Fixing broken urls using mod_rewrite

[quastdog]

We recently updated a java servlet url to something totally different - something that was supposedly an internal url only. After making the change, we discovered from server logs that lots of these urls were indexed on search engines. Instead of returning a customized 404 error page when someone comes in from such SE referrals, is it possible to use mod_rewrite to return something else?

How would I turn this:
/online/store/SpecificationChart?catGroupID=4501864&storeId=8000&param=value&parm=value

into something like this (which is an existing mod_rewrite rule which resolves into an ugly url like the above example):
/category/4501864.htm

However, if storeId=8001, we want the url to be like this:
/outlet/category/4501864.htm

The catGroupID and storeId params can be in any order, any position within the QS.

[Caterham]

How would I turn this:
[...]
into something like this (which is an existing mod_rewrite rule which resolves into an ugly url like the above example):

However, if storeId=8001, we want the url to be like this:

You know that you've to change the links in your html source manually


/outlet/category/4501864.htm internal rewrite to /online/store/SpecificationChart?catGroupID=4501864&storeId=8001&param=value&parm=value

Code: Select all

RewriteRule ^outlet/category/([0-9]+)\.htm$ /online/store/SpecificationChart?catGroupID=$1&storeId=8001&param=value&parm=value [L]

/category/4501864.htm internal rewrite to /online/store/SpecificationChart?catGroupID=4501864&storeId=8000&param=value&parm=value

Code: Select all

RewriteRule ^category/([0-9]+)\.htm$ /online/store/SpecificationChart?catGroupID=$1&storeId=8000&param=value&parm=value [L]