[Paco Loco]

I have recently switched from a desktop PC to a far superior iBook, and would like to use it for the web development work that I previously used my PC for.
My problem is that I cannot find a way to host sites locally on a standalone mac. Unless all of the files for a site are held in the top level of my hard drive, whenever I use an absolute path in a link the browser cannot find the file.
On the PC I could use Microsoft Personal Web Server and set up a virtual directory for each site so it could be viewed successfully with internet explorer. I cannot do this with either Apple's Web Sharing feature or the Mac version of Personal Web Server.
There must be a solution out there - please help!

[larkost]

Have you tried 127.0.0.1/virtual/path/to/site? Or localhost?

If you are storing the html files in your Sites directoy, then you will need to put ~username in front of the path. Example: if you have the file test.html in your (you are user "Bob") Sites directory, then you will need to enter:

http://127.0.0.1/~Bob/test.html

If you have the same file in the Documents directoy (/Library/WebServer/DOcuments), then you simply need:

http://127.0.0.1/test.html

In general I have found Apache to be more powerful than IIS (or it's little brother), but it doesn't have a GUI (verses IIS which doesn't have a good GUI).

This all assumes that you have turned on Apache in the first place....

[jean-henri]

Originally posted by Paco Loco:
<STRONG>On the PC I could use Microsoft Personal Web Server and set up a virtual directory for each site so it could be viewed successfully with internet explorer. I cannot do this with either Apple's Web Sharing feature or the Mac version of Personal Web Server.
There must be a solution out there - please help!</STRONG>

Hi Loco!
A virtual host setup for OSX's built-in Apache server is almost indispensable when you do local development.
That way you can "host" an infinite number of test sites and the host configuration can be setup individually for each of them. This is how you do it (for two test sites: foo_1.test and foo_2.test):
In "Netinfo manager" choose "Machines" and select "Localhost". In Edit menu choose "Duplicate" and rename the duplicate "foo_1.test". Repeat for foo_2.test.
This is similar to adding hosts in \drivers\etc\host in a Windows environment.
All you have to do now is to edit /etc/httpd/httpd.conf. Just do this (it's all at the bottom of the file):

NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1

(note, if you have changed your documentroot put that here too):
&lt;VirtualHost 127.0.0.1&gt;
DocumentRoot /Library/WebServer/Documents
ServerName localhost
&lt;/VirtualHost&gt;

And add the two testsites:
&lt;VirtualHost 127.0.0.1&gt;
ServerAdmin your_email_address
DocumentRoot /Users/your_username/Sites/foo_1
ServerName foo_1.test
ErrorLog "/private/var/log/httpd/foo_1.site-error_log"
CustomLog "/private/var/log/httpd/foo_1.site-access_log" common
&lt;/VirtualHost&gt;

&lt;VirtualHost 127.0.0.1&gt;
ServerAdmin your_email_address
DocumentRoot /Users/your_username/Sites/foo_2
ServerName foo_2.test
ErrorLog "/private/var/log/httpd/foo_2.site-error_log"
CustomLog "/private/var/log/httpd/foo_2.site-access_log" common
&lt;/VirtualHost&gt;

Restart Apache and that should be it !! Now you have two sites to be stored in the folders foo_1 and foo_2 under /Sites, with individual error logging. Local addresses: http://foo_1 and http://foo_2.
Further server configuration can be setup individually under each virtualhost directive.
Hope this was legible!!

[Paco Loco]

Thanks for the advice guys - unfortunately I am still using OS 9.1 so Apache is not an option for me... Also upgrading to OSX is simply not viable for me as I have too much OS9 software and cannot afford to upgrade it all. Also I don't really think my first generation Dual USB iBook is up to running it.
Any other ideas? - I refuse to believe that it is not possible for me to develope sites on my machine!
Thanks again, Paco.

[Simon Mundy]

Originally posted by Paco Loco:
<STRONG>Thanks for the advice guys - unfortunately I am still using OS 9.1 so Apache is not an option for me... Also upgrading to OSX is simply not viable for me as I have too much OS9 software and cannot afford to upgrade it all. Also I don't really think my first generation Dual USB iBook is up to running it.
Any other ideas? - I refuse to believe that it is not possible for me to develope sites on my machine!
Thanks again, Paco.</STRONG>

OS 9??? Don't be fooled - OS X works great on an iBook - we run a presentation machine/web server on an iBook 500 and we haven't had any problems yet. And we also use a good deal of legacy classic stuff without a hitch. Go on - be a devil

If you're still stuck, I believe that tenon do a good server for OS 9 - check their homepage.