Setting up Virtual Hosting is easier than you think. You can ignore this step if you want to develop your applications using the http://localhost notation. But in a real case scenario you would like to setup a development environment on your machine to simulate real world conditions.

This tutorial will guide you through the step by step process of how to setup virtual hosting in Apache on Windows. For this example I will be configuring http://dev.sunilb.com as the domain for development purposes. For those of you who don’t have their own domain and/or website to configure, I recommend you seeking advice from a website hosting guide

Step 1: Edit the hosts fileEdit the host file available in the Windows Root folder\system32\drivers\etc (C:\Windows or C:\Winnt – or wherever you have installed windows) .

E.g:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Locate the hosts file and create a backup of that file.

Open that file. You will see some entries like:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Type in the following line:

127.0.0.1 dev.sunilb.com

and, save the file.

Step 2: Update Apache Configuration File

The next step involves configuring Apache to know that it needs to accept requests for http://dev.sunilb.com

Open the Apache configuration file (httpd.conf). It will be available under the conf folder of your Apache Installation (ideally the location is C:\Apache Group\Apache2\conf).

Create a backup of that file.

Paste the following code towards the end of the file and restart the Apache Server (Start > Programs > Apache HTTP Server 2.2.6 > Control Apache Server > Restart)

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin info@localhost.com
DocumentRoot /sunilbhatia/website/sunilb.com
ServerName dev.sunilb.com
</VirtualHost>

Explanation:

*:80 instructs Apache that it should listen to all requests coming to port 80 on any IP of that machin. So the * is indeed the IP.

ServerAdmin is the email address that will get printed when a server encounters an error. The users get a message stating that Server has encountered an error and you should contact this email address

DocumentRoot tells Apache the root folder of your website

ServerName tells Apache the domain for which Apache should listen to requests
What happens when you type a domain name in your browser

When you type a domain name in the browser, the Operating System first tries to resolve the domain against the IP list mentioned in the hosts file. If it finds the IP information in that file, then it tries to connect to that IP.

If the domain information is not available in the hosts file then the domain is searched for using DNS services.

Because you want your domain to work on your local machine you need to follow the above steps.

Step 3: Validate your changes Create a file index.php in the DocumentRoot folder. Open your browser and type in the domain that you configured and index.php.

e.g:

http://dev.sunilb.com/index.php

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So you are interested in working with Apache.

Step 1: Download the package

The first step is to download the package from http://httpd.apache.org/

You should get the latest stable version of the package which is 2.2.6 to the time of this writing. You should download the Microsoft Installer (.msi) package.

Once the package has been downloaded, double click on the icon to run the installation wizard. Click next until you see the Server Information window. Enter localhost for both Network Domain and Server Name. Enter any email that you want for Administrator’s email address.

Click the Next button and choose Typical installation. Click Next one more time and choose where you want to install Apache. It typically gets installed at C:\Program Files\Apache Group location. Click the Next button and then the Install button to complete the installation process.

Step 2: Verify your Installation

After your installation has been successful, you must open your browser and verify that your installation was indeed successful. Open your browser and type http://localhost. You should get a screen like the one mentioned below:

By default Apache is configured to read PHP and HTML files from the htdocs folder available under C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2. The location from where PHP and HTML files are stored is called DocumentRoot.

I would recommend that you create a separate folder for your projects and create a virtual hosting for each project to simulate real environment behavior. I follow this principle for my projects/testing. I have a folder by the name C:\sunilbhatia\websites, under which I create sub-folders for each project that I want to execute/develop. Though not a mandate, but you could follow this procedure.

For the time being lets assume that we will be developing our applications under the htdocs folder. In my next article, I will be taking about how to setup virtual domains on your machine.

Notes on Apache Configuration File

Apache stores all configuration details in a file named httpd.conf file. This file is located under the conf folder of the Apache Root folder. Assuming that you installed Apache in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2 (which is the Apache Root Folder), then the httpd.conf file will be located under C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\The configuration file for Apache is stored in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf folder.

Whenever, you change the httpd.conf file you must restart the Apache Server for the changes to be reflected like this: Start > Programs > Apache HTTP Server 2.2.6 > Control Apache Server > Restart

A note of caution, always remember to take a backup of your httpd.conf file before making any changes to it.

You are done with the installation of the Apache Server. Congratulations!!!

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