htaccess Redirect to same file, but display different URL without having to change internal links?

Question

I currently have links on my website in the form of:- http://example.com/products.php?cat=X

I want that once taken to the destination of the link, the url displays something like:- http://example.com/new.

The file on my server is the same file, but only the url should appear neater without me having to change any of the links.

I tried the following, but found it only useful if I explicitly changed the internal links:-

RewriteRule ^new$ products.php?cat=10

Answer 1

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} =cat=10
RewriteRule ^products.php$ new [R,L]

RewriteRule ^new$ products.php?cat=10 [L]

Answer 2

Check the original requested URL in the request line:

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET /products\.php\?([^&]*&+)*cat=X
RewriteRule ^products\.php$ /new? [L,R=301]

But it will probably be easier if you do that with PHP (see $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']).