Hosting multiple local sites with XAMPP - php

Question

I'm new to using XAMPP so this may be simple to some people.
I have a few php projects that I would like to be able to debug locally and view in the browser (not concurrently, but without having to change config files/copy project folders each time I want to work on a different project).
On IIS, you could set up multiple sites to serve from your machine, and I'm looking for something similar in XAMPP. When using IIS, I added multiple records to the Windows hosts file so I could access the locally hosted sites by typing friendly web-style addresses (like http://myproject1.dev)
Thanks.

Answer 1

Greg, you're almost there--you need (like Moses said) to setup virtual hosts.
So if your Windows hosts file has
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 mysite-dev.com
127.0.0.1 anothersite-dev.com
Your virtual hosts file (httpd-vhosts.conf) might look like:
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot C:/xampp/htdocs/
ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName mysite-dev.com
DocumentRoot "C:/sites/mysite-dev"
<Directory "C:/sites/mysite-dev">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName anothersite-dev.com
DocumentRoot "C:/sites/anothersite-dev"
<Directory "C:/sites/anothersite-dev">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Don't forget to restart the web server after you make any changes.

Answer 2

I would like to make an additional in terms of up to date information.
XAMMP uses port 80 by default and we are able to publish 1 website. I also use IIS for .Net projects. In this respect, I set the port to XAMMP except the 80 port. So I avoid a conflict.
When we want to publish more than one website, we should do the following operations to httpd.conf (this is the current name).
1. Setting the ports
Find the #Listen expression in the httpd.conf file.
Change Listen 80 to Listen 8000 (or whatever else you want)
Listen 8000
If you need 3 different websites, type the others, including 1 definition on each line, as follows.
Listen 8001
Listen 8002
Listen 8003
2. Define the file paths of sites accessed through ports
Again, find in the httpd.conf file.
Identify the folders of each website as follows.
As you would see, I've created 3 directories called 8000, 8001, 8002 and 8003 under the htdocs directory within the XAMMP directory.
<VirtualHost *:8000>
 DocumentRoot "C:\XAMPP\htdocs\8000"
 ServerName localhost:8000
<\ VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:8001>
 DocumentRoot "C:\XAMPP\htdocs\8001"
 ServerName localhost:8001
<\ VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:8002>
 DocumentRoot "C:\XAMPP\htdocs\8002"
 ServerName localhost:8002
<\ VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:8003>
 DocumentRoot "C:\XAMPP\htdocs\8003"
 ServerName localhost:8003
<\ VirtualHost>
Restart your Apahche server on XAMMP.
You can now view your 3rd site, such as http://localhost:8003 or http://192.168.1.1:8003/.
Hope to be useful.

Answer 3

This question was asked almost ten years ago, and the answers above are a bit dated. Note that XAMPP has a "How-To" for virtual hosts avilable off the dashboard, when you install it.
From the "Welcome to XAMPP for Windows" page (localhost/dashboard, the default when you first load localhost) click on the "HOW-TO" Guides in the top menu bar. From there, look for the link "Configure Virtual Hosts" which will lead you to the localhost page "http://localhost/dashboard/docs/configure-vhosts.html"
In a nutshell, the process involves editing the "httpd-vhosts.conf" file (typically in C:\XAMPP\apache\conf\extra) and replacing the contents of that file with something like this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/"
ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>
# vhosts - note sample entry from XAMPP how-to throws an error, so try this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "C:/Users/jdoe/Documents/dev.mysite.com/htdocs"
ServerName mysite.local
<Directory "C:/Users/jdoe/Documents/dev.mysite.com/htdocs">
Require all granted
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Additional vhosts (including SSL hosts) can be had by cloning the entry, and modifying DocumentRoot and ServerName directives and port numbers (e.g. 443 for TLS (SSL)). You can find tutorials on the web for creating and signing your own certificate, if you want to go that route.
The final step is to get your Windows machine to point your browser to the Apache host for your virtual domain (e.g. above, http://mysite.local). Using a text editor (Notebook will do) as administrator append the following entry onto your hosts file, which lives here:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Append this entry to the hosts file:
127.0.0.1 mysite.local
IMPORTANT - you must restart your Windows machine or the new host will not respond. Some documentations will tell you just to restart the browser and Apache server, but I've found that's not sufficient.
IME, the hosts system and Apache directives can be particular, so be patient. You may need to rebuild configs, restart Apache, and restart your machine more than once.