Adding a Web Site to Apache on Local Development Server (Ubuntu)

[admin]

Add Web Site To Local Dev Server

There is 2 parts to setup a web site in local dev server

1. Add Web Site to Apache
2. Add Web Site to /etc/hosts file.


Add Web Site To Apache

When we develop a web site, we need to add it to local web server. We also want to see the live web site also.

For example, we are developing web site

http://ImageHostNow.com

We add a web site

http://ImageHostNow.dev

To local Apache web server. So we can access developement version of the site and live site same time

To Add web site ImageHostNow.dev to local Apache web server, edit

subl ~/conf/vhosts.conf

Add following to end of the file and save and quit editor.

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
    ServerName imagehostnow.dev
    SetEnv APP_ENV "dev"
    DocumentRoot /home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/www/imagehostnow.com/public
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/imagehostnow.dev.log combined
    <Directory "/home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/www/imagehostnow.com/public">
        Options All
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

In the above, VirtualHost entry, you need to change YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE with your actual username.

Now you will need to create the folder for your web site

mkdir ~/www/imagehostnow.com
mkdir ~/www/imagehostnow.com/public

Now restart Web Server

sudo service apache2 restart

Now Apache is ready to serve your web site. If you go to

http://ImageHostNow.dev

You get web site not found error. This is because, when you go to a web site, first web site IP address is found using DNS server. In out case, ImageHostNow.dev, there is no such real site, so public DNS servers don't know about this site. So we have to point the web site to local Apache IP address (127.0.0.1)

Setting Local DNS

Edit /etc/hosts file.

subl /etc/hosts

Now add following

127.0.0.1 imagehostnow.dev

Save and exit editor. Now you will be able to see web site

http://ImageHostNow.dev

Since our document root directory

/home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/www/imagehostnow.com/public

Is empty, no web page will be displayed. So go to that folder, create a file index.php (or index.html). Now the site will display the content.

[sherlyk]

I have done everything. An index.html file also created.

When I take http://imagehostnow.dev in my browser, I get following page:

[admin]

Looks good. That is because DirectoryIndex is not set properly. So Apache don't know index.html should be displayed..

Can you make index.php and see if it works ?

[sherlyk]

i got same result

[admin]

Post result of following command

cat /etc/apache2/mods-available/dir.conf

[sherlyk]

[admin]

That looks good. Not sure why it is not showing index.php Anyway lets try following

Update your VirtualHost entry in ~/conf/vhosts.conf as follows

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
    ServerName imagehostnow.dev
    SetEnv APP_ENV "dev"
    DocumentRoot /home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/www/imagehostnow.com/public
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/imagehostnow.dev.log combined
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml index.htm
    <Directory "/home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/www/imagehostnow.com/public">
        Options All
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

The change is, we added the line

    DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml index.htm

Below CustomLog line.


Restart Apache. Go to web site and see if it shows index.php file instead of directory listing.

[sherlyk]

I have done the same, restarted apache.But still same.

[admin]

Run following command and post result

sudo a2enmod dir

Also, restart apache, see if problem fixed.

[sherlyk]

I have done this too. But same result.