Remove sub folder name from URL

Question

http://example.com/portal/reports/data.php?id=2

In this URL I want to hide portal folder in the url/:

http://example.com/reports/data.php?id=2

How can I achieve this using mod_rewrite?

I used online generators and Researched in Many Stack Website for doing the rewrite rules but none can remove a piece of text from the URL But None Worked For Me

Answer 1

To permanently "remove" the /portal prefix from the stated URL, you could do something like the following in the root .htaccess file using mod_rewrite:

RewriteEngine On

# Remove "/portal" prefix from stated URL
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=2$
RewriteRule ^portal/(reports/data\.php)$ /$1 [R=301,L]

# Rewrite the request back to the actual file
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=2$
RewriteRule ^reports/data\.php$ portal/$0 [END]

The $0 and $1 backreferences refer back to the captured groups in the preceding RewriteRule pattern. $0 refers to the entire match.

The query string (ie. id=2) is passed through by default.

Assumptions:

1. You are already linking to the URL without the /portal prefix in your internal links.
2. There are no other .htaccess files in any of the subdirectories (eg. /portal or /portal/reports)
3. Using Apache 2.4 (as opposed to Apache 2.2).