How to set up rewrite rule for a list of keywords in the URL? - regex

Question

What I wish to do
I have a number of URLs I need to redirect, along with a 301 permanent redirect header being sent to browser. I've determined doing this at the htaccess level is most efficient (as opposed to doing it with a function in the Wordpress site this relates to).
The URLs to redirect are:
https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=victoria
https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=new-south-wales
https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=queensland
https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=south-australia
https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=tasmania
https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=northern-territory
Where to redirect to
I want to redirect them to the home page: https://mydomain.com.au/ (I might later choose to redirect them all elsewhere, but I can do that part).
NOTE: The query string should be dropped from the redirect.
I am not sure whether it's best to test for all six of those location= variables, or to simply test for the one location= variable that is not to redirect.
The one location= variable that is not to redirect is ?location=western-australia. E.g.,
https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=western-australia
Additional considerations
Note that there are other .../search-result/ URLs that have different variables in the query strings, such as ?weather=... or ?water=.... For example, https://www.mydomain.com.au/search-result/?location=victoria&weather=part-shade&water=&pasture=
As seen in that example, it's also possible multiple variables will be in the query string, such as ?location=tasmania&weather=&water=moderate&pasture=.
So I need to test for the presence of the above listed location= irrespective of whether or not it has other variables after it. The location= variable is always the first in the overall query string.
I am thinking it may be as simple as testing for the presence of /search-result/ AND that followed by victoria | tasmania | northern-territory | etc. in the URL. I can't be 100% sure those words (victoria, etc.) won't show up in any other URLs, hence my reason for only redirecting if those words follow either location= or /search-result/. I suspect location= would be a suitable condition.
I've played around with modifying many rewrite rule examples I've found online, and couldn't get anything to work. I'd either get a 501 error (site crash), or nothing would happen at all.
Thank you.

Answer 1

Not sure if you've tried these, but they worked well for me:
To allow any location values, except western-australia:
# The request path is /search-result/ or maybe /search-result
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/search-result/?$
# ..and the query string 'location' is not empty
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)location=.+($|&)
# ..and the value is not 'western-australia'.
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !(^|&)location=western-australia($|&)
# Redirect to the home page.
RewriteRule . / [R=301,NC,L]
To allow only certain location values:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/search-result/?$
// Allow only certain location values - (<value>|<value>|...).
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)location=(victoria|new-south-wales)($|&)
RewriteRule . / [R=301,NC,L]
And note that, in WordPress, you need to put the above before the WordPress rules:
# This is a sample .htaccess file used on a WordPress site.
# PLACE YOUR CUSTOM RULES HERE.
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# ...
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
I.e. Place your rules above the # BEGIN WordPress line, to avoid getting 404 errors.
And btw, I'm no htaccess expert, but hopefully this answer helps you. :)