Building a webcomic: How to redirect URL to latest slug using htaccess?

Question

I'm inexperienced with coding.

I have a comic that creates new pages as /?pg=pagenumber

I want visitors to be redirected to the latest page. So when they type: https://example.com they get redirected to https://example.com/?pg=latestpagenumber The latestpagenumber changes every time I add a new page.

I'm using .htaccess to edit this rule. I tried a couple of edits, but they do not work. I have another rewrite rule that works (removing index.html).

I have tried:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^example.com/(\\d+)/?$ /example.com/?pg=$1 \[L,R=301\]\

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^example.com/(.*)$ /example.com/$1 [L,R=301]

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /https://example\.com\ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1? [L,R]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/?$ /https://example.com/?pg=$1 [L]

This that contains a script:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^example.com/?$ scripthere.php [L]

The php script contains:

<?php
// Code to determine the most recent slug (e.g., from a database or a file).
$latestSlug = getLatestSlug();

// Redirect to the most recent page using a 301 (Permanent) redirect.
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: https://example.com/$latestSlug");
exit();
?>

To see if redirection even works, I tried this piece which gives me a redirect error.

Redirect 301 "/" "https://example.com/?pg=pgnumberhere"

Answer 1

A redirect rule needs to know what it is redirecting to when it is applied. This is not known at config time. I don't think rewrites are the way to solve the problem.

Clearly you have management of metadata (the linkage between the pagenumber and the content files) implemented for adding and retrieving content. Further, you have PHP available and a mechanism for determining the default content algorithmically. Hence you could....

Present a PHP script at https://example.com/index.php which loads the intended content at that URL.

Present a PHP script at https://example.com/index.php which redirects to a static file containing the intended content.

Map the PHP script as a 404 handler (and add logic to handle cases where the request is for something other than https://example.com/).

Modfy the deployment method to replace /index/html with a symlink to the intended content (note you'll probably have to explicitly allow followSymlinks).

Answer 2

I found a working solution that doesn't cause redirect errors or pages being stuck or constantly refreshing the page. I have to manually edit the const maxPageNumber = however.

<script>
    // Define the latest page number and maximum page number.
    let latestPageNumber = Number(findGetParameter("pg"));
    const maxPageNumber = 123; // Replace with the actual maximum page number.

    // Ensure latestPageNumber is within the valid range.
    if (isNaN(latestPageNumber) || latestPageNumber < 1 || latestPageNumber > maxPageNumber) {
        latestPageNumber = maxPageNumber; // Use the maximum if the value is invalid.
    }

    // Construct the target URL.
    const targetURL = `https://example.com/?pg=${latestPageNumber}#showComic`;

    // Perform the dynamic redirection.
    window.location.href = targetURL;

    // Function to extract GET parameters from the URL.
    function findGetParameter(parameterName) {
        let result = null,
            tmp = [];
        location.search
            .substr(1)
            .split("&")
            .forEach(function (item) {
                tmp = item.split("=");
                if (tmp[0] === parameterName) result = decodeURIComponent(tmp[1]);
            });
        return result;
    }
</script>