Mod rewrite for query string - mod-rewrite

Question

Mod Rewrite noob so pardon my ignorance but all I am trying to do is a simple query string removal
from: http://yourwebsite.com/x?section=y
to: http://yourwebsite.com/x/y
I am adding my mod rewrite rules in my .htaccess like this:
ErrorDocument 404 /404
Options +MultiViews
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^section=(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1/%1? [R=301,L,NE]
The problem is that on visiting:
http://yourwebsite.com/x?section=y
My rule writes it back as:
http://yourwebsite.com/x.php/y
That .php in the pretty url is pretty darn ugly and I am struggling to get rid of it.
What is wrong in my mod rewrite rule?

Answer 1

Most likely you are looking for something like this:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+)\/(.+)$ /$1.php?section=$2 [L]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^section=(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1/%1 [R=301,L,NE]
It makes two rewrites:
a request x/y is internally rewritten to x.php?section=y
a request to x?section=y is redirected to x/y
Note that one is an internal rewrite, whilst the other redirects the browser to show a less 'ugly' url.
One hint: in case you can use the logging feature of apaches rewriting module (RewriteLog and RewriteLogLevel) this will offer you a wealth of detailed information on what is actually going on inside the rewrite process.