Rewrite rule not working

Question

I have a page on my wordpresss with url /sca. I want all traffic from /sca/project_0 to direct to /sca?urn=project_0. I added a rule to my .htaccess file but it is not working. I don't think this a problem with mod_rewrite as permalinks are working. Here is my .htaccess file:

 # BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sca/([^/]*)$ sca/urn=$1 
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

RewriteRule ^sca/* sca?urn=$1 [R=301,L] is partly working, only that I'm not getting any parameter, it is returning /sca/project_0 as /sca?urn=.

Answer 1

If this address already gets traffic (from inbound links etc.) why don't you try a good old fashioned redirect like this:

Redirect 301 /sca/project_0 http://www.yourdomain.com/sca?urn=project_0

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Or use the 301 redirect in addition to your rewrite rule:

Redirect 301 /sca/project_0 http://www.yourdomain.com/sca?urn=project_0

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sca/([^/]*)$ sca/urn=$1 
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Also note that WP is often deleting additional rewrite rules inside #Begin WordPress #End WordPress. And sometimes rewrite rules do not behave like they should in localhost.

Answer 2

Try:

 RewriteRule ^sca/([^/]*)$ sca\?urn=$1