Remove .php from urls with htaccess

Question

EDIT: current .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
# Turn mod_rewrite on
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

## hide .php extension snippet

# To externally redirect /dir/foo.php to /dir/foo
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}\s([^.]+)\.php [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1 [R,L]

# To internally forward /dir/foo to /dir/foo.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/$1.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*?)/?$ $1.php [L]

My site is hosted in a subfolder of a domain connected to a large hosting account.

basesite
  /iioengine
    /forums
      /.htaccess //file works
      /.... //other MyBB content
    /demos.php
    /index.php //iioengine.com (homepage)
    /.htaccess //file doesn't work
    /... //other iioengine php pages

Is the issue that I'm using two different htaccess files?

Here is a link that needs to work: http://iioengine.com/demos

I noticed that this current htaccess file disrupts all of the forums URL's as well

This no longer works: http://iioengine.com/forums/Forum-Box2D

EDIT: Thanks for reopening, I have made some progress. Here is my current htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
</IfModule>

I still get 404 pages, but if I put this line in:

RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

all non-'.php' requests get forwarded to the homepage... So mod_rewrite is definitely enabled, it's just not working right. Anyone know what the issue could be?

EDIT: This is not a duplicate - none of the other solutions work for me. My question is not do solutions exist, its why aren't they working for me. No one has been able to resolve this, I have been trying many solutions myself. Isn't the point of this forum to get solutions to specific issues?

Allow me to clarify...

I have MyBB running in a subfolder and its rewrites work fine. This link, for instance, works: http://iioengine.com/forums/Forum-Box2D

All the php pages that are not part of MyBB still have the .php extension in their URLs - I am trying to remove these but nothing is working. Example: http://iioengine.com/demos

... [original post]

There is obviously a lot of information out there about this, but I have tried almost a dozen different solutions and have not gotten past a 404 page.

Here is my site: http://iioengine.com/, all pages are php, and everything other than the homepage and all of the forums pages have a '.php' at the end of their URL that I would like to remove.

In addition to redirecting non-'.php' requests to the correct pages, I would also like to remove the '.php' part even when it is part of the request (because all of my content already specifies '.php' in its hyperlinks).

This is what I have so far, mostly taken from this post, but it doesn't work, I get a 404 page.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(.*).php$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %1 [L,QSA]

what do I need in my htaccess file to remove the file extension from the URL in all cases? Thanks

Solution

Try this code for hiding .php (will work both ways):

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
# Turn mod_rewrite on
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

## don't touch /forum URIs
RewriteRule ^forums/ - [L,NC]

## hide .php extension snippet

# To externally redirect /dir/foo.php to /dir/foo
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}\s([^.]+)\.php [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1 [R,L]

# To internally forward /dir/foo to /dir/foo.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*?)/?$ $1.php [L]

Comments

[Cbas]

I think there is an issue with how my htaccess file is being read or interpreted. This gives me a 404 page on each request

[anubhava]

Pls post your latest .htaccess in your question. Also provide more details like what URI did you try and little bit info about your directory structure.

[anubhava]

I think I know what's the problem and it can be fixed. Just need 1 more answer from you. What is DOCUMENT_ROOT for http://iioengine.com/ and where in DOCUMENT_ROOT you've placed above .htaccess file?

[Cbas]

index.php and .htaccess are both in the iioengine folder, which is a direct subfolder of my hosting account's root

[anubhava]

But I guess DOCUMENT_ROOT for http://iioengine.com/ is iioengine folder isn't it? You can put phpinfo(); in a php file to get that information.

[Cbas]

yes it is. here's an info page if it helps iioengine.com/phpinfo.php - I need to remove the htaccess file for you to view it though

[anubhava]

Ok got it, I edited my answer based on that phpinfo(). Put this edited code in the same .htacess and try it again.

[Cbas]

It's definitely removing the extensions, but I'm still getting 404 pages everywhere - including the forums

[anubhava]

Made another edit, pls try now. Also it would be better if we move this discussion to chat to sort this out.

[Cbas]

let us continue this discussion in chat

[Sergio]

The previous example works very well when the url ends in a single .php file eg. mywebsite/file.php But, it removes everything else when I have additional parameters in the url e.g. mywebsite/file.php/param1. Does anyone know how to remove the .php extension, but keep or attach the other parameters? I would like something like mywebsite/file.php/param1 to become mywebsite/file/param1

[anubhava]

@Sergio: That will require little different approach. Feel free to open a new question and post a link here. Its better not to edit this 2+ yrs old answer.