Meetings

LAMPsig co-founder, Peter Benjamin has run Apache for five years hosting hundreds of domain names and currently has 4 colocated computers supporting them. Special attention will be paid to commonly requested features and CGI features.

The approach of the talk will be to assume one wants to edit the default Apache 2 httpd.conf file to support two virtual domain names using the same IP number and a default httpd.conf will be edited *live* to support two or more domain names.

Configuring Apache involves not only editing the httpd.conf file, but also choosing and creating folders for web roots, web logs, CGI and other naming convention driven httpd.conf edits, where having an initial, excellent naming convention, can save many headaches later.

The hobbyist can get by with the default httpd.conf file, but the developer and hosting service must support multiple domain names. The typical httpd.conf edits to host two or more virtual domain names will be detailed for both Unix and Windows. Commonly used directives will be explained, like VirtualHost, DocumentRoot, ServerName, ServerAlias, User and Group (suexec), Directory, AllowOverride, Options, htaccess password access), Indexes, IndexOptions, FollowSymlinks, errorDocument, XBitHack (SSI), ScriptAliasMatch, CustomLog, LogFormat (combined), ServerRoot, and a few more, basic Apache features.


Opening Topic: Attendance Tracking - David Russell

David teaches computer courses at University High School. He has developed a classroom attendance application using LAMP elements. It will be unveiled at our April meeting.