A clean url could be something like www.example.com/fisherman instead of www.example.com/data/pages/fisherman.php
Some installations of apache have clean URL functionality out of the box. There are 2 steps that need to be configured correctly for it to work.
- Enable rewrite module
- Allow .htaccess file overrides
Both steps require SSH root access to your server. So if you are on shared host this probably won't work for you. Open your terminal:
1. Enable rewrite module
To enable the rewrite module, you can type the following command
sudo a2enmod rewrite
Now type
sudo service apache2 restart
to enable the changes. You can check if it’s working by typing
sudo apache2ctl –M
A list will appear. Look for “rewrite_module”.
2. Allow .htaccess file overrides
Now you need to see if your config file is properly set up (it is often here there is a problem). Find your main config file (or the config file for your domain if you have the settings configured there (you will have to look at both files if you don’t know).
The main config file is usually found by typing:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
If your files for your site are located in “var/www” look for this string: “<Directory /var/www>” and replace this line
AllowOverride None
with this
AllowOverride All
now enable the changes by typing
sudo service apache2 restart
If you still can’t see clean url’s it’s probably cause your .htaccess file is not correctly set up (placed at the root of your site). Since this file now has full control of your url-settings for your domain if you followed step 2.
