1. Why You Need Older WordPress Versions

Of course, running the latest version of WordPress is the best option for any website, but at times, there could be specific scenarios that may require working with an ‘older’ version of WordPress.

For example, a very common scenario is when you may want to test a WordPress version upgrade on your localhost or dev/staging environment before upgrading the live environment. Similarly, there could be a variety of other reasons for installing older WordPress versions.

In our earlier article, we already saw How To Install WordPress Locally using XAMPP, however, the installation steps discussed in that post do not apply to installing an ‘older’ WordPress version. By older we mean WordPress version 5.6 and above.

Hence, in this article, we will specifically go through the steps for installing WordPress version 5.6 and above, locally on Windows using XAMPP.

2. Why Installation Ends Up As Latest Version

Though installing WordPress locally using XAMPP is a fairly simple process, however, when installing any WordPress versions starting WordPress 5.6, there is a catch!

The catch is the ‘automatic-update’ feature of WordPress, which is ‘ON’ by default since v5.6, and that is the reason for users starting out the WordPress installation using older WordPress versions (> v5.6 but not the latest) but still ending up with the latest WordPress version soon after the installation process.

Because by the time installation using an older version is completed, in the backend WordPress automatically upgrades the core version to the latest available version at the time. Of course, for this to happen your localhost needs an active internet connection.

3. WordPress Automatic Update Feature

There are four types of WordPress updates:

The Core updates are further subdivided into three types:

The ‘automatic updates’ feature for ‘minor’ releases was introduced in WordPress 3.7 version. This allowed WordPress to automatically install new minor and security releases to improve your website security.

However, starting WordPress 5.6, by default, every WordPress site has ‘automatic updates’ enabled for both minor and major releases. This meant, that if you install any version starting WordPress 5.6 onwards (i.e., 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, etc.), your WordPress instance would automatically get updated to the latest available WordPress version at the time.

4. How To Install Older WordPress Version

In order to install any older (>v5.6 but not latest) version of the WordPress, you would need to stop the ‘automatic update’ feature even before the WordPress installation begins else as soon as you finish the installation, the WordPress would automatically get updated to the latest version available at the time, without notifying you. Here are the steps you should take to install an earlier version of WordPress other than the latest.

5. Launch XAMPP and Start Servers

5.1. Start Apache and MySQL Servers

Launch the XAMPP Control Panel as ‘Administrator’ and start the Apache Server as well as MySQL Server. You can do that by clicking on “Start” next to the modules.

6. Creating Database using XAMPP

Next, let us start by creating a database for WordPress using PHPMyAdmin.

6.1. Launch PHPMyAdmin

Open a new browser tab and type the following URL to launch PHPMyAdmin, http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ . This should launch the following web interface

6.2. Create Database for your WordPress

Navigate to the Databases tab at the top of the page of phpMyAdmin. Provide a name for your new database. In my case here, I am creating a database with the name ‘mywebsite_db’. After you have filled in your database name, click on the ‘Create’ button to continue.

This step concludes your database creation for the WordPress website. Now let us move on to install and configure the WordPress site.

7. Download and Set Up WordPress Folder

7.1. Download WordPress from Archives

Download an older WordPress version of your choice from the WordPress release archives page as shown.

7.2. Create project folder to host WordPress

Create your project folder inside XAMPP’s htdocs to host your WordPress files. Proceed with creating a new folder into XAMPP’s htdocs folder for your site and provide a name of your choice. For example, I am going to name it as ‘mywebsite’.

7.3. Extract WordPress files into folder

To install WordPress locally, you need to extract WordPress files (unzip) into the newly created folder inside ‘htdocs’, in our case we will copy it into ‘mywebsite’ folder which we created.

8. Edit WordPress Configuration File

As mentioned earlier, just before we start the WordPress installation, we should disable the ‘automatic-update’ feature of WordPress so that it does not automatically upgrade our chosen version.

If we skip this step, then WordPress would automatically upgrade itself to the latest version available at the time (provided it has access to the internet) soon after the installation completes.

8.1. Make a Copy of Sample Config File

Navigate to the WordPress project folder and locate the sample configuration file with the name ‘wp-config-sample.php’.

Make a copy of the ‘wp-config-sample.php’ in the same folder and name it as ‘wp-config.php’. This will be our WordPress configuration file which we will edit in the next step.

8.2. Input database details into config file

Open the WordPress configuration file you created in the earlier step, for editing. Fill in the values for the following parameters as per your database environment credentials.

Leave all other parameters in the configuration file to default as-is. Save the file and move to the next step.

8.3. Disable ‘auto-update’ WordPress feature

As discussed earlier, since we want to install an earlier version of WordPress (not the latest), hence we need to disable the ‘automatic-update’ feature of WordPress. You can do this by adding the following parameter in your ‘wp-config.php’ file.

/** Disable Development, Minor, and Major updates */
define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', 'false' );

Since WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE can be defined with one of three values, each producing a different behavior:

Hence, rather than disabling all kinds of updates, a better option is to at least enable minor and security auto-updates. We can do so using the following:

/** Enables Automatic Minor Updates Only */
define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', 'minor' );

So let us add the above parameter and values in our ‘wp-config.php’ file. You can add these lines towards the end of your configuration file as shown in the screenshot.

9. Start WordPress Installation

Since we have now set up our database as well as the WordPress config (wp-config.php), we are all set to start the WordPress installation.

9.1. Start WordPress install process

Launch your web browser and enter the following URL in your browser –

In my case, this is – http://localhost/mywebsite/

This will load the WordPress installation wizard and you’ll be asked to provide your website and website admin details. Fill in the required details and click on the ‘Install WordPress’ button.

Once the installation is complete, you should see the following screen.

9.2. Log on to WordPress Dashboard & Verify

Next, enter your credentials and login to your WordPress site dashboard.

Finally, you’ll reach your admin dashboard. It looks like this. Now verify the WordPress version. It should be the same version that you started with.

The post Why WordPress Installation Ends Up with latest version? appeared first on Automation Dojos.

1. Introduction

Installing WordPress on your computer helps you try out WordPress, test themes and plugins, and learn WordPress development.  It lets you operate a website within your own computer. The website isn’t visible to other people. So, you can make an experiment with the design components, plugins, settings, etc. there.

However, WordPress is not something that can be installed on your computer on its own. For installing you would need a web server and database. That is where XAMPP comes into the picture.

2. What is XAMPP?

XAMPP is a local server that you can install on your laptop/desktop to mimic an actual web server.

It’s a completely free, open-source Apache server distribution with MariaDB (formerly MySQL), PHP, and Perl. XAMPP is available for all major operating systems and is extremely easy to install and use. Here is what XAMPP stands for:

Apart from the core components mentioned above, XAMPP usually comes with other useful tools such as Mercury mail server, phpMyAdmin for database administration, Webalizer for web server log analysis, OpenSSL, Apache Tomcat for running Java code, and FileZilla FTP server.

3. Installing XAMPP on Windows

3.1. Download XAMPP installer for windows

Download the latest XAMPP installer for windows from Apache Friends Website

3.2. Plan location of XAMPP binaries (Root)

Before running the installer. Carefully plan/choose the location for XAMPP binaries or root folders. Make a note of the following while choosing the location –

Your Website and Project files would reside inside the XAMPP folder. Best to choose data drive or partition with Admin access. Prefer not to install in ‘Program Files’ due to UAC and Windows security restrictions may potentially cause problems.

3.3. Run Installer and complete installation

Run the XAMPP installer as ‘Administrator’ and complete the installation process.

3.4. Start Apache and MySQL Servers

Launch the XAMPP Control Panel as ‘Administrator’ and start the Apache Server as well as MySQL Server. You can do that by clicking on “Start” next to the modules.

3.5. Verify your server installations

Launch browser and type in localhost to check if Apache service is running fine. If you see the above webpage loading properly that means our installation has been successful.

4. Creating Database using XAMPP

Next, let us create a database for WordPress using PHPMyAdmin.

4.1. Launch PHPMyAdmin

Open a new browser tab and type the following URL to launch PHPMyAdmin, http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ . This should launch the following web interface

4.2. Create Database for your WordPress

Navigate to the Databases tab at the top of the page of phpMyAdmin. Provide a name for your new database. After that, click on the ‘Create’ button to continue.

This step concludes your database creation for the WordPress website. Now let us move on to install and configure the WordPress site.

5. Installing WordPress Locally with XAMPP

5.1. Download the latest version of WordPress

First, you need to go to wordpress.org and download the latest version of WordPress. Download the zip folder on your local system.

5.2. Create Project Folder to Host WordPress

Create your project folder inside XAMPP’s htdocs to host your WordPress files. Proceed with creating a new folder into XAMPP’s htdocs folder for your site and provide a name of your choice. For example, I am going to name it as ‘mywebsite’.

5.3. Extract WordPress Files into Project Folder

To install WordPress locally, you need to extract WordPress files (unzip) into the newly created folder inside ‘htdocs’, in our case we will copy it into ‘mywebsite’ folder which we created.

5.4. Start WordPress Setup & Install Process

Launch your web browser and enter the following URL in your browser –

In my case, this is – http://localhost/mywebsite/

This will load the WordPress installation wizard and you’ll be asked to select a language. After selecting a language, click on the ‘Continue’ button.

5.5. Enter database details

When you get to the database details, enter the following:

5.6. Confirm the installation start

Once everything is done, click on “Submit” and you’ll be taken to the WordPress installation page. Just run the installation

5.7. Setup your Site and Admin Credentials

Continue onto the next screen and fill in all of the details — including your admin username and password — and complete the installation.

Once the installation is complete, you should see the following screen.

5.8. Log on to your WordPress Dashboard

Next, enter your credentials and login to your WordPress site dashboard.

Finally, you’ll reach your admin dashboard. It looks like this:

The post How To Install WordPress Locally using XAMPP appeared first on Automation Dojos.

Apache has made it very easy to have multiple websites or web applications running on the same physical server, and access each using a custom domain name. This is known as virtual hosting, and each virtual host can be mapped to a different subdirectory of the server.

1. What are VirtualHosts?

The term ‘Virtual Host’ refers to the practice of running more than one website (such as company1.example.com and company2.example.com) on a single machine. Virtual hosts can be “IP-based”, meaning that you have a different IP address for every website, or “name-based”, meaning that you have multiple names running on each IP address

In this tutorial, I am going to demonstrate how you can set up and configure virtual hosts for WordPress websites with XAMPP running on Windows 10.

2. Enable loading of VirtualHosts Conf

Firstly, let us verify that the loading of Virtual Host conf is enabled in Apache via httpd.conf. Though this should be enabled by default but just for the sake of completeness and to avoid any potential misconfiguration on your host it is worth checking it before we start.

Open ‘httpd-.conf’ file located in XAMPP installation folder (\xampp\apache\conf\ httpd-.conf) in any text editor and search for ‘virtual hosts’. Now un-comment (enable) the following line by removing hash, if it is not already un-commented.

# Virtual hosts
Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

3. Create your project directories

Open the XAMPP root folder and navigate to the sub-directory ‘htdocs’ (XAMPP\htdocs). For example, in my case, the path to my htdocs is ‘D:\DEV-WORKSPACE\XAMPP\htdocs’

Here I created two empty sub-directories named ‘website1’ and ‘website2’

Additionally, if you wish you can place some test files in these directories as well to verify your setup later.

You can create a simple test file with just a few lines like below. Save it with ‘.php’ extension inside your project directories created above.

<html> 
	<head>
		<title>PHP Test for Website 1</title> 
	</head> 
		<body> <?php echo '<p>Hello World! This is Website 1</p>'; ?>  </body>
</html>

4. Edit VirtualHosts conf file

Navigate to ‘\xampp\apache\conf\extra’ or wherever your XAMPP files are located. In my case, my XAMPP root directory are located in drive D as shown below :

Open httpd-vhosts.conf file located in xampp installation folder (e.g C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf) in notepad or other text editor. The typical file may look like this –

5. Analyze Default VirtualHosts conf

5.1. ‘NameVirtualHost’ directive and port

As you can see, I have enabled this directive and assigned a custom port number which is 8081 (which in my case is the same as my Apache HTTP Listen port) instead of the default port 80 as per my custom configuration.

In your case, if you are using some custom port number already then you can keep using your port number, or else if you want to use default port 80 then by all means keep that.

Although more complex configurations are possible using multiple port numbers, multiple IP addresses, multiple listen ports, or even a hybrid configuration utilizing IP-based and name-based virtual hosts but for the sake of this demo article, we are going to keep it simple enough as per current need.

So for now it’s best to keep the same port number whatever you have assigned to Apache ‘Listen’ port in your ‘httpd.conf’ as shown below at line 61.

6. Create your new VirtualHosts

Typically, the way Apache Virtual Host resolution works is by comparing/parsing the IP addresses/hostnames against the listed virtual hosts and also comparing ServerName, ServerAlias, etc until it is satisfied with its absolute resolution.

6.1 Default or fallback VirtualHosts

When a request arrives, the server will first check if it is using an IP address that matches the NameVirtualHost. If it is, then it will look at each <VirtualHost> section with a matching IP address and try to find one where the ServerName or ServerAlias matches the requested hostname. If it finds one, then it uses the configuration for that server. If no matching virtual host is found, then the first listed virtual host that matches the IP address will be used. Hence the first listed virtual host is the default virtual host and that is why its good practice to have one.

6.2. Creating Default VirtualHosts

Let us start by creating the default Virtual Hosts. The easiest way is to re-use the demo virtual host configurations already supplied by Apache in ‘httpd-vhosts.conf’. So let us copy these and tweak our way through to put our new virtual hosts in place.

Here is one of the already supplied or demo snippets inside the ‘httpd-vhosts.conf’ :

##<VirtualHost *:80>
    ##ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
    ##DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/dummy-host.example.com"
    ##ServerName dummy-host.example.com
    ##ServerAlias www.dummy-host.example.com
    ##ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-error.log"
    ##CustomLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-access.log" common
##</VirtualHost>

After removing all the ‘#’ from all lines to un-comment and also stripping out the parts which we don’t require and we get our first version of our default Virtual Hosts configuration as below:

## FALLBACK VIRTUAL HOST CONFIG FOR UNMATCHED HTTP/S REQUESTS
<VirtualHost *:8081>
 DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs"
 ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

Since we may not need this fallback block very often, we keep it very minimalistic by defining only the port, our main server’s document root and the default server name. That is all! Just simply copy this block into your virtual host conf file.

6.3. Creating Multiple Custom VirtualHosts

Now, to add more virtual hosts, simply duplicate the Apache supplied sample virtual host block and modify the port number, DocumentRoot and ServerName directives as per our requirements as we did for the Default Virtual Host above.

So let us create say two new virtual hosts for 2 websites ‘website1’ and ‘website2’ with document root folders located ‘/xampp/htdocs/website1/’ and ‘/xampp/htdocs/website2/’ respectively.

To accommodate the above requirement, we will be creating 4 blocks which are 2 blocks per project or website. So each project/website would be defined via 2 blocks, one block for HTTP and other blocks for HTTPS (SSL)

VirtualHosts Config for PROJECT 1 – website1

## VIRTUAL HOST HTTP CONFIG FOR PROJECT 1 - website1 http
<VirtualHost website1:8081>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website1.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1"
    ServerName website1
	ServerAlias www.website1
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>


##VIRTUAL HOST HTTPS CONFIG FOR PROJECT 1 - website1 https
<VirtualHost website1:8082>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website1.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1"
    ServerName website1
	ServerAlias www.website1
	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
	SSLCertificateKeyFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.key/server.key"
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

VirtualHosts Config for PROJECT 2 – website2

##VIRTUAL HOST HTTP CONFIG FOR PROJECT 2 - website2 http
<VirtualHost website2:8081>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website2.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website2"
    ServerName website2
	ServerAlias www.website2
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website2">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>


##VIRTUAL HOST HTTPS CONFIG FOR PROJECT 2 - website2 https
<VirtualHost website2:8082>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website2.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website2"
    ServerName website2
	ServerAlias www.website2
	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
	SSLCertificateKeyFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.key/server.key"
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

6.4. Understanding Custom VirtualHost blocks

Here are the key points to understand while setting up your virtual host blocks:

6.5. About HTTPS(SSL) Settings in VirtualHosts

As you can see we have created a separate virtual host configuration block per project/website. Unlike HTTP, these HTTPS blocks contain SSL-related directives.

	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
	SSLCertificateKeyFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.key/server.key"

In an ideal world, you would explicitly generate SSL certificate and key for your server and assign it to your relevant Virtual Hosts. But SSL cert and key generation are out of scope of this article and we shall cover it in a separate article.

However, the Apache server by default ships out a sample (sort of demo) SSL certificate and key which can be used in a lab environment. In this example, we have used the Apache supplied SSL certificate and key.

You can find these certs and keys at the following location:

XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.key/server.key"

7. Configure and Save VirtualHost Conf file

Now simply copy all the Virtual Host blocks prepared above into your Virtual Host Config file (httpd-vhosts.conf) and save the file and restart the Apache Server services. Your virtual host file should look like this –

# Virtual Hosts
#
# Required modules: mod_log_config

# If you want to maintain multiple domains/hostnames on your
# machine you can setup VirtualHost containers for them. Most configurations
# use only name-based virtual hosts so the server doesn't need to worry about
# IP addresses. This is indicated by the asterisks in the directives below.
#
# Please see the documentation at 
# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/>
# for further details before you try to setup virtual hosts.
#
# You may use the command line option '-S' to verify your virtual host
# configuration.

#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
##NameVirtualHost *:80
NameVirtualHost *:8081
#
# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for all requests that do not
# match a ##ServerName or ##ServerAlias in any <VirtualHost> block.
#
##<VirtualHost *:80>
    ##ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
    ##DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/dummy-host.example.com"
    ##ServerName dummy-host.example.com
    ##ServerAlias www.dummy-host.example.com
    ##ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-error.log"
    ##CustomLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-access.log" common
##</VirtualHost>

##<VirtualHost *:80>
    ##ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host2.example.com
    ##DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/dummy-host2.example.com"
    ##ServerName dummy-host2.example.com
    ##ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host2.example.com-error.log"
    ##CustomLog "logs/dummy-host2.example.com-access.log" common
##</VirtualHost>



## FALLBACK VIRTUAL HOST CONFIG FOR UNMATCHED HTTP/S REQUESTS

<VirtualHost *:8081>
 DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs"
 ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:8082>
 DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs"
 ServerName localhost
 SSLEngine On
 SSLCertificateFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
 SSLCertificateKeyFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.key/server.key"
</VirtualHost>


## VIRTUAL HOST HTTP CONFIG FOR PROJECT 1 - website1 http

<VirtualHost website1:8081>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website1.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1"
    ServerName website1
	ServerAlias www.website1
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

##VIRTUAL HOST HTTPS CONFIG FOR PROJECT 1 - website1 https

<VirtualHost website1:8082>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website1.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1"
    ServerName website1
	ServerAlias www.website1
	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
	SSLCertificateKeyFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.key/server.key"
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

##VIRTUAL HOST HTTP CONFIG FOR PROJECT 2 - website2 http

<VirtualHost website2:8081>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website2.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website2"
    ServerName website2
	ServerAlias www.website2
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website2">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

##VIRTUAL HOST HTTPS CONFIG FOR PROJECT 2 - website2 https

<VirtualHost website2:8082>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@website2.com
    DocumentRoot "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website2"
    ServerName website2
	ServerAlias www.website2
	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
	SSLCertificateKeyFile "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/apache/conf/ssl.key/server.key"
    ErrorLog "logs/website1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/website1-access.log" common
	<Directory "D:/DEV-WORKSPACE/XAMPP/htdocs/website1">
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

8. Update your Window Host File

Since this is a local webserver lab environment, we need someone to do the DNS resolution for us. That’s where we will use the localhost DNS table to translate or route our Virtual Host URL to correct server. Hence you need to update your window hosts file

Navigate to ‘C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts’ and edit your host file by adding your virtual hosts name and IP which is the loopback IP. In my case I would add the following lines to my host file –

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 website1
127.0.0.1 website2

Save and close the file and its done!

9. Test Your VirtualHosts

9.1. Testing the HTTP VirtualHosts

From the XAMPP Control Panel, start your Apache Server

Launch the browser and type in the URL for your first virtual host (In my case this is – http://website1:8081/)

You should see the following. As evident our virtual host configuration has worked!

Now let’s try our second virtual host which in my case is – http://website2:8081/

9.2. Testing the HTTPS VirtualHosts

When you test your HTTPS Virtual Host (https://website1:8082/).

You would see some warning by the browser since the SSL certificate we are using is not valid. But this is expected since we are using a sort of dummy SSL certificate not the real world. You can simply ask your browser to ignore it and proceed to the website. Alternatively, you can add these certificates to your local browser to get past these errors.

The post How To Configure Virtual Hosts in XAMPP appeared first on Automation Dojos.

Why change Apache Port

By Default, Apache runs HTTP on port 80 and SSL on port 443 in XAMPP. Generally, you may need to change the port number for the following reasons :

For example, users commonly report a conflict between Skype and Apache both using port 80.

Checking port availability

Before you proceed, you should make sure that you have an available port and that the port you are choosing is free and not already occupied. Here is a list of a couple of tools you can use to find the status of ports on your localhost.

NetStat command on windows

On windows, you can use ‘netstat’ command to list active networks (incoming and outgoing) connections and listening ports. You can use the command with the following switches to print port status for your localhost:

netstat -ano

XAMPP’s in-built NetStat tool

If you prefer, you can use the ‘NetStat’ tool built inside the XAMPP itself. Behind the scene, it probably uses the same windows command and the output is almost the same as the native ‘NetStat’ command in windows.

Windows Resource Monitor

The third option if you prefer is the windows ‘Resource Monitor’. You can launch the ‘Resource Monitor’ via the ‘Task Manager’ as shown in the below screenshot. Once you have launched ‘Resource Monitor’, you can view the port availability status under the ‘Listening Ports’ tab.

Changing Apache HTTP port

Edit the ‘httpd.conf’ file usually located inside “XAMPP\apache\conf\” on windows and make the following changes.

HTTP Listen Port

HTTP ServerName and Port

Changing Apache HTTPS (SSL) Port

Edit the ‘http-ssl.conf’ file usually located inside “XAMPP\apache\conf\extra” on windows and make the following changes

HTTPS Listen Port

HTTPS ServerName and Port

VirtualHost Directive for httpd-ssl

Changing Ports for VirtualHosts

Edit the ‘httpd-vhosts.conf’ file usually located inside “XAMPP\apache\conf\extra” on windows and make the following changes:

HTTP Virtual Host URL

HTTPS (SSL) Virtual Host URL

Changing HTTP/HTTPS in XAMPP Panel

Now, we need to also update the above port numbers in XAMPP configuration, so that both XAMPP and Apache are able to communicate over the right port numbers. For this, do the following:

Launch XAMPP Configuration from XAMPP Control Panel

From the ‘Configuration of Control Panel’ window click ‘Service and Port Settings to launch ‘Service Setting’

On the ‘Service Settings’ window, enter Main Port and SSL Port number as set in previous steps. In our example here these would be Main Port: 8081 and SSL Port 8082.

Make HTTP and HTTPS port changes Click Save to save service settings

RESTART THE APACHE SERVICE! DONE!

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Why run XAMPP as-admin

The XAMPP is recommended to be executed as-admin as it requires running a couple of system services such as Apache, MySQL etc. Also if you have not installed Apache or MySQL as system services, the XAMPP services may still require to access and operate custom system ports especially port 1024 and above which may again require admin access.

Hence you run XAMPP without admin privileges the XAMPP itself prompts and recommends you to run the XAMPP as-admin which you can see in the below screenshot.

How to set XAMPP to run ‘as-admin’

There are two ways you can achieve running XAMPP as-admin on windows localhost :

Since I don’t want to clog up my localhost with unnecessary services which I may not require frequently or always, I prefer the second option above which is to ‘set XAMPP executable shortcut to run as-admin’ rather than installing XAMPP services as system services.

Hence in this post, we will see how to set up XAMPP executable shortcut to run as-admin.

Locate the XAMPP shortcut files

Navigate to the shortcut for launching the XAMPP. On Win10 the location for XAMPP shortcut is usually this – C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\XAMPP

Open properties for XAMPP shortcut file

Right-click the shortcut file to open file properties

On properties dialog click ‘Advanced’

On the file property dialog box click on ‘Advanced’ to launch the advanced options.

Choose the option ‘Run-As Administrator’

On the ‘Advanced’ file property dialog box for XAMPP shortcut, choose the option ‘Run as administrator’ and save your changes.

Launch XAMPP Panel and verify

Launch your XAMPP Control Panel, you should see the above control panel.

As you can see there is no warning or recommendation for launching the XAMPP as administrator this time on the panel logs. This means the XAMPP is now launched as administrator.

You can also verify the same via Windows ‘Task Manager’. As you can see in the screenshot, the XAMPP process is running with ‘Elevated’ privileges it means that it is running as-administrator.

The post How To Set XAMPP To Run As-Admin By Default appeared first on Automation Dojos.

What is XAMPP

The full form of XAMPP stands for Cross-platform, Apache, MariaDB (MySQL), PHP and Perl. It is one of the simplest and lightweight local servers or more precisely a package of bundled open-source software containing standard web development tools to develop/test your website locally.

It is available as open-source software created by Apache Friends and is very common among the developers of content management systems like Joomla or WordPress. XAMPP provides an ideal, development and test environment for projects based on Apache, Perl, MySQL database, and PHP through the system of the host itself.

Advantages of XAMPP

XAMPP Components

Installing XAMPP on Windows

Download the XAMPP for windows

Download the latest XAMPP installer for windows from Apache Friends Website

Plan/Choose XAMPP location

Before running the installer. Carefully plan/choose the location for XAMPP binaries or root folder. Make a note of the following while choosing the location :

Run the XAMPP Installer

Run the XAMPP installer as ‘Admin’ (Run As Admin). This should take care of any potential privilege or access-related issues. Complete the installation process.

Continue with the Installer Prompts

Launch XAMPP Panel & Start Apache

Launch your XAMPP Control Panel, you should see the above control panel.

Now press the ‘Start’ button against the Apache on the panel for starting your Apache Server service.

Verify your XAMPP installation

Launch your browser and type in localhost into the URL to check if Apache Server service is running fine. You should see the above page which confirms your XAMPP installation has been successful.

You can also verify the full PHP information by typing the URL – localhost/dashboard/phpinfo.php

Next Steps

Since you have succesfully installed the XAMPP application. Most probably you might also want to install WordPress on top of your XAMPP installation. If that is the case, please checkout next article: How To Install WordPress Locally using XAMPP.

In case you are looking for advanced configuration for XAMPP checkout these articles:

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