Yii2 htaccess - How to hide frontend/web and backend/web COMPLETELY

Try this with .htaccess Method-

Step 1

Create .htaccess file in root folder, i.e advanced/.htaccess and write below code.

Options +FollowSymlinksRewriteEngine On# deal with admin firstRewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(admin) <------RewriteRule ^admin/assets/(.*)$ backend/web/assets/$1 [L]RewriteRule ^admin/css/(.*)$ backend/web/css/$1 [L]RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/backend/web/(assets|css)/  <------RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(admin)  <------RewriteRule ^.*$ backend/web/index.php [L]RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(assets|css)  <------RewriteRule ^assets/(.*)$ frontend/web/assets/$1 [L]RewriteRule ^css/(.*)$ frontend/web/css/$1 [L]RewriteRule ^js/(.*)$ frontend/web/js/$1 [L] RewriteRule ^images/(.*)$ frontend/web/images/$1 [L]RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(frontend|backend)/web/(assets|css)/  <------RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !index.phpRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f [OR]RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule ^.*$ frontend/web/index.php

Note : if you are trying in local server then replace ^/ with ^/project_name/ where you see arrow sign. Remove those arrow sign <------ after setup is done.

Step 2

Now create a components/Request.php file in common directory and write below code in this file.

namespace common\components;class Request extends \yii\web\Request {    public $web;    public $adminUrl;    public function getBaseUrl(){        return str_replace($this->web, "", parent::getBaseUrl()) . $this->adminUrl;    }    /*        If you don't have this function, the admin site will 404 if you leave off         the trailing slash.        E.g.:        Wouldn't work:        site.com/admin        Would work:        site.com/admin/        Using this function, both will work.    */    public function resolvePathInfo(){        if($this->getUrl() === $this->adminUrl){            return "";        }else{            return parent::resolvePathInfo();        }    }}

Step 3

Installing component. Write below code in frontend/config/main.php and backend/config/main.php files respectively.

//frontend, under components array'request'=>[    'class' => 'common\components\Request',    'web'=> '/frontend/web'],'urlManager' => [        'enablePrettyUrl' => true,        'showScriptName' => false,],// backend, under components array'request'=>[    'class' => 'common\components\Request',    'web'=> '/backend/web',    'adminUrl' => '/admin'],'urlManager' => [        'enablePrettyUrl' => true,        'showScriptName' => false,],

Step 4 (Optional, if doesn't work till step three)

create .htaccess file in web directory

RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

Note: make sure you have enabled your mod rewrite in apache

Thats it! You can try your project with
www.project.com/admin, www.project.com

in local server
localhost/project_name/admin, localhost/project_name

If your only goal is to achieve not ever seeing /frontend/web or /backend/web, even without using .htaccess rules, you could go for the following:

Why not just pull out the contents of the web folders and place them in the root? Just adjust the path referring to the framework and config files in the entry scripts index.php.

Your dir structure would look like:

- yii2app/    - frontend/    - backend/    - common/    - .. other folders..    - admin/        - assets/        - css/        - index.php    - assets/    - css/    - index.php

Your yii2app/index.php would then look like:

defined('YII_DEBUG') or define('YII_DEBUG', true);defined('YII_ENV') or define('YII_ENV', 'dev');require(__DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php');require(__DIR__ . '/vendor/yiisoft/yii2/Yii.php');require(__DIR__ . '/common/config/bootstrap.php');require(__DIR__ . '/frontend/config/bootstrap.php');$config = yii\helpers\ArrayHelper::merge(    require(__DIR__ . '/common/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/common/config/main-local.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/frontend/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/frontend/config/main-local.php'));$application = new yii\web\Application($config);$application->run();

and your yii2app/admin/index.php would look like:

defined('YII_DEBUG') or define('YII_DEBUG', true);defined('YII_ENV') or define('YII_ENV', 'dev');require(__DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php');require(__DIR__ . '/../vendor/yiisoft/yii2/Yii.php');require(__DIR__ . '/../common/config/bootstrap.php');require(__DIR__ . '/../backend/config/bootstrap.php');$config = yii\helpers\ArrayHelper::merge(    require(__DIR__ . '/../common/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/../common/config/main-local.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/../backend/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/../backend/config/main-local.php'));$application = new yii\web\Application($config);$application->run();

EDIT: your entry scripts could look different to mine, but you should get the idea of changing the paths to find the framework files with these examples.

Like @deacs said just move the files from frontend/web to yii2app (root folder) and create a folder in yii2app "admin" and move files from backend/web to yii2app/admin and then create .htaccess files in both admin and yii2app with following code :

Options +FollowSymLinksIndexIgnore */*RewriteEngine on# if a directory or a file exists, use it directlyRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d# otherwise forward it to index.phpRewriteRule . index.php

Then add/modify the urlManager component in config file main.php in both frontend/config/main.php and backend/config/main.php with following code :

    'urlManager' => [        'enablePrettyUrl' => true,        'showScriptName' => false,        'enableStrictParsing' => false,        'rules' => [        ],    ],

Then change the index.php in yii2app with following code :

<?phpdefined('YII_DEBUG') or define('YII_DEBUG', true);defined('YII_ENV') or define('YII_ENV', 'dev');require(__DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php');require(__DIR__ . '/vendor/yiisoft/yii2/Yii.php');require(__DIR__ . '/common/config/bootstrap.php');require(__DIR__ . '/frontend/config/bootstrap.php');$config = yii\helpers\ArrayHelper::merge(    require(__DIR__ . '/common/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/common/config/main-local.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/frontend/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/frontend/config/main-local.php'));$application = new yii\web\Application($config);$application->run();

Also change the index.php in yii2app/admin with following code :

<?phpdefined('YII_DEBUG') or define('YII_DEBUG', true);defined('YII_ENV') or define('YII_ENV', 'dev');require(__DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php');require(__DIR__ . '/../vendor/yiisoft/yii2/Yii.php');require(__DIR__ . '/../common/config/bootstrap.php');require(__DIR__ . '/../backend/config/bootstrap.php');$config = yii\helpers\ArrayHelper::merge(    require(__DIR__ . '/../common/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/../common/config/main-local.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/../backend/config/main.php'),    require(__DIR__ . '/../backend/config/main-local.php'));$application = new yii\web\Application($config);$application->run();

Thats all you need to complete the SEO friendly URLs in yii2.I was struggling myself and then I got help from @deacs answer and I though maybe this will help someone.