AHAH update textarea for .htaccess rules on performance >> boost page.

is there an example of this being done out there?

not adding a patch just yet; wondering if there is any example of a module checking & editing the root .htaccess file, and if that would be bad for security.

your proposal, short and simple: boosted(1/2).txt only has the

#BOOST START 
....
#BOOST END

in it. I think we could do something like that; but having the full .htaccess file is kinda nice, so we could make the default.txt file have a #Paste Boost Changes Here section. Update readme file to reflect changes. Is this what your thinking?

Here's a patch with the above changes (excluding change .htaccess via php) as well as these changes
http://drupal.org/node/204832#comment-1504968
This patch does not include replace $1 with %{REQUEST_URI} from that thread, just the simple changes.

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In terms of using php to modify the .htaccess file, Wordpress modifies the .htaccess file, so it is doable http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Using_.22Pretty.22_permalinks. I'm thinking boost stores a md5 of the text in between #BOOST START & #BOOST END in the db. Use the update.php mechanism when a change to the Boosts .htaccess rules are needed.

Or use something like this
http://drupal.org/project/patchdoq

FWIW, i had no problem in adding the required lines in my htaccess but i believe for boost to have a wider implementation, it would require "automatic" htaccess modifications (many users just won't edit their htaccess i believe).

But, i think it is not a priority. First, a stable release. Then an easier installation of the module, rather than the reverse.

I like the idea of the rules being inside the performance page, ready to be copied. Need to write the code for that...

I was thinking the easiest way to make sure people install the rule set correctly is to read the .htaccess file and throw a warning on the status page if the boost rules are not in there. This would check against the generated file, make sure they matched & is placed in the right spot (above index.php rule, below rewrite base).

Committed the ideas from the top of this thread. Still open, since there are multiple issues in this one.

Odds are a template file is not needed; we need to make a function that generates the code, with most of the code being hard coded in. For the rules checking it would make sure the rules where put in the right spot (below # RewriteBase / and above # Rewrite URLs of the form 'x' to the form 'index.php?q=x'.), and that there are at least 4 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ inside the Boost Start/End code block. On the status page, throw notices if the rules checking failed, linking to the handbook or something like that #443658: Boost Handbook Page(s). For the generation it should generate it for SERVER_NAME or HTTP_HOST and Normal or Subdir; only boost code, full .htaccess, unmodified .htaccess.

Here are the 2 rules, the Gzip part has slightly changed based off this code
http://drupal.org/node/101227#comment-1597328
The bug doesn't effect html files.

Here are a list of things that should be changeable
cache/ OR User Defined
/DRUPAL-SUBDIR OR $base_path OR User Defined
gz/ OR User Defined
%{DOCUMENT_ROOT} OR getcwd() OR User Defined
%{HTTP_HOST} OR %{SERVER_NAME} OR User Defined

I don't have a multi-site setup so I can not test for it; so for now do it for normal & subdir. Also be aware that #276495: Update for Rewrite Rules - Give Boost even bigger performance gain if it ever gets done will change the rules again & make them shorter; it would eliminate the gzip subdir bug most likely as well.
#101147: support subdirectory Drupal installations

The last patch #367081: System-Ran Cron, Not User made it so cron will still work even if $base_url is not set; but it's not %100, which is why $base_url should be set.

Refactored the rules so it includes #276495: Update for Rewrite Rules - Give Boost even bigger performance gain and so normal/subdir look almost identical. Auto configures $base_path as well. Usage is fairly straight forward IMO, unless your not following the defaults or have some funky server settings, it should just work.

Newest one based off of this revelation.

further refinements & support for index url variables

Came up with another idea to make the htaccess file smaller. Make query & normal files look the same; get rid of index. Inside boost_init() change

  // Make the proper filename for our query
  $fname = '';
  foreach ($_GET as $key => $val) {
    if ($key != 'q') {
      $fname .= (empty($fname) ? '' : '&') . $key . '=' . $val;
    }
  }
  //set variables
  global $user, $base_path;
  $GLOBALS['_boost_query'] = (empty($fname) ? '' : '_' . $fname);
  $GLOBALS['_boost_path'] = (empty($_REQUEST['q'])) ? 'index' : $_REQUEST['q'];
  $GLOBALS['_boost_path'] = ($base_path != '/') ? ltrim($base_path, '/') . $GLOBALS['_boost_path'] : $GLOBALS['_boost_path'];

to this

  global $user, $base_path;
  //set variables
  $GLOBALS['_boost_path'] = ($base_path != '/') ? ltrim($base_path, '/') . $_REQUEST['q'] : $_REQUEST['q'];
  // Make the proper filename for our query
  $GLOBALS['_boost_query'] = '_';
  foreach ($_GET as $key => $val) {
    if ($key != 'q') {
      $GLOBALS['_boost_query'] .= (($GLOBALS['_boost_query'] == '_') ? '' : '&') . $key . '=' . $val;
    }
  }

  # BOOST START
  <FilesMatch "\.(html.gz|html)$">
    <IfModule mod_headers.c>
      Header set Expires "Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT"
      Header set Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0"
    </IfModule>
  </FilesMatch>
  <IfModule mod_mime.c>
    AddCharset utf-8 .html
  </IfModule>
  <FilesMatch "\.(html.gz)$">
    AddEncoding x-gzip .gz
    ForceType text/html
  </FilesMatch>
  #serve file IF it exist on server
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.\w{2,4}$
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
  RewriteRule .* - [L]

  #skip boost IF not get request OR uri has wrong dir OR cookie is set
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !^GET$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(/admin|/cache|/misc|/modules|/sites|/system|/themes|/user/login) [OR]
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} DRUPAL_UID
  RewriteRule .* - [S=2]

  #GZIP
  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip
  RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/cache/gz/%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}.html.gz -f
  RewriteRule .* cache/gz/%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}.html.gz [L]

  #NORMAL
  RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/cache/%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}.html -f
  RewriteRule .* cache/%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}.html [L]
  # BOOST END

It works. Thoughts??? Unless there are some good reasons to not do this, I will commit this as it makes the code simpler (boost block works with queries now).

Here's a patch with more refinements.

committed code from #29, along with corresponding changes to htaccess

Patch generates htaccess rules inside settings page now.

patch checks for rewrite rules, makes sure there are 4 of these strings in your .htaccess file.

%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}.html

committed 32, 33

Need to use AHAH and add in some selection tools so user can generate different .htaccess code from interface.

Allows for selection of rules; using -s instead of -f (checks that file size is greater then 0). Still does not use AHAH, any help with AHAH is greatly appreciated.

committed. Still looking for AHAH solution.

Marking this postponed until it's needed or someone submits a patch.

Mike wrote:

In terms of using php to modify the .htaccess file, Wordpress modifies the .htaccess file, so it is doable

Yes, WP Super Cache (plugin for static file caching), the Boost equivalent for WordPress, automatically inserts mod_rewrite rules into the .htaccess file during installation.

Closing this since it is on its own tab now, thus AHAH is not needed.