.htaccess - mod rewrite from .php to subdirectory

Question

Id like to forward links like

https://server.com/checkAvailability to https://server.com/api/checkAvailability.php

I tried the following in .htaccess but it did not work

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

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

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65843903/mod-rewrite-from-php-to-subdirectory

Answer 1

Could you please try following, written and tested with your shown samples. Please make sure you clear your browser cache before testing your URLs.

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
RewriteEngine ON
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/$1.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)/?$ api/$1.php [L]