PHP Novice to Ninja 6 -- URL Rewriting using XAMPP

Server Config
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I’ve been working along with the Jokes Database project in PHP Novice to Ninja 6, and I’ve hit a snag involving URL Rewriting. The authors use the Homestead Improved box, but I’m using XAMPP (on a Mac), and I wonder if that’s the root of the problem. Basically, my URLs aren’t getting rewritten as they should, so none of the routes work. (If I type the whole URL into the IJDBRoutes->callAction() method, it works fine – so I’m pretty sure the rest of the code is okay.)

Also, mod_rewrite is working in Apache. I’ve tested it using very simple files.

Here’s my question: Is there something about XAMPP that works differently from the authors’ set-up, and means I’ll have to proceed in a different way? Or can I just tweak .htaccess or something to get the site working as it should?

I’d be very grateful for any insights or advice.

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What do you have in your .htaccess file?

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Thanks, Gandalf458. Here’s what I have (I copied this code from PHP Novice to Ninja 6):

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ /index.php [NC,L,QSA]

I tried this, an empty htaccess file, and a couple of other statements. Seemed to make no difference.

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I’ve moved this to the Server config forum which seems more appropriate.

Just a thought, does it work if you remove the slash before index.php in the last line?

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Hi Matt,

The code you have there from the book is correct and will work with Apache as long as mod_rewrite is enabled. All requests should be forwarded to index.php. If you visit a page that does not exist on the server e.g. http://localhost/not-found/ you should see the same as http://localhost

If that’s not happening, here’s a few things to check:

  1. Your file is named .htaccess including the dot prefix and isn’t called .htaccess.txt or similar. Windows and MacOS can be a bit of a pain when dealing with files that start with a dot.

  2. The .htaccess file is stored at the root of the public_html (or public, htdocs or httpdocs) directory (depending on how your server is configured)

1 Like
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Thanks for moving the question; I’m new to Sitepoint, so not too familiar with the organization of things. … I tried removing the slash. Doesn’t seem to make a difference. I wonder what I’m doing wrong! Could be something basic.

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Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply. I’m guessing you may be one of the book’s authors? Let me say, it’s a great book: I’ve learned a ton from it, so I’m very grateful! But to the point: yes, .htaccess has the dot prefix. And it’s stored at the root level (for me, that’s htdocs).

index.php is in a top-level folder called “public.” That’s not a problem, is it?

I ran the test of mod_rewrite that’s described in Learn Apache mod_rewrite, and it worked as it should.

I think there may be something more basic that I don’t understand. If I echo $route from index.php, I get “public/index.php”. If that gets passed into the construction of EntryPoint, how does $route end up equalling joke/list or some such? Shouldn’t the names of the controller and method be passed into it?

The code all works, but only if I stick a statement like “else if ($route === ‘public/index.php’)” into IjdbRoutes! And that’s not how it’s supposed to work!

Thanks again.

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I have not read all the book, but shouldn’t index.php be in the root directory too?
@TomB can maybe confirm.

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Thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying the book!

If you are using xampp you will need to place any files I put in the public directory in your htdocs directory, including index.php

1 Like
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That did the trick! Fantastic. So happy I can move on to the next step. Thank you thank you!

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