regex - How can I use .htaccess to hide .php URL extensions?

Question

I want something to put in my .htaccess file that will hide the .php file extension for my php files, so going to www.example.com/dir/somepage would show them www.example.com/dir/somepage.php.

Is there any working solution for this? My site uses HTTPS, if that matters at all.

This is my .htaccess at the moment:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R,L]

ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.php

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$
RewriteRule (.*) $1.php [L]

Answer 1

Use this code in your .htaccess under DOCUMENT_ROOT:

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
# Turn mod_rewrite on
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# To externally redirect /dir/foo.php to /dir/foo
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}s([^.]+).php [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1 [R=302,L,NE]

## To internally redirect /dir/foo to /dir/foo.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %{REQUEST_URI}.php [L]

It should be noted that this will also effect all HTTP requests, including POST, which will subsequently effect all requests of this kind to fall under this redirection and may potentially cause such requests to stop working.

To resolve this, you can add an exception into the first RewriteRule to ignore POST requests so the rule is not allowed to them.

# To externally redirect /dir/foo.php to /dir/foo excluding POST requests
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !POST
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}s([^.]+).php [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1 [R=302,L,NE]