Defining Document Root in Apache2/Cake PhP - php

Question

I have a broken Cake PHP site that I did not write, but am charged with fixing. I have the main controller up, however no css/js/images, and when I click a link I get a 404 not found. I believe something is incorrect with mod_rewrite or the docroot config in apache.
While reading through Cake documentation, I came across this:
"app/webroot
In a production setup, this folder should serve as the document root for your application. Folders here also serve as holding places for CSS stylesheets, images, and JavaScript files."
In my /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/this-site, I see this:
DocumentRoot /u02/data/docroots/this_site
<Directory /u02/data/docroots/this_site>
Options -Indexes
AllowOverride none
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
So, my question:
does the above config block need to have:
/u02/data/docroots/this_site/app/webroot as the DocumentRoot and ?
Anywhere else you can think to look for troubleshooting this?

Answer 1

Since you have access to edit the apache config files - it's most appropriate to make a standard production install.
Fixing the docroot
does the above config block need to have: .../app/webroot as the DocumentRoot
Assuming that path exists: yes.
This will fix the broken css/js/images.
Fixing mod rewrite
Put the rewrite rules in the virtual host config:
DocumentRoot /u02/data/docroots/this_site/app/webroot
<Directory /u02/data/docroots/this_site/app/webroot>
Options -Indexes
AllowOverride none
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
// added
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</Directory>
This will then route requests for anything that's not a file to the application.
Verify that the rewrite rule used is compatible with the version of CakePHP in use, the above is based on the rule for the latest release - it changed over the years and using the wrong rewrite rule may have unexpected side effects.
What's actually broken
AllowOverride none
This prevents the .htaccess files from being read by apache. If you were to change this to AllowOverride all, and assuming the currently-ignored .htaccess files exist, the site would work - but as a development install.

Answer 2

Try this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin xxxxxx#test.ro
ServerName test.ro
ServerAlias www.test.ro
DirectoryIndex index.php
DocumentRoot /u02/data/docroots/this_site
ErrorLog /u02/data/docroots/this_site/error.log
CustomLog /u02/data/docroots/this_site/access.log combined
<Directory "/u02/data/docroots/this_site">
Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
And you should have 3 .htaccess files:
/u02/data/docroots/this_site/app/webroot/.htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>
/u02/data/docroots/this_site/app/.htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^$ webroot/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
/u02/data/docroots/this_site/.htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
Hope this helps ;)