Make XAMPP / Apache serve file outside of htdocs folder [closed]
Ok, per pix0r's, Sparks' and Dave's answers it looks like there are three ways to do this:
Virtual Hosts
- Open C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf.
- Un-comment ~line 19 (
NameVirtualHost *:80
). Add your virtual host (~line 36):
<VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot C:\Projects\transitCalculator\trunk ServerName transitcalculator.localhost <Directory C:\Projects\transitCalculator\trunk> Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory></VirtualHost>
Open your hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts).
Add
127.0.0.1 transitcalculator.localhost #transitCalculator
to the end of the file (before the Spybot - Search & Destroy stuff if you have that installed).
- Save (You might have to save it to the desktop, change the permissions on the old hosts file (right click > properties), and copy the new one into the directory over the old one (or rename the old one) if you are using Vista and have trouble).
- Restart Apache.
Now you can access that directory by browsing to http://transitcalculator.localhost/.
Make an Alias
Starting ~line 200 of your
http.conf
file, copy everything between<Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs">
and</Directory>
(~line 232) and paste it immediately below withC:/xampp/htdocs
replaced with your desired directory (in this caseC:/Projects
) to give your server the correct permissions for the new directory.Find the
<IfModule alias_module></IfModule>
section (~line 300) and addAlias /transitCalculator "C:/Projects/transitCalculator/trunk"
(or whatever is relevant to your desires) below the
Alias
comment block, inside the module tags.
Change your document root
Edit ~line 176 in C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf; change
DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs"
to#DocumentRoot "C:/Projects"
(or whatever you want).Edit ~line 203 to match your new location (in this case
C:/Projects
).
Notes:
- You have to use forward slashes "/" instead of back slashes "\".
- Don't include the trailing "/" at the end.
- restart your server.
You can relocate it by editing the DocumentRoot setting in XAMPP\apache\conf\httpd.conf.
It should currently be:
C:/xampp/htdocs
Change it to:
C:/projects/transitCalculator/trunk
A VirtualHost would also work for this and may work better for you as you can host several projects without the need for subdirectories. Here's how you do it:
httpd.conf (or extra\httpd-vhosts.conf relative to httpd.conf. Trailing slashes "\" might cause it not to work):
NameVirtualHost *:80# ...<VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot C:\projects\transitCalculator\trunk\ ServerName transitcalculator.localhost <Directory C:\projects\transitCalculator\trunk\> Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory></VirtualHost>
HOSTS file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts usually):
# localhost entries127.0.0.1 localhost transitcalculator.localhost
Now restart XAMPP and you should be able to access http://transitcalculator.localhost/ and it will map straight to that directory.
This can be helpful if you're trying to replicate a production environment where you're developing a site that will sit on the root of a domain name. You can, for example, point to files with absolute paths that will carry over to the server:
<img src="/images/logo.png" alt="My Logo" />
whereas in an environment using aliases or subdirectories, you'd need keep track of exactly where the "images" directory was relative to the current file.