The code below rewrites all URLs in the /profiles/ directory on our site from example.com/profiles/name/ to example.com/name/, but we'd also like to remove the trailing slashes to further simplify the resulting URLs to the prettier example.com/name -- just like on modern social media.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /profiles/$1 [NC,L]
How can this be done (and done safely)? We have seen several solutions on Stumble Upon that if combined possibly could work, but all profiles on our site currently have their own physical directories rather than being assembled on the fly by a script.
Update: @jon-lin offered a solution to a similar situation at How to access directory's index.php without a trailing slash AND not get 301 redirect -- but we didn't figure out how to apply it to ours (described above).
By adding part of the code suggested by @jon-lin at How to access directory's index.php without a trailing slash AND not get 301 redirect (internally rewriting the trailing slash back in), we actually made this work:
# Vanity URLs
DirectorySlash Off
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /profiles/$1 [NC,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^(.*[^/])$ /$1/
The profile for Gucci on FASHION NET (located at /profiles/gucci/) can now be accessed at https://www.fashion.net/gucci -- with no trailing slash! Thank you, @jon-lin!!!!