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Development Tools

Posted by Matt Brock
Matt Brock
28,330 Points

Developing multiple websites locally with MAMP

I'm trying to set up a workflow wherein I can develop multiple web projects on my local machine. My MAMP document root is set to the default, so I'm simply wanting to have directories for each project (e.g. MAMP/htdocs/project-1 or MAMP/htdocs/project-2) that serve as the homepage of each website. So localhost:8888/project-1 is the homepage for Project 1 and so forth.

When I go to localhost:8888/project-1 in the browser, it's just a blank page, but when I go to localhost:8888/project-1/page.php, it shows the page correctly. Is my .htaccess wrong or am I missing some fundamental concept about developing locally?

Any clues at all are most welcome. Thanks, y'all!

1 Answer

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

When you go to localhost:8888/project-1 it's going to look for a file named index (in the case of php, it would be index.php) in that folder. Do you have an index file there? That's the file almost all servers will look for first.

When you go to localhost:8888/project-1/page.php it would show a file called page.php

Matt Brock
Matt Brock
28,330 Points

Hey Kevin. Thanks for the quick response, man! I do have an index.php file in the directory, and that's what is so confusing. I set the top of my htaccess, which is in the project's directory, to this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^!localhost:8888$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://localhost:8888/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteBase /

I'm still a novice at htaccess, so there could be a clue there.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

Curious, have you tried it without your .htaccess file? I'm a novice too with them, but it looks like you're not wanting to require www in the url (which is fine).

Matt Brock
Matt Brock
28,330 Points

I haven't tried that. I hesitate to simply because it's a large php site I'm setting up a local development environment for, and there are dozens of interlinked pages already on the site. I'd like to keep it a fully functioning replica of the site in production if possible.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

mmm....I tried you .htaccess file on a test site I have, and it didn't cause any unwanted behavior. So it's in production now? And you're duplicating a dev site to work on it?

Matt Brock
Matt Brock
28,330 Points

Yep. I copied the files via ftp of the live site over to my local machine where I am running MAMP.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

To test the htaccess file idea, what about just removing it from the directory and putting it somewhere like the desktop, restarting the server, and see if it behaves as you want. If there is no change, just move it back, restart the server and all should be as it was.

I also wonder, depending on the size of this thing, if there isn't some other logic that is playing with routing. When I first read this I assumed this was a brand new site, with two files, index.php and page.php.

Does this site use some sort of framework, MVC logic?

Matt Brock
Matt Brock
28,330 Points

Same thing happening. Blank page on what should be the index. It's a custom template our church hired a development company to build for us, now I and a designer develop and manage the site. It is indeed structured with MVC patterns.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

Is it an MVC library like Cake, CodeIgnighter, Laravel, Slim....or is it a custom MVC?

Matt Brock
Matt Brock
28,330 Points

I believe it's all custom.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

Fun...lol. A quick test I'd try is set up another simple, empty project with a index.php, and page.php, and see if your localhost does route to index.php by default.