If your site is hosted on a Unix or Linux server which runs Apache, you may already be familiar with your .htaccess file. We referred to it in an earlier tutorial on Creating Custom Error Messages, where we showed how you can configure it to instruct the browser to display custom error messages rather than the dull and unhelpful generic ones.

But that is far from the whole story! In this article we will look at some of the other things that this powerful little file can do. In part two we have 7 Magic Tricks that you can perform with .htaccess, but first let's have a look at the file itself.

What is the .htaccess file?

The .htaccess file is a  text file which resides in your main site directory and/or in any subdirectory of your main directory. There can be just one, there can be a separate one in each directory or you may find or create one just in a specific directory.

Any commands in a .htaccess file will affect both the directory it is in and any subdirectories of that directory. Thus if you have just one, in your main directory, it will affect your whole site. If you place one in a subdirectory it will affect all the contents of that directory.

Some Important Points

Windows does not use the .htaccess system. I believe there are ways of doing the things .htaccess does on Windows servers but that is a story for another day and I am afraid I will not be telling it  - it just isn't as simple or as elegant as the way Apache manages things in my humble opinion! So unless you are on a Linux/Unix server, this article is no good to you. Sorry.

A warning you will commonly see is that changing the .htaccess file on a server that has FrontPage extensions installed will at best not work and at worst make a complete mess of your extensions. I have to say that this has not been my experience and I have done a fair bit of messing with .htaccess files on FrontPage sites, including using .htaccess for authentication. However do any of these things at your own risk - I cannot be responsible for any harm they might cause.

Your host may not support alteration of the .htaccess file; either contact them first and ask before you make changes or proceed with caution and be sure you have a backup of the original file in case of problems.

Oh! And none of the 'Magic Tricks' described in this article are either magic or tricks. They just seem that way! 

Working With  Your .htaccess File

Sometimes the first problem is finding it! When you FTP to your site the .htaccess file is generally the first one displayed in a directory if it exists.

Some servers are configured to hide files whose names begin with a period. Your FTP client allows you to chose to display these files. In WS_FTP you can do this by entering -la or -al as indicated in the image on the left and then clicking Refresh. Other clients may use a different method - check the help files in yours.

Editing should be done in a text editor, such as NotePad. You should not edit .htaccess files in editors such as FrontPage. The best thing to do is download a copy of your .htaccess file to your computer, edit it, and upload again, remembering to save a copy of the original in case of errors.

If you do not already have a .htaccess file you can create one in NotePad, it is just a simple text file. However when saving it to the server you may need to rename it from .htaccess.txt to just .htaccess. The two are NOT the same. In fact .htaccess is an extension - to a file with no name! 

It is very important when entering commands in your file that each is entered on a new line and that the lines do not wrap. If you find that when you paste any of the commands in this article into your file that the lines are not breaking or are wrapping you will need to correct this.

You must upload and download your .htaccess file in ASCII mode, not BINARY. 

So, What about the Magic Tricks? Read on!

>> Part II -  7 Magic Tricks with .htaccess