Movalog Blog

About .htaccess

An htaccess file is a simple ascii text file which you create or edit in a text editor. The dot (.) before the word htaccess indicates that .htaccess is a file extension. Some text editors will add on an additional .txt file extension when you save your document. When you upload it to your server however, make sure the final file is named .htaccess and set the file's permissions to 644. The (.) in .htaccess also makes the file "hidden" on a unix server. Some FTP clients do not show the .htaccess as because of its hidden status. For such FTP clients you will need to specify the "-a" parameter which displays all files including those that are hidden. For example:

Some web hosts do not allow use of .htaccess files, so check with your web host to make sure that it does before attempting to upload one. According to this Guide to .htaccess

Most commands in htaccess are meant to be placed on one line only, so if you use a text editor that uses word-wrap, make sure it is disabled or it might throw in a few characters that annoy Apache to no end, although Apache is typically very forgiving of malformed content in an htaccess file.

The .htaccess file usually resides in the root publichtml directory of your server. When placed in the root publichtml directory, the .htaccess file contents affect every file in your public directory, including every file in every sub directory. For example publichtml/.htaccess would affect files in publichtml as well as files in publichtml/files/ and publichtml/files/morefiles. You can override the effects of the root public_html .htaccess file in a subdirectory by placing another .htaccess file in that subdirectory.

The Dynamic Publishing .htaccess Code

To enable Dynamic Publishing, the MT Manual lists this code (minus the commented-out lines) for the .htaccess file:

Let's review each line to see what it does:

Options -Indexes

This first line disables something called indexes and is important for security purposes. Indexes allow the public to see files and folders on your server, for example:

Your web host needs to have two Apache modules - modrewrite and modedir. Modrewrite invokes dynamic pages. Moddir.c provides for "trailing slash" redirects and serving directory index files. (See Apache documentation). The third line in the code above is a common list of directory index options. If a URL has a trailing slash, for example if it is a directory like http://www.movalog.com/archives/ , then the server checks for files that are the most common main pages of the directory, including index.html, index.php, etc. If such a file is found, that file is served. Otherwise mtview.php takes over. Notice that at the end of the list is /mtview.php. It is invoked if the other choices aren't present.

RewriteEngine on

This line starts the mod_rewrite module

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

If the request is for a real directory (one that exists on the server), mtview.php isn't served.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

If the request is for a file that exists already on the server, mtview.php isn't served.

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /mtview.php [L,QSA]
</IfModule>

All other requests are sent to mtview.php. </IfModule> is a closing tag for the rewrite module.

<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
  ErrorDocument 404 /mtview.php
  ErrorDocument 403 /mtview.php
</IfModule>

If mod_rewrite isn't available, these lines tell the server to route the requests to mtview.php. It works by sending any requests for non-existent files, or files that are forbidden, to mtview.php and lets mtview.php handle it.

If you know your host supports mod_rewrite, you don't need this last bit of code. In this case you can trim your .htaccess code down to:

It should look like this:

Finishing Touches

The code shown here must start on a new line within the .htaccess file. But apart from that there are no other rules on where it should go within the file. You will need a set of .htaccess and mtview.php files for every weblog directory in which you plan to use dynamic publishing. It is not enough to have one .htaccess file and one mtview.php file in the public_html directory to work for all of your weblogs.

I have a .htaccess and a mtview.php file in publichtml/ that is used for his main Movalog weblog. His sideblog resides in a subdirectory, and for this he has created new .htaccess and mtview.php files for that subdirectory. The .htaccess and the mtview.php files inside of the sideblog directory take priority over the publichtml .htaccess and mtview.php files for that sideblog.

If you have a similar situation, and are creating a .htaccess for an additional weblog within a subdirectory of your public_html directory, you will need to change the code in the .htaccess file you load to that subdirectory indicating the subdirectory location of the mtview.php file. For example

Potential Conflicts

If you are amending an existing .htaccess file with the code shown here you should check for potential conflicts. The main conflict that may arise is if you have any existing definitions for custom error templates (usually this code begins with ErrorDocument). If you have existing ErrorDocument code you can remove it and use the Dynamic Pages Error Template for your custom error pages. Note that MT will serve up only one error template, so if you are used to having several, with different messages, you will need to combine the messages into that one template. On the Dynamic Pages Error Template swap out the <$MTErrorMessage$> tag for your custom error message.

Note that if you already have a .htaccess file in your root public directory, a subdirectory .htaccess file will only affect the files and directories in the subdirectory. That extends to error messages as well.

If you are unsure about potential .htaccess conflicts with an existing file, it is safest to check with your webhost first, before implementing an additional file.