Mod rewrite rule for mapping one or two parameters - mod-rewrite

Question

I have the following .htaccess:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?([^/]+)/?$ /?page=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^/?([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /?page=$1&id=$2 [L,QSA]
This rules allow to enter urls like:
example.com/my-account-dashboard
example.com/my-account-dashboard/1
which are pretty urls for:
example.com?page=my-account-dashboard
example.com?page=my-account-dashboard&id=1
This works fine so far. But internaly the links are with those parameters. Is it possible to redirect (or something) to the pretty urls if possible? What are the rewrite rules for that?

Answer 1

First of all, a few remarks about your current code which contains some errors.
1) RewriteCond only applies on the very next RewriteRule. So your second RewriteRule can match without that condition (you can try it, you'll see). You need to put (again) that condition to the other RewriteRule (or use S skip flag to simulate if/else condition but it gets complicated for nothing).
2) I'm pretty sure you don't want to use QSA flag the way you do. By using it, you tell mod_rewrite to append any query string to the rewrite. Example: example.com/my-account-dashboard/?foo=bar will rewrite to /?page=my-account-dashboard&foo=bar. So unless you really want that, you don't need it. A lot of people think that they need QSA when adding some query string directly in the rewrite, just like you do. Again, this is not an error that will make everything crash, but still it's not totally correct.
3) Your rules create duplicate content which is bad for SEO (referencing). For instance, example.com/my-account-dashboard and example.com/my-account-dashboard/ (notice the trailing slash) both lead to the same page. But search engines won't consider them as the same. I invite you to search "duplicate content" on Google (or any other search engine you like) and have a look at it. A simple way to avoid this is to chose either with or without the trailing slash.
Now that the base is clear, let's answer to your question. You can't simply use a redirect R from old-url to new-url because you'd end up with an infinite loop. Something is there for this problem: THE_REQUEST. When mod_rewrite uses it, it is able to know that it comes from a direct client request, not a redirect/rewrite by itself.
All-in-one, here is how your code should look like:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Redirect old-url /?page=XXX to new-url equivalent /XXX
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \s/\?page=([^/&\s]+)\s [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1? [R=301,L]
# Redirect old-url /?page=XXX&id=YYY to new-url equivalent /XXX/YYY
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \s/\?page=([^/&\s]+)&id=([0-9]+)\s [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1/%2? [R=301,L]
# if /XXX is not a file/directory then rewrite to /?page=XXX
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?([^/]+)$ /?page=$1 [L]
# if /XXX/YYY is not a file/directory then rewrite to /?page=XXX&id=YYY
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?([^/]+)/([0-9]+)$ /?page=$1&id=$2 [L]
NB: i chose to use the "without trailing slash" option (e.g. example.com/my-account-dashboard and example.com/my-account-dashboard/1). Feel free to ask if you want with.