.htaccess RewriteRule not working on some links

[simplypixie]

This is driving me insane - I have certain links that are re-written on a site that work perfectly fine (and I am not new to re-wring urls) but have just found that some others aren't and I cannot fathom out why.

What works:

// The link
<a href="/shop/<?php echo $parent_category['slug']; ?>/products">

// The RewriteRule
RewriteRule ^shop/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/products/?$ /shop/diesel-products.php?slug=$1

What is not working:

// The link
<a href="/faqs/<?php echo $faq['slug']; ?>">

//The RewiteRule
RewriteRule ^faqs/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/?$ /faqs?slug=$1

// Also tried
RewriteRule ^faqs/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/?$ /faqs.php?slug=$1

What am I missing??

Just for reference (if it has any bearing) I am also using .htaccess to accept links without file extensions using:

# show file names without .php extension
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+)/?$ $1.php [L,QSA]

[dany12]

Have you allowed execute wright for you htaccess?

[simplypixie]

Sorry, not sure what you mean?? Unless you mean RewriteEngine On in which case, yes.

However, it still doesn't make sense that some redirection is working and the other isn't

[minitauros]

What is in $faq['slug']? By the way, why aren't you just using PHP to take care of the redirecting process? :) E.g.: redirect everything to index.php, then use $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] to find out what needs to be done.

E.g. www.yoursite.com/products/brand/diesel would redirect to index.php, which would then see that the URI is "products/brand/diesel", which information you could then use to PHP-include the appropriate files.

[simplypixie]

Sorry for my delays in my replies but I am not receiving notifications for some reason.

An example of the actual link would be http://www.uniteddiesel.co.uk/faqs/what-are-service-exchange-units/

So what-are-service-exchange-units is what is in $faqs['slug']

I have never redirected everything to index.php - it is not how I build and I personally don't like it (just a preference really)

I have just realised though that normally when I have an htaccess redirect that isn't working for some reason I get a page not found but for these I am getting an internal server error which is odd.

** Solved **

Now I realised it was an internal error, I checked the error logs and found the problem was a recursive internal redirect. So I lookd again at the redirect and relaised what the problem was:

I had named the main link the same as the redirect link - stupid error.

All sorted now though