I have developed a tool which I hope will take much of the guess work out of working with the mod_rewrite module - unfortunately, as I do not have access to a Apache server, I am unable to test that the files and advice about optimisation it uses work.

Thus I am opening this tool up to the members of Webmaster Talk in the hope you will share any bugs and provide me with some feedback prior to release.

http://websiteowner.info/tools/htaccess/redirection.asp

Please let me know what you think, in particular I am interested to learn...

Does the extension redirect work?
- with none of the new pages in place?
- with some of the new pages in place, does it load the new page if available going back to the old one if not?

Does individual file redirection work?
- across servers?
- if redirecting files in one or more different directories, does the optimised version of the code work the same as the none optimised version?

While JavaScript is not required, it can save a bit of time - did it work for you (if not what were you using)... I'm no JavaScript guru so any help in tweaking it so that it will only print out the JavaScript form when there is a number in the field greater than 0 would be appreciated.

Any other comments, suggestions about ease of use and presentation are also welcomed... I have some more .htaccess tools in development, but they need tweaking before I am willing to post them for testing...

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Hi Tiggy,

Thanks for the sneak peek!

I haven't tried the code on web pages yet. I tried the form to see how it worked and the codes come out good. It gives a Microsoft VBScript runtime error if one of the fields is left blank (you might want it to tell someone that they left a field blank ).

Thanks for sharing that. When someone tries it out, please post your results.

Dave

Thanks Dave, somehow I thought you might be the first to respond...

I have now updated the script a little (client side, not server) so that it will work with NS7 and Mozilla at least... also uploaded the next tool in the series. I think this next tool will be more popular than the last, since it creates code to help prevent hotlinkers (I hope)... so if anyone wants to try it out, you'll find that one at http://websiteowner.info/tools/htacc...prevention.asp (I'm not sure if this one needs its own message or not as it is sure to appeal to more people - I might get more help with it)...

As for the VBScript error, that was unexpected (JavaScript, I can understand, I kludged it!) - VBScript should be fine if there is no input as it should default to the original page... perhaps the server setup is different to my local server - could you help me to recreate the problem so I can fix it? Thanks!

Update - found the error, it is skipping into the routine for the second form... now what is the best way around it *puts thinking cap on*

Hi Tiggy,

I got a VBScript runtime error as well, even though I filled out all the fields. Take a look at this.

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0005' 

Invalid procedure call or argument: 'left' 

/tools/htaccess/redirection.asp, line 146

Unfortunately, at the moment, I haven't got the time to test them out on my webspace, but I will definitely do so when I have time.

Otherwise, this looks like a great resource, especially that hotlinking protection tool. I'm sure that it will be very helpful to most webmasters. Good luck!

Will have to put my thinking cap on again - I thought I solved the problem but it seems I've just made it worse... back to the drawing board... thanks for your help

Update: - I think I should have the VBScript errors sorted now and have uploaded a new version of the script.

Thanks for sharing this and Welcome back to Webmaster-Talk Tiggy! We missed you

Originally posted by Tiggy
I think this next tool will be more popular than the last, since it creates code to help prevent hotlinkers (I hope)... so if anyone wants to try it out, you'll find that one at http://websiteowner.info/tools/htacc...prevention.asp

Hmm, before trying that one out, I better make sure my list is correct of sites with my banners (hosted from my site).

Is it correct that if I added this htaccess without adding the domains or IP's where I have hosted banners that it would break that link?

Dave

Is it correct that if I added this htaccess without adding the domains or IP's where I have hosted banners that it would break that link?

Yes - say if you had a banner here at WT and one at my site, you would need to add these to your allow list... but then (as it stands), we could go nutty and use any of your images if you were to allow this.

It would be possible to exclude particular images from the rules (to allow any site to use a particular image for example) - and that is something I can develop in the next version, but I will need to do a little more research into before I can do this - and I don't want to make the interface overly complicated unless it is necessary.

If you have access to your logs - I can send you an Analog setup file that will help you to find hotlinkers (so you don't have to remember as much)... that way at least you can catch those sites that make the most use of the banners you don't mind sharing.

Update - try adding this just before your RewriteRule line....

RewriteCond %{PATH_INFO} !image\.gif$ [NC]

Obiviously edit it and add as many as you need (it would be easier to list the images rather than the sites to allow)... let me know if it works - this wouldn't be too difficult to add to the script...