VirtualDocumentRoot Setup For Local Development

Server Config
1

I’m trying to learn about setting up httpd.conf and httpd-vhosts.conf files. I would like to have a local setup, using Wampserver on Windows 7, so that I can add a new project just by adding a new directory and a quick edit to the hosts file. I would like for it to work at least for the following general domain formats: domain.com, www.domain.com, sub.domain.com, and www.sub.domain.com.

The following is what I have so far. It seems to work, but I’m just thinking there is likely a better, possibly more succinct way:

NameVirtualHost *:80

<Directory "C:/wamp/www/%0/public_HTML">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    VirtualDocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/%0/public_HTML"
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAlias www.*.*.com
    VirtualDocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/%3+/public_HTML/%2"
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAlias www.*.com
    VirtualDocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/%2+/public_HTML"
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAlias *.*.com
    VirtualDocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/%2+/public_HTML/%1"
</VirtualHost>

My folder structure is as follows: C:/wamp/www/(project)/public_HTML/(folder named as the sub part of sub.domain.com)

This works, but if I change the order of the VirtualHosts in any way, it causes a 404 error for at least one of the domain formats listed above. I was wondering if anyone could explain to me why that is? And also, if someone has a suggestion for a better way to approach all of this, I’d love to hear it.

Thanks!

2

jj4,

You’ve not told your server anything about the virtual domains you want to establish!

Okay, that’s probably not your fault as WAMP may not have given you Apache’s httpd-vhosts.conf file with the comments to help you. So, using my test server as an example …


<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
  ServerName dk
  DocumentRoot W:/dk
  ServerPath W:/dk
</VirtualHost>

Extending that to your selection of virtual host domains, you’d have something like


<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
  ServerName domain
  DocumentRoot D:/abc
  ServerPath D:/abc
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
  ServerName sub.domain
  DocumentRoot D:/xyz
  ServerPath D:/xyz
</VirtualHost>

I believe that Apache will handle the www or non-www versions for you (I’m lazy - I don’t like to type the www. for my test server) but, if not, add a line ( ServerAlias D:/www.domain) with the www’d version of your LOCAL domain. WARNING: Do NOT add the TLD to your local domain or you’ll not be able to get to domain.com on the Internet!

Don’t forget that you will also need a pair of lines in the hosts file like

127.0.0.1 domain
# and
127.0.0.1 sub.domain

FWIW, the ordering of your example code would allow the wildcards you used to capture the same requests but in a different order (as you relocate VirtualHost blocks).

Regards,

DK