Getting Ubuntu to work: Creating Subdomain in Localhost

Creating subdomain(s) in any web development environment is essential. For example, I have 2 projects going on at the same time and developement is concurrent. And subdomains were not created. So we have this scenario:

• http://localhost/alphaproject/
• http://localhost/betaproject/
• http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

As you can see, I am assuming a Apache/PHP/MySql developemnt stack. 3 localhost urls that will be frequently accessed. Imagine what will happen when you want to access beta project? You “control+t” a new browser tab, and type in “localhost” only to have the url bar showing its history of the above 3 urls. Then you press the down arrow key to access the required url.

Waste of keystroke I will say. Now we create subdomains and we have:

• http://alphaproject.localhost/
• http://betaproject.localhost/
• http://phpmyadmin.localhost/

Step1.

Edit /etc/host and add the following line

127.0.0.1 alphaproject.localhost

Step2.

gksudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/alphaproject

Step3.

<VirtualHost *>
    DocumentRoot /home/username/alphaproject/
    ServerName alphaproject.localhost

    <Directory /home/username/alphaproject/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save the fuke,

Step4.

Run the following:

sudo a2ensite alphaproject

Step5.

Finally restart the Apache Server. Which I assume you should be using Apache2.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

And by going to http://alphaproject.localhost/ you should be able to access you newly created subdomain.