# Setting up Moodle on NGINX with Pretty URLs

### How to Add Pretty URLs for Moodle Pages 

{% hint style="info" %}
For demonstration purposes, the sample domain <https://SAMPLEMOODLE.COM> has been used.

I'm working on Hostinger; other server providers probably work similarly.

**Goal:**

* Original URL: <https://SAMPLEMOODLE.COM/local/page/?id=2>
* **Pretty URL:** <https://SAMPLEMOODLE.COM/prettyname>
* Dynamic: no need to hardcode every page ID.
  {% endhint %}

***

## **Tutorial: Setting Up Pretty URLs for Moodle on NGINX**

This guide explains how to configure NGINX so that your Moodle pages are accessible through clean, readable URLs such as:

```
https://SAMPLEDOMAIN.com/about
https://SAMPLEDOMAIN.com/contact
https://SAMPLEDOMAIN.com/licenses
```

instead of the default Moodle structure:

```
https://SAMPLEDOMAIN.com/local/page/?id=3
https://SAMPLEDOMAIN.com/local/page/?id=4
https://SAMPLEDOMAIN.com/local/page/?id=2
```

***

### **1. Open Your NGINX Configuration**

Edit your NGINX server block for your site (usually located in `/etc/nginx/sites-available/SAMPLEDOMAIN.com`):

```bash
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/SAMPLEDOMAIN.com
```

***

### **2. Add Rewrites for Pretty URLs**

Inside your main `server { ... }` block, locate or create a section for your Moodle site.

Add the following block:

```nginx
# --- Pretty URLs for Moodle custom pages ---
location / {
    # Rewrite clean URLs to Moodle internal page IDs
    rewrite ^/licenses$ /local/page/?id=2 last;
    rewrite ^/about$    /local/page/?id=3 last;
    rewrite ^/contact$  /local/page/?id=4 last;
    rewrite ^/faq$      /local/page/?id=5 last;

    # Handle Moodle PHP files like /plugin/file.php/...
    rewrite ^/(.*\.php)(/)(.*)$ /$1?file=/$3 last;

    # Fallback to index.php for everything else
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
```

#### ✅ What this does

Each line tells NGINX to:

* Match a **friendly URL** (e.g., `/about`)
* Redirect internally to the correct Moodle page (e.g., `/local/page/?id=3`)
* Keep the clean URL visible in the browser

***

### **3. How to Add a New Pretty URL**

Let’s say you created a new Moodle page with ID **6** and want it to be available at\
`https://SAMPLEDOMAIN.com/support`.

Just add this line inside the same block:

```nginx
rewrite ^/support$ /local/page/?id=6 last;
```

Now `/support` will display Moodle’s page ID 6.

***

### **4. How to Rename or Change a URL**

If you want to rename `/faq` to `/help`, just replace:

```nginx
rewrite ^/faq$ /local/page/?id=5 last;
```

with:

```nginx
rewrite ^/help$ /local/page/?id=5 last;
```

***

### **5. Full Example Configuration**

Here’s a complete working example, ready to use:

```nginx
server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;
  listen 443 ssl http2;
  listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

  {{ssl_certificate_key}}
  {{ssl_certificate}}

  server_name SAMPLEDOMAIN.com;
  {{root}}

  {{nginx_access_log}}
  {{nginx_error_log}}

  # Allow access to ACME challenge for SSL certificates
  location ~ /.well-known {
    auth_basic off;
    allow all;
  }

  {{settings}}

  # --- Pretty URLs for Moodle custom pages ---
  location / {
    # Rewrite clean URLs to Moodle internal page IDs
    rewrite ^/licenses$ /local/page/?id=2 last;
    rewrite ^/about$    /local/page/?id=3 last;
    rewrite ^/contact$  /local/page/?id=4 last;
    rewrite ^/faq$      /local/page/?id=5 last;
    rewrite ^/support$  /local/page/?id=6 last;

    # Handle plugin PHP files like /plugin/file.php/...
    rewrite ^/(.*\.php)(/)(.*)$ /$1?file=/$3 last;

    # Fallback for all other requests
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
  }

  # --- Moodle & PHP rewrites ---
  rewrite ^/(.*\.php)(/)(.*)$ /$1?file=/$3 last;

  try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
  index index.php index.html;

  # --- PHP processing ---
  location ~ \.php$ {
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    try_files $uri =404;
    fastcgi_read_timeout 3600;
    fastcgi_send_timeout 3600;
    fastcgi_param HTTPS $fastcgi_https;
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:{{php_fpm_port}};
    fastcgi_param PHP_VALUE "{{php_settings}}";
  }

  # --- Static files ---
  location ~* ^.+\.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|gz|svg|svgz|ttf|otf|woff|woff2|eot|mp4|ogg|ogv|webm|webp|zip|swf)$ {
    add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*";
    expires max;
    access_log off;
  }

  # Stop processing if file exists
  if (-f $request_filename) {
    break;
  }
}
```

***

✅ **Result:**

* Any slug at the root level (`/licenses`, `/about`, etc.) automatically maps to your PHP page controller.
* No hardcoding of `id=X` required.
* Works with an unlimited number of pages.


---

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