How to change the URL from “localhost” to something else, on a local system using wampserver?

Question

On a Windows machine, there's a system running on the local wampserver, but while the application is running on localhost, the URL says otherwise.

While I would expect the URL to be like this based on the directory structure:

http://localhost/pro/include/db_report.php

The developer has managed to do this:

http://ap-mispro/pro/include/db_report.php

So instead of localhost, the URL says ap-mispro.

And both URLs work fine.

How is the second URL made? I tried checking out the wampmanager.ini and wampmanager.tpl but maybe I didn't know what to look for?

Answer 1

WINDOWS + WAMP solution

Step 1
Go to C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.17\conf\
open httpd.conf file and change
#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
to
Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
i.e. uncomment the line so that it can includes the virtual hosts file.

Step 2
Go to C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.17\conf\extra
and open httpd-vhosts.conf file and add the following code

<VirtualHost myWebsite.local>
    DocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/myWebsite/"
    ServerName myWebsite.local
    ServerAlias myWebsite.local
    <Directory "C:/wamp/www/myWebsite/">
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

change myWebsite.local and C:/wamp/www/myWebsite/ as per your requirements.

Step 3
Open hosts file in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/ and add the following line ( Don't delete anything )

127.0.0.1 myWebsite.local

change myWebsite.local as per your name requirements

Step 4
restart your server. That's it

---

WINDOWS + XAMPP solution

Same steps as that of WAMP just change the paths according to XAMPP which corresponds to path in WAMP

Answer 2

Copy the hosts file and add 127.0.0.1 and name which you want to show or run at browser link. For example:

127.0.0.1   abc.com

Then run abc.com as a local host in browser.

Answer 3

They are probably using a virtual host (http://www.keanei.com/2011/07/14/creating-virtual-hosts-with-wamp/)

You can go into your Apache configuration file (httpd.conf) or your virtual host configuration file (recommended) and add something like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /www/ap-mispro
    ServerName ap-mispro

    # Other directives here
</VirtualHost>

And when you call up http://ap-mispro/ you would see whatever is in C:/wamp/www/ap-mispro (assuming default directory structure). The ServerName and DocumentRoot do no have to have the same name at all. Other factors needed to make this work:

1. You have to make sure httpd-vhosts.conf is included by httpd.conf for your changes in that file to take effect.
2. When you make changes to either file, you have to restart Apache to see your changes.
3. You have to change your hosts file http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file) for your computer to know where to go when you type http://ap-mispro into your browser. This change to your hosts file will only apply to your computer - not that it sounds like you are trying from anyone else's.

There are plenty more things to know about virtual hosts but this should get you started.

Answer 4

please refer http://complete-concrete-concise.com/web-tools/how-to-change-localhost-to-a-domain-name

this is best solution ever

Answer 5

for new version of Wamp

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName domain.local
  DocumentRoot C:/wamp/www/domain/
  <Directory "C:/wamp/www/domain/">
      Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
      AllowOverride All
      Require local
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 6

After another hour or two I can actually answer my own question.

Someone on another forum mentioned that you need to keep a mention of plain ol' localhost in the httpd-vhost.conf file, so here's what I ended up with in there:

ServerName localhost

DocumentRoot "c:/wamp/www/"

DocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/pocket/"
ServerName pocket.clickng.com
ServerAlias pocket.clickng.com
ErrorLog "logs/pocket.clickng.com-error.log"
CustomLog "logs/pocket.clickng.com-access.log" common
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/pocket/">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

Exit WAMP, restart - good to go. Hope this helps someone else :)

Answer 7

go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and open hosts file and add this

127.0.0.1    example.com
127.0.0.1    www.example.com

then go to C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra open httpd-ajp.conf file and add

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/pojectroot"
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/projectroot">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>