Remove index.php from urls in Seagull with mod_rewrite

To make Seagulls urls even more SEO friendly, you can "remove" index.php from them. It could be done relatively easily with Apache`s mod_rewrite module.

Example of functionality:

http://www.example.com/index.php/default/maintenance/
=>
http://www.example.com/default/maintenance/

Apache configuration

You need to enable mod_rewrite module first. Then you have to make decision where to keep your rewrite rules. Options are : global httpd.conf, virtualhost or .htaccess files. I dont suggest .htaccess files as apache should check them for every request, and with higher load you dont want it. I keep rules in virtualhost files. Lets see an example:

/etc/apache2/sites-available/www.example.com

<virtualhost *>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/www
ServerName www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/example.com/www>
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteBase /
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</Directory>
# RewriteLog /var/log/apache2/example.com-rewrite

ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/example.com-error_log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/example.com-access_log common
</virtualhost>

The rewrite rules are set on same directory as document root.

For each request:
- check if the requested url is an existing file
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

- If its not a file, prepend index.php.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

Save config file & reload apache in order to use newly set up rules

You can test if the rewrite rules function properly by simply typing in few in your browser without index.php.

Seagull configuration

Next step is to change how Seagull generates links because we dont want index.php in our links any more. You have to edit Seagull config file located in <install_dir>/var/www.example.com.conf.php , and set frontScriptName to an empty string:

$conf['site']['frontScriptName'] = '';

You can find out more about this at:
Seagull Wiki