My way of doing virtual hosts for local testing

[Takster]

Just something I tried I might as well share.

If you want an easy way to layout your virtual hosts on a windows machine, and separate xampp completely from the folder that houses your websites, then this is the easy way to do it.
Say you have created a folder structure under C: called server. In this folder you will have subfolders making up the websites/scripts you are testing.

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C:/server
C:/server/wordpress
C:/server/vbulletin

These will be accessed like so:

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http://localhost.wordpress.com
http://localhost.wordpress.com

http://tak79.com/virtual-hosts-on-xampp-for-local-testing

[Radzio]

It's the same as with any OS (different paths though).

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Options ExecCGI Includes FollowSymLinks
Options +ExecCGI

Are you really sure we need ExecCGI twice? I think once is enough

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http://localhost.wordpress.com

I wouldn't add subdomains to already existing domains. More preferable are short 1-part domains (as there will only appear locally): http://wordpress/ etc. (or with .localhost)

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127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 localhost.main.com
127.0.0.1 localhost.wordpress.com
127.0.0.1 localhost.vbulletin.com

Better would be (still using your domains):

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127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.main.com localhost.wordpress.com localhost.vbulletin.com

I would also suggest using mod_vhost_alias. Then you can have this:

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VirtualDocumentRoot C:/server/%0
<Directory C:/server/*>
   Options ExecCGI Includes FollowSymLinks
   AllowOverride All
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
</Directory>


And then you don't have to restart Apache after adding new vhost. The only thing you need is to create a folder in C:/server with appropriate name and then add this name to the line with 127.0.0.1 in hosts file.

[Takster]

Thanks mate those are some really great improvements, mod_vhost_alias looks a lot better for my needs

thanks for spotting my mistake too hehe

[Radzio]

Thanks mate those are some really great improvements, mod_vhost_alias looks a lot better for my needs

thanks for spotting my mistake too hehe

You are welcome