virtual hosts -- This will seem to be a duplicate question but is a bit difference
Posted by:
Bobn
(---.lightspeed.stlsmo.sbcglobal.net)
My intent - to make a "site" the localhost under WAMP, a task which can be done very easily with Abyss.
You use the Abyss systray Icon to open the Abyss host console page, you select simple to find and understand links on the pages, you get to a directory page and you find the directory you want as localhost, select it, and then "OKAY" your way back to the main page where you are reminded to click the Restart button to restart Abyss and made your change active.
I have been using Abyss for years with excellent results. I have added PHP support so I can work with PHP files and it has handled all of my needs for creating and testing web pages.
I now want to run wordpress on a local test site to work on streamlining what is a very bloated package and to develop themes that are as fast as possible,with very basic layouts - nothing fancy wanted, just a simply blog.
----- Should anyone know of a more efficient blog package that does not try to be everyting to everyone, I would appreciate being pointed in that directory.
When I tried to install mysql for use with Abyss, I kept running into install errors and the support forums for mysql were absolutely useless and I gave up. I think it was a simple error on my part but I could not get anyone to understaned what I was telling them.
So, I decided to try WAMP. Well I have my test site up - almost - and running but I have hit some peculiar issues which I think I understand, as to what is happening, but I'm not happy about it.
The basic issue is. what is the actual localhost - WAMP or my "site"?
It is clear that WAMP is - enter localhost and you get the WAMPSERVER Home Page. The way things work with WAMP, as it comes out of the box, things can get a tad messed up on anything other than a simple web site.
And then there is the fact that clicking a project name on the WAMPSERVER Home Page uses a URL that gets you a Server Not Found response. I have a directory named NOPUBLICFUNDS as a sub directory of WWW and if I click the NOPUBLICFUNDS item on the WAMPSERVER Home Page, the URL used is [
nopublicfunds] - presto, server not found.
It does not get me to the "site." None of the project links on the WAMPSERVER Home Page work. Now - don't get me wrong, given what I think I've learned about WAMP in the last hour, I think that even if that problem was fixed, my real issue would remain. But it is very strange to do a sucessful install and then to get errors when you use links on the WAMPSERVER Home Page - that should not be happening.
I searched for and read several questions and answers about the issue of "who is the localhost" and it seems to boil down to needing to create virtual hosts for the sites.
Well, "Okay, I said" and read deeper into the procedures given to create a virtual host. Then it started to nag at me that it seemed that once I had done all the many steps, it might be that only one "site" could be the localhost at one time - sounds reasonable, same thing as with Aybss but as I read on, I became more more riled by what I was reading. I was beginning to think that it was going to be a real pain to switch to other test sites - like many people, I work on more than one site at a time
So - here's my question --
What is the procedure to set things up so that when I entered localhost, the default page (index dot html htm shmtl, php, default, etc) on the site set as localhost is opened?
With Abyss, in perhaps 45 to 60 seconds (could be a lot less if you really went fast) you can set any directory, at any level in the HDD directory structure, as the localhost.
It seems that there is altogether too much needing to be done to do that with WAMP.
So - is there a way short of making a virtual host, making a hosts file, etc. to set a directory to actually be the localhost - not WAMP - and is there a quick way to switch to another "site" as localhost?
BobN