Setting Up A Virtual Host in Apache

顽石OK07

Setting up a virtual host in the Apache web server is not exactly a PHP topic, but many PHP developers use the Apache web server to test web pages on their development machine.
There is a lot of information around on how to do this, but the first time I tried it, I found the existing information to be more confusing than helpful. Hopefully, this page will simplify the process a bit. Please note that this information pertains to setting up a virtual host in Apache on a Windows machine for use as a local testing server. Setting up a virtual host for an actual production server is beyond the scope of this article and you should refer to the official Apache documentation for that.
Configuring Apache

The first file we'll need to edit is the Apache httpd.conf file. If you installed the Apache software using the download from the Apache web site, you should have a menu item that will open this file for editing. Click Start->Programs->Apache HTTP Server->Configure Apache Server->Edit the Apache httpd.conf Configuration File. If you don't have that start menu item, start your text editor and open the file. It will be in a sub-folder named conf of your Apache folder. For example, mine is here:
C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf\httpd.conf
<div class="note">Notes for Apache Server Versions Since 2.2

Configuration

Note that Apache changed the preferred method for configuring the Apache server with the release of Apache 2.2. For versions beginning with 2.2, the peferred configuration is more modular. Setting up a virtual host as described here will still work with the newer versions, but to follow the modular approach, the editing of httpd.conf is only to uncomment (remove the # from the beginning of the following line:
#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
Everything else is entered in the file httpd-vhosts.conf, which will be located in the extra folder below the below the folder containing httpd.conf. As mentioned, the method described here will still work.
Security

Version 2.2 also changed some of the default security configuration parameters. To set things up the way you'll need them, you'll need to add the following block to either your httpd.conf file, just above the virtual hosts, or to your httpd-vhosts.conf file:
<Directory "C:\ My Sites ">  Order Deny,Allow  Allow from all</Directory>The above assumes you're using the directory structure described below. Adjust that as necessary to reflect your actual directory.