Rewrite all URLs within subdirectory to index.html so JavaScript can use the path

Question

I have a part of domain example.com/~mypart. In that folder is index.html. If I visit example.com/~mypart/something I get a "Not Found" error.

I want every address with some string after example.com/~mypart/ to rewrite to example.com/~mypart (index.html) and keep the string so I can use JavaScript in index.html to get that string.

Answer 1

This is a standard front-controller pattern. You can use mod_dir's FallbackResource directive in the .htaccess file at /~mypart/.htaccess. For example:

FallbackResource /~mypart/index.html

(If /~mypart is an Apache per-user web directory then just use /index.html.)

Many examples will use mod_rewrite, but unless you have more complex URL rewriting requirements, then the above is sufficient (and recommended).

Reference:
https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_dir.html#fallbackresource

Answer 2

Add the following to your httaccess file:

    # if folder does not exist
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    # if file does not exist
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    # redirect anything to
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ ~mypart/$1 [L]

credit where is due

And after that, once the page loads, you can use the following javascript code to get the requested file

    var requestedResource = window.location.href.replace('example.com/~mypart/','');