Metadata Editor

Appearance

Clean URLs (remove index.php) ​

By default, the Metadata Editor generates links that include the front controller, for example:

https://metadata-editor.example.org/index.php/projects

Clean URLs hide index.php in the browser address bar:

https://metadata-editor.example.org/projects

This is optional. The application works with or without clean URLs. Most production sites enable them for a cleaner public URL.

Do not rename or delete index.php. It remains the CodeIgniter front controller on disk. Only generated links and incoming requests are rewritten.

Overview ​

Clean URLs require two changes:

  1. Web server rewrite rules — route requests to index.php internally.
  2. Application config — stop CodeIgniter from adding index.php to generated links.

The Metadata Editor ships rewrite configuration for Apache (.htaccess) and IIS (web.config) in the editor application root.

Step 1: Application configuration ​

Edit editor/application/config/config.php:

php
$config['index_page'] = '';

The default is 'index.php'. Set it to an empty string after rewrite rules are working.

If you change this before the web server is configured, internal links and routes may return 404 errors.

Step 2: Web server ​

Apache ​

  1. Enable mod_rewrite.
  2. Set DocumentRoot to the editor folder (where index.php lives).
  3. Allow .htaccess overrides, for example:
apache
<Directory /var/www/metadata-editor/editor>
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>
  1. The application includes .htaccess in the editor root with rewrite rules. No copy step is needed if you deploy from the repository.

Subfolder install (site URL is https://example.org/editor/ rather than the domain root): uncomment and adjust RewriteBase in .htaccess:

apache
RewriteBase /editor/

Verify: open the site, log in, and click a few pages. Links in the address bar should not contain index.php.

IIS ​

  1. Install the URL Rewrite Module.
  2. Point the IIS site or application physical path at the editor folder.
  3. Ensure web.config is present in the editor root (included in the repository). It rewrites requests to index.php/{path}.

Full IIS setup: Installation (Windows) · PHP installation (IIS).

Verify: browse to the site root and an inner page (e.g. /projects after login). URLs should not show index.php.

NGINX ​

Point root at the editor folder and route unknown paths to index.php. Example:

nginx
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name metadata-editor.example.org;
    root /var/www/metadata-editor/editor;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
    }
}

Adjust server_name, paths, and the PHP-FPM socket for your system. Then set $config['index_page'] = '' as above.

More context: Installation (Linux) — web server.

Verify ​

CheckExpected
Home / login page loadsNo 404
After login, navigation linksNo index.php in the URL
Static assets (CSS, JS, images)Load correctly
API call (if used)Responds at your chosen base URL (see below)

If pages 404 after changing index_page, revert to 'index.php' temporarily, fix rewrite rules, then set index_page to '' again.

API, OIDC, and CLI URLs ​

REST API — With rewrite enabled, both forms often work:

  • https://example.org/index.php/api/...
  • https://example.org/api/...

Pick one base URL and use it consistently in clients and scripts. See Introduction to the API.

OpenID Connect — The redirect URI registered with your IdP must exactly match the URL the application uses, for example:

  • With index.php: https://example.org/index.php/auth/oidc_callback
  • Clean URLs: https://example.org/auth/oidc_callback

Update the IdP and application/config/auth.php together. See User authentication.

CLI commands — Always use the filesystem path; clean URLs do not apply:

bash
php index.php cli/worker/run
php index.php cli/migrate latest

Troubleshooting ​

SymptomLikely cause
404 on all pages except homeRewrite not enabled; index_page empty too early
404 only on inner pagesRewriteBase wrong for subfolder; NGINX try_files misconfigured
CSS/JS brokenRewrite catching static files — check IIS web.config exclusions or NGINX location blocks
Links still show index.phpconfig.php still has $config['index_page'] = 'index.php'
API or OIDC fails after changeClient or IdP still using old URL with index.php