLs of the form 'module.php?mod=x'.
 #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
 #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
 #RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mod=([^&]+)$
 #RewriteRule module.php index.php?q=%1 [L]

 # Rewrite current-style URLs of the form 'index.php?q=x'.
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]


# $Id: .htaccess,v 1.81.2.3 2007/09/21 12:24:22 drumm Exp $

Restart Apache so that the changes can take effect.