Multi-site on Windows - using XAMPP
Last updated on
31 October 2023
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It is not recommended to use XAMPP, use a Docker-based solution such as DDEV or Lando instead.
My setup
XAMPP runs on the same computer as my browser.
Remarks
- Important Safety Notice:
The safe operation of the web server, that can be accessed from the internet, is not guaranteed by XAMPP, which is a development system! - The same configuration on another webserver (e.g. apache, but not XAMPP) is ok!
ToDo-List
Follow it step by step!
- Download XAMPP and install it at '
C:\xampp
' (and NOT at 'C:\Program Files\xampp\
' or similar!). - Check for '
httpd.conf
' file at 'C:\xampp\apache\conf
' and
change# Virtual hosts #Include "conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf"
to
# Virtual hosts Include "conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf"
only, if the "#" was in that row!
- Now open '
httpd-vhosts.conf
' from 'C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra
' and add these lines
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin postmaster@host.localhost DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs" ServerName localhost ServerAlias www.localhost ErrorLog "logs/host.localhost-error.log" CustomLog "logs/host.localhost-access.log" combined </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin postmaster@dummy-host.localhost DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/drupal" ServerName dummy-host.localhost ServerAlias www.dummy-host.localhost ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host.localhost-error.log" CustomLog "logs/dummy-host.localhost-access.log" combined </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin postmaster@dummy-host2.localhost DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/drupal" ServerName dummy-host2.localhost ServerAlias www.dummy-host2.localhost ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host2.localhost-error.log" CustomLog "logs/dummy-host2.localhost-access.log" combined </VirtualHost>
If the file contains
NameVirtualHost *:80
with a leading "#", remove the hash ("#"). - Restart/reload your web server.
- Now open file '
%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
' and add these 4 lines at end of file
127.0.0.1 dummy-host.localhost 127.0.0.1 dummy-host2.localhost 127.0.0.1 www.dummy-host.localhost 127.0.0.1 www.dummy-host2.localhost
- Now download the latest recommended Drupal release,
create a folder name "drupal
" inside 'C:\xampp\htdocs\
'
and put all content of this drupal release (including the folder structure and its content) in this folder.
Now you can find e.g. the file 'C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default\default.settings.php
', you need it. - Create 2 folder name
a.)dummy-host.localhost
and
b.)dummy-host2.localhost
inside of 'C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\
' - Create 2 databases for 2 drupal sites (e.g. with name
dummyhost
anddummyhost2
) usinghttp://127.0.0.1/phpmyadmin/
. - Open url
a.)http://dummy-host.localhost/
and
b.)http://dummy-host2.localhost/
and install them as standard drupal installation process (http://drupal.org/documentation/install). - Now Drupal "multisite installation" is done, you should look at
a.)http://dummy-host.localhost/
and
b.)http://dummy-host2.localhost/
for further installation.
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