PHP Domain Mapping Script - php

Question

I don't know what is the exact term for this, so my title could be incorrect.
Basically what I what to do is to write a PHP script that has an input field:
Domain Name: <input type='text' name='dname' id='dname' value='http://example.com' />
<input type='submit' name='addname' value='Add A Domain' />
When user type their own domain into the text field and press submit, the script will automatically make a directory, copy some PHP scripts there and map the domain name to there. (The domain name is pointing to our server, of course.)
I have already figured out the mkdir() and copy() part, but I couldn't figure out the mapping part. How to add an entry to map http://example.com to /home/user/public_html/copy1/ automatically, using PHP?

Answer 1

While you could do that directly from your PHP page, I suggest not to do that, for many reasons, from high failure risks (in case page execution gets interrupted suddenly, for example) to security risks (your httpd user will have write access to its own configuration + some stuff on the filesystem where it shouldn't).
Some times ago I wrote a similar control "website creation control panel" that works pretty much this way:
The php script receives the website creation request and stores it somewhere (e.g. in a database). dot.
Another script, running as root via cron each, let's say, five minutes checks the website creation requests queue. If there is any:
Mark the site creation task as "locked"
Create the directory at appropriate location, populate with scripts etc.
Change all the permissions as needed
Create new virtualhost configuration, and enable it
Make the webserver reload its own configuration
Mark the site creation task as "done"
The second script can be written in whatever language you like, PHP, Python, Bash, ...
About apache configuration
To create a directory "mapped" to your domain, you could use something like this:
First of all, "slugify" your domain name. I usually take the (sanitized!) domain name, and convert all dots with double-dash (that is not a valid domain name part). I don't like dots in file/directory names a part from file extension separation.
Then, you can create something like this (assuming domain is www.example.com):
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.exampple.com
DocumentRoot `/my-sites/wwwroot/www--example--com`
<Directory "/my-sites/wwwroot/www--example--com">
Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/www--example--com_error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/www--example--com_access.log vhost_combined
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
## redirect non-www to www
ServerName www.example.com
ServerAlias example.com
RedirectMatch permanent ^(.*) http://www.example.com$1
</VirtualHost>
Assuming you are placing your site files in directories like /my-sites/wwwroot/www--example--com.
Some security-related improvements
In my case, I also preferred not running the second script by root either; to do so you have to add some changes in order to let a less privileged user do some things on your system:
Create a directory with write access for your user, let's say /my-sites/conf/vhosts
Create an apache virtualhost containing the following line: Include "/my-sites/conf/vhosts/*.vhost", and enable it
Then, let your user reload apache configuration, by installing sudo and adding this to your /etc/sudoers:
Cmnd_Alias A2RELOAD = /usr/sbin/apache2ctl graceful
youruser ALL=NOPASSWD: A2RELOAD
%yourgroup ALL = NOPASSWD: A2RELOAD
And, of course, also give write permissions to your websites base directory to the user that will be used to run the script.

Answer 2

I think you need to add VirtualHosts to apache config (such as httpd.conf)
like this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName example.com
DocumentRoot /home/user/public_html/copy1/
</VirtualHost>
Apache documents for virtual host config:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/name-based.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/mass.html

Answer 3

It is over 10 months now, so I'll just suggest what I have found.
While writing directly to httpd.conf seems the only way, but recently our site change the server. It has cause us so much trouble in those file / folder permission, and the hosting company refuse to help us due to security concern.
So I have a second look and discovered I am using CPanel for hosting, I can certainly use Addon Domain feature to create and add in new domains.
But it has its limits. Since it is an addon domain, we can no longer limit the bandwidth and disk usage per domain. Everything is shared. But that doesn't matter to us anyway.
So far it works. You can do it by either using the CPanel API library available on the official cpanel website, or you can use the direct URL request way to create the domain. Since we are making a new wordpress install, we create a new database as well.
http://{username}:{password}#{mysite.com}:2082/frontend/x3/sql/addb.html?db={dbname}
http://{username}:{password}#{mysite.com}:2082/frontend/x3/sql/adduser.html?user={dbuser}&pass={dbpass}
http://{username}:{password}#{mysite.com}:2082/frontend/x3/sql/addusertodb.html?db={dbname}&user={dbuser}&ALL=ALL
http://{username}:{password}#{mysite.com}:2082/frontend/x3/addon/doadddomain.html?domain={newsite.com}&user={ftp_user}&dir={ftp_dir}&pass={ftp_pass}&pass2={ftp_pass}
It doesn't have to be wordpress. You can use this to install joomla, drupal, phpbb or even you custom script.
Hope it helps anyone who is reading this. Thanks.