= How to "simply" use multiple SF Projects on one local machine MyWay =

== Introduction ==

When I started my first own project (not that long ago) I always looked at the sources Fabien and the other developers published f.e. the admin_generator or askeet.

Therefore I downloaded the sources and found that symfony runs best when reached from a simple domain like (http://askeet/ and http://phpmyadmin and http://mysymfony01 a.s.o). Installing in subdirectories can give problems with the links to the images of f.e. the dtree.js

But how can I intersperse my Apache to take several domains and redirect them to the sf_directories as DocumentRoot?

== Solution ==

First, like described in the book we add different vhosts to our apache2 in /etc/http/vhost.d and call them something like
  * phpmyadmin.conf
  * askeet.conf
  * mysymfony01.conf

Within these conf's, we write nearly what is suggested in the [http://www.symfony-project.com/content/book/page/web_server.html Howto configure a webserver chapter of the symfony book], but slightly different because there is not only one loopback device. Try it, look at http://127.0.0.2 or http://127.0.1.120, all loop back to your own Apache2. 

Therefore we now setup our VirtualHost (here Apache installed with mod_userdir) like:
{{{
<VirtualHost 127.0.0.2:80>
  ServerName askeet
  DocumentRoot "/home/me/public_html/askeet/web"
  DirectoryIndex index.php
  Alias /sf /$data_dir/symfony/web/sf

  <Directory "/home/me/public_html/askeet/web">
   AllowOverride All
   Allow from All
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
}}}
the next project of course gets the 127.0.0.3

Then we edit our {{{/etc/hosts}}} file which should look like:
{{{
127.0.0.1         localhost
127.0.0.2         askeet
127.0.0.3         anotherproject
}}}

For Windows users: The hosts file is located at {{{X:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts}}} where X is the letter of the drive windows is installed.

After restarting Apache now we can access our projects with

  * http://askeet
  * http://phpmyadmin
  * http://anotherproject



== Extended Solution ==

If you have a lot of projects sharing the same host configuration, there is an even easier way to access them.
Apache can be configured for something called [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/en/vhosts/mass.html Dynamically Configured Mass Virtual Hosting].

  * Create the directory {{{/home/me/public_html/sym}}}
  * Like described above create a new vhost file and include it.
  * Be sure that {{{log_config_module}}} is loaded.


This is my file {{{vhost.sym.conf}}}:

{{{

# ###
# Configuration file for mass hosting
#

LogFormat "%V %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b" symcommon

NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.4:80
Listen          127.0.0.4:80

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.4:80>
  VirtualDocumentRoot   "/home/me/public_html/sym/%1/web"
  CustomLog             "logs/sym.access_log" symcommon
  ErrorLog              "logs/sym.error_log"
  
  <Directory "/home/me/public_html/sym/*/web">
    AllowOverride All
    Allow from All
  </Directory>
  
  DirectoryIndex index.php
  
  Alias /sf /$data_dir/symfony/web/sf
 <Directory "/$data_dir/symfony/web/sf">
   AllowOverride All
   Allow from All
 </Directory>
 
</VirtualHost>

}}}
  

As you can see, this is almost the same configuration as above.
The main difference is the use of [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/en/mod/mod_vhost_alias.html#virtualdocumentroot VirtualDocumentRoot] to locate the document root.

Restart your Apache to load the configuration. Remeber that you can use {{{httpd -S}}} to let Apache show he settings parsed from the configuration files.

Now you can set up new projects '''without restarting apache'''.
The only manual step left is configuring your {{{/etc/hosts}}} for name resolution.


For testing we will set up two projects:

Change to the {{{/home/me/public_html/sym/}}} directory. This is the root for the new projects.
{{{
   mkdir first
   cd first
   symfony generate:project first
   symfony generate:app frontend
   
   cd ..
   mkdir second
   cd second
   symfony generate:project second
   symfony generate:app frontend
   
}}}
  

Modify your {{{/etc/hosts}}}:

{{{
    127.0.0.4   first.sym
    127.0.0.4   second.sym
}}} 


Point your browser to:

  * http://first.sym/
  * http://second.sym/
  
 
This configuration is not a replacement for the solution described above. They perfectly live side-by-side.
I use the ''one-config-for-all-setup'' for quick setups, e.g. testing of new plugins in a clean environment and the ''one-config-per-host-setup'' if I need special configuration settings.





'''DONE'''