how to create virtual host on XAMPP - in 3 simple steps

Introduction

Creating a virtual host in XAMPP involves configuring your local development environment to recognize a custom domain name and route requests to a specific directory on your computer. This is useful for developing and testing web applications locally with a specific domain name. Here's how you can create a virtual host in XAMPP:

Steps

01: Edit the Hosts File:

• Open a text editor with administrative privileges (Run as Administrator).
• Open the hosts file. On Windows, this file is located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.
• Add an entry for your virtual host. For example:

02: Configure Apache Virtual Host:

• Navigate to the httpd-vhosts.conf file. In XAMPP, this file is located at C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf.
• Open the file in a text editor.
• Add a virtual host configuration block. For example:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/myapp"
    ServerName myapp.local
    <Directory "C:\xampp\htdocs\myapp">
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
        

Replace "C:/xampp/htdocs/myapp" with the actual path to your project's directory.

03: Restart Apache:

• Open the XAMPP Control Panel.
• Stop and then start the Apache server.

04: Access Your Virtual Host:

• Open a web browser and navigate to `http://myapp.local`

Conclusion

Your virtual host should now be accessible using the specified domain name (`myapp.local`) in your web browser. This allows you to work on your web application using a custom domain name in your local development environment.