.htaccess language redirects with SEO-friendly URLs

Question

How do I setup my .htaccess file to detect several languages, and redirect them to specific SEO-friendly URLs?

Basically every URL needs to go to index.php?lang=(...).

So, for English language detection http://mysite.com has to go to http://mysite.com/en/ (index.php?lang=en).

My .htaccess as of now (not working):

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP:HOST} http://mysite.com/

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^en [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/en/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^de [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/de/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^nl [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/nl/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^fr [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/fr/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^es [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/es/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l

RewriteRule ^(en|de|nl|fr|es)$ index.php?lang=$1 [L,QSA]

Solution

You're almost there. Drop the very first RewriteCond (as it's not required and won't match ever) and add a trailing / to your last RewriteRule since you're redirecting with them.

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^en [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/en/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^de [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/de/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^nl [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/nl/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^fr [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/fr/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^es [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ http://mysite.com/es/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l

RewriteRule ^(en|de|nl|fr|es)/?$ index.php?lang=$1 [QSA,NC,L]

Comments

[Admin]

Whats the output of RewriteLog ?

[hjpotter92]

I think the question is more appropriate for Webmasters.

[Admin]

@DanFromGermany I can't seem to get the RewriteLog working. apache_error.log says /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/mysite/.htaccess: RewriteLog not allowed here, even though I specified RewriteLog "htaccesslogs.txt"

[Admin]

@hjpotter92 Can I just move this question to Webmasters?

[hjpotter92]

Click the flag link under the question, chose the "Other" option. State that the post be move to Webmasters.

[dan]

Welcome to the site. Answers here are required to be in English only. Please see the edits I made for you here to help with your answers in the future.

[eapo]

"This webpage has a redirect loop" for me. with a simple index.php (has only html content), nothing else in .htaccess. What can be the problem?