Like many others I run a development version of a local Apache webhosting server called WAMP. Up until today I had a normal file structure built for clients and specific client work. Usually I build a large majority of the site locally before uploading it to a production server. This has caused me a lot of problems with using absolute paths because I basically couldn’t. Before moving to a production server, I would have to manually change the paths appropriately.

What I wanted was to have a root folder for each client. I am happy to say I found a solution which I will share with you now.

There are two files involved:

- hosts (this file is in the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ folder)
- httpd.conf (this is in your Apache install’s ‘conf’ folder - mine is c:\wamp\Apache2\conf\httpd.conf)

When you open the “hosts” file, you will see this line at the bottom:

127.0.0.1        localhost

 

All you do is make another entry underneath it for your client site:

127.0.0.1        myclient.local (Use whatever extension you want (ex: .local))

 

…and save the file. You can make as many as you want for as many clients as you want. Just keep adding more lines like that last one. Basically what happens is when you type ‘myclient.local’ into a browser now, windows will check the ‘hosts’ file before checking the internet.

Now you need to open the httpd.conf file and add a couple things. Some other sites suggest doing this - search for this line:

 #NameVirtualHost *:80

 

…then add some crap underneath it to reroute ports and whatnot. If you’re in the same boat as me, this doesn’t work because ‘#NameVirtualHost *:80′ is not in my httpd.conf file.

Here’s what I did instead. Underneath ‘DocumentRoot “c:/wamp/www”‘ add this chunk of code:

NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1
<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot "C:wampwww"
</VirtualHost>

 

…then underneath that add this chunk:

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1>
    ServerName myclient.local
    DocumentRoot "C:wampwwwClientsMyClient"
</VirtualHost>

 

…obviously you’ll need to modify the code a bit to match the server name with the one from your ‘hosts’ file and the DocumentRoot with your clients file path. That’s basically it. The problem you have now is that when you try and access your files from another computer on your local network, the sites somehow revert back to not liking absolute paths. If I figure this part out, I’ll come back and do a little update. For now, I’m satisfied.

Here are some other older articles/threads on this topic which may be helpful getting a better overall feel for this kind of crap. I’m no server admin but I figured if I’m asking this question now, then so is someone else so I hope this could help shed some light for you.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/core.html#virtualhost
http://www.wampserver.com/phorum/read.php?f=2&i=8200&t=8114
http://codylindley.com/Webdev/309/wamp-multiple-roots-using-virtual-host?commented=1#c001924
http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/journal/378/virtual-hosts-and-the-proper-way-to-work-offline (this one was the key - Thanks Matt!)