Redirect loop in htaccess

Question

why is this causing a redirect loop? How do I have to change the code, to make it work?

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} de [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://website.com/?___store=german
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} nl [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://website.com/?___store=dutch

Thank you,

Toby

Answer 1

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !\b___store=\w+\b
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} de [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ /?___store=german [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !\b___store=\w+\b
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} nl [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ /?___store=dutch [L,QSA]

You don't need the http://website.com. .htaccess files loop so adding [L] isn't good enough; you need to detect the loop and looking for the store parameter is a good way. You also need the [QSA] flag if some requests use additional params.

• user1262190: Ok great, seems to work! Thanks a lot! :) I´m just not sure what happens if the visit is another language, which version does he get? Standard should be nl. Thanks.
• user1262190: I think there is still a bug in it, now it´s always the de-version loading. When I switch the preferred browser-language to NL, still the DE-version loads.
• TerryE: The Accept-Language header is a list. I don't know how yours is set up. Do a phpinfo() script and look for HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE; It may be that order is important. E.g. nl,de will give the symptoms that you suggest. You could try ^de and ^nl as the match strings, but this you fail on fr,de.

Answer 2

Try this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} de [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^___store [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://website.com/?___store=german [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} nl [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^___store [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://website.com/?___store=dutch [L]

If you go to website.com with AL of 'de', and then you get redirected to __store=german, your AL will still be 'de', so it will keep trying to redirect to that __store=german. Adding the [L] flag will stop apache from attempting to redirect multiple times.

This is another option, although the ___store parameter would have to be the same as the accept language. I think this should work (not exactly sure on the specifics of passing variables from a condition)

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} (de|nl) [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^___store [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://website.com/?___store=%1 [L]

• user1262190: Ok thank you, but it´s still not working. It´s still looping.
• Jon Lin: The request will still get redirected (because of the http://) and Accept-Langage gets matched again, which will redirect again, which will match again, etc., etc.
• Benno: Interesting, I would have thought it would have stopped at that LAST rule, and not tried to rewrite it again. Updated my answer, though lol - totally didn't notice the other reply.. heh. wasnt there before o_o