How to use .htaccess to serve html file without extension if exists or fallback to index.php

Question

Using apache .htaccess is it possible to achieve the following:

• A url without extension is called e.g. /, /terms, /products/one.
• If the relevant html file exists (index.html, terms.html, products/one.html) then it is served.
• If it does not exist, then index.php is called with a query string variable for e.g. index.php?path=terms.

How can we do that?

Answer 1

Ended up creating the below .htaccess code, see the comments for description:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# if any html exists based on current path then serve it
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html [L]

# if index.html exists then serve it if filepath is empty (checked by RewriteRule ^$)
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/index.html -f
RewriteRule ^$ /index.html [L]

# any thing left should go to index.php as path
# the RewriteCond !-f is used to avoid index.php loopback
# the RewriteCond !-d is NOT used so that if folder exists then it does not show directory listing
# may want to use some condition to show index.html in that folder if exists
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?path=$1 [L]

Checked all scenarios and seem to work!

For e.g.

• if / is called then it loads index.html if it exists, else it loads index.php
• if any path is called and its relevant html exists then it loads else index.php is called with that path
• made sure that static files like javascript and images etc also work
• made sure php files also work if they exist