Lorenzo Alberton

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Zend Framework, mod_rewrite and public dir in shared hosting

Abstract: A quick tip on how to deal with Zend Framework directory structure and the public document root directory in most shared hosting accounts, using mod_rewrite and an .htaccess file.


Here's a short tip for those who need to publish a Zend Framework project on a shared hosting. The typical project structure for a Zend Framework project is something like this:

projectname/
   application/
      controllers/
      views/
         scripts/
   library/
   public/
   tests/

The public directory contains all the files that should be directly accessible via the web server, so you must set your web server's document root to this directory.
The problem is, in most shared hosting setups you can't change the document root, and the root directory of your account (i.e. the uppermost level you see when you connect via FTP) is the public document root.

To solve this problem without changing the above directory structure, you can remove the .htaccess file from the public directory, and place this one in the root directory instead:

RewriteEngine On
 
RewriteRule ^\.htaccess$ - [F]
 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} =""
RewriteRule ^.*$ /public/index.php [NC,L]
 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/.*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /public/$1
 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
 
RewriteRule ^public/.*$ /public/index.php [NC,L]

This is an effective way to "move" the document root up one level to the public directory.



62 responses to "Zend Framework, mod_rewrite and public dir in shared hosting"

Rob, 23 June 2009 02:32

Thanks so much, helped a lot!!

robin, 29 June 2009 14:52

Thank you for the tip, very helpful.

Olagato, 19 July 2009 18:05

I can keep on developing Zend Framework projects on low-budget shared-hostings. Thanks so much, really interesting trick !!!

Moynul, 26 July 2009 10:34

I am create .htaccess in project document root and delete .htaccess in public folder but sorry to say that its not working . you need to mention the location of index.php is it in public folder or document root .

Lorenzo Alberton, 30 July 2009 07:21

You don't have to touch anything else. The index.php file remains in the /public folder.

moynul, 02 August 2009 06:11

Use your Technique i Get This result. Can you attached it. That will be helpful
Object not found!
The requested URL was not found on this server. If you entered the URL manually please check your spelling and try again.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster. Error 404

Gael, 13 September 2009 19:58

Hello,
I tried your solution on a wamp installation but i've got a HTTP 404.
Any idea

Edward Chua, 16 September 2009 16:38

Hi,
I tried this, but it only kinda half-worked.
i'm using http://www.abc.com/TestProject
so I placed the .htaccess into the "TestProject" folder on my web host. The .htaccess didnt work for my host, so I modified it as such:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^\.htaccess$ - [F]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} =""
RewriteRule ^.*$ /home/abc/public_html/TestProject/public/index.php [NC,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/.*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /home/abc/public_html/TestProject/public/$1
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^public/.*$ /home/abc/public_html/TestProject/public/index.php [NC,L]
Now if I type http://www.abc.com/TestProject/index.php it works. So does http://www.abc.com/TestProject/public/
However I get a Zend File not found error when I try http://www.abc.com/TestProject. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Chris, 06 November 2009 13:09

> RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} =\"\" > RewriteRule ^.*$ /public/index.php [NC,L]
Why not:
RewriteRule ^$ public/index.php [L]

Marius, 25 November 2009 17:32

for zend within a folder you should use virtual hosts here's a link which provides a nice tutorial. http://johnbokma.com/windows/apache-virtual-hosts-xp.html

Daniel Del Rio, 14 January 2010 20:58

Great article and great setup! Thanks for the post. @Marius, some shared hosting environments do not allow for virtual hosts but instead only subdomains.

JellyBelly, 25 January 2010 14:09

Many thanks! One question: If the project is not in the webroot zend, but in a subfolder?
Example webroot: - Files - Project zend --- .htaccess --- application --- library --- public --- tests
I tried to put the htaccess in the subfolder you reported zend project, but by error 404!
How can I fix? Thanks

Lorenzo Alberton, 25 January 2010 14:18

@JellyBelly, I don't know, try moving the .htaccess file one level up (to the root), and replacing public/ with zendproject/public/ in the .htaccess rules.

Massimo Zappino, 02 February 2010 12:45

I finally found what I wanted. Excellent guide.

me, 31 March 2010 04:33

RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^\\.htaccess$ - [F] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^\\/$ RewriteRule ^.*$ /public/index.php [R=301] #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/.*$ #404 error #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /public/$1 #404 error RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L] #RewriteRule ^public/.*$ /public/index.php [NC,L] # 550 error what can i do

Itai, 31 March 2010 17:13

Thank you so much.

Michelangelo, 12 May 2010 10:54

Hi Lorenzo, this snippet of code doesn't work in my case. It creates an infinite loop of redirects. Regards

Pip, 03 June 2010 08:23

I moved the file as you suggested and it did not work.
my site reside on a shared server and the root is inside a \\\'www\\\' folder
Any other ideas for how I can get this to work?
Thanks for any help.

Ciddey, 12 June 2010 14:04

I tried this on fresh install apache. I generated some \'Test\' project using Zend Tool. I applied these .htaccess settings in root folder: Test/.htaccess and I got:
- 404 error in browser - apache error log:
[Sat Jun 12 15:01:54 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: C:/Users/Domowy/Desktop/Serwer/public, referer: http://localhost/ [Sat Jun 12 15:01:54 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: C:/Users/Domowy/Desktop/Serwer/favicon.ico
I see that \'Test\' folder in path is missing. It should be: C:/Users/Domowy/Desktop/Serwer/Test/public .
Any suggestions? Please help me. This is making me freak :)

dnka, 28 July 2010 19:49

Thank you very much!!! It works!

Al, 08 August 2010 01:15

I tested it on dreamhost and It works great. Thank you!

Tjorriemorrie, 01 September 2010 14:30

This does not work on godaddy. It creates an infinite loop.

upset, 11 September 2010 19:10

infinity loop too.

MuroBG, 23 September 2010 15:04

I uploaded a ZF site on Media Temple and on Network Solutions using these .htaccess settings. On Media Temple it\'s working perfectly, but on Network Solutions an infinite loop happens. Does anyone have an idea how to solve the problem?
PS: a fragment of the log:
[Thu Sep 23 09:48:21 2010][error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use \'LimitInternalRecursion\' to increase the limit if necessary. Use \'LogLevel debug\' to get a backtrace. [Thu Sep 23 09:48:21 2010][debug] core.c(3063): [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] r->uri = /~xxxxxxx.xxxxxxx/htdocs/public/public/public/public/public/public/public/public/public/index.php

Richard, 26 September 2010 23:31

Hi,
I was following your tutorial (and quite new to Zend), but could not figure out how to switch between the default and admin modules.
I always get the default module when viewed from \"localhost:8081\", but get a 404 when try to go \"localhost:8081\\admin\". Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks! Richard.

Pascal , 27 September 2010 21:03

Thank you verry much, you saved me!

gepa, 07 October 2010 10:56

I used your code and it works great on godaddy greetings from romania ;)

egatuz, 29 November 2010 12:45

not working if using modules. i use wamp.

vijay, 15 December 2010 09:30

omg works like a charm. thank you soo much.

Depression, 30 December 2010 17:02

Yup, it did exactly as the op said it was going to do.

pHr33z3, 29 January 2011 03:56

This worked like a champ. Glad someone was nice enough to post this <3 google.

bba, 08 February 2011 19:22

Hi Thanks for the tutorial. I have a little challenge with IIS 7.5 i need to convert your above .htaccess file to match with the web.config file. Do you know a way around this?
moving my web.config file into the public folder works but the URL isn\'t nice: http://www.sitename/public/

saikat, 07 March 2011 17:57

hi,
Your solution has been a great help in depolying the zf application. I have separate css folder for admin module and default module. I am using the .htacess file that you have provided as is. The layout does not load css and images form subdirectories. It gives a 404 page
the css/image folder is public/default/images/logo.gif public/admin/images/logo.gif public/default/css/main.css public/admin/css/admin.css
<img src=\"<?php echo $this->baseUrl(\'default/images/logo.jpg\') ?>\" alt=\"\" width=\"243\" height=\"74\" /> <?php echo $this->headLink()->appendStylesheet(\'default/css/main.css\') ;?>
I am not just being able to fix the problem

Killian, 19 March 2011 23:16

Hi,
I\'m using your mod_rewrite and it works perfectly as-is. However, if I try to access a folder from within my public directory, I\'m not able to (I receive a controller error). Is there a possible workaround for this?

klop, 23 March 2011 18:44

thanks it works

shouvik.chatterjee, 09 April 2011 08:28

ok for everyone who are still unable to solve this mystery, follow these steps:
1) Create an index.php file one level above the \"public\" folder i.e outside the \"public\" folder.
2) Open that index.php file and add the following line:
<?php include \'public/index.php\'; ?>
3) On the same path where you have your new index.php file, create an .htaccess file and add the following in it:
SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV development
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule .* index.php
4) The final step is to modify the baseUrl() function. To do the same, open the BaseUrl.php file from
Library/Zend/View/Helper/BaseUrl.php
Go to the baseUrl() function and modify the line that reads:
return $baseUrl . $file;
with
return $baseUrl . \'/public\' . $file;
5) You should be all set. If you still have issues setting this up, you can mailme {at} shouvik {dot} net

Bruce Mills, 19 April 2011 22:08

Seems like this thread is relevant to hosting with a single public root and no access to server root. I am wrong?
I am new to ZF. Trying to setup a testing env to simulate a shared vhost env with multiple URLs. Given the typical shared host config with a server root containing infrastructure folders (ftp, includes, etc) and a single public (WWW docroot) folder, where do the zf site files go? Are you putting the zf files at server root and only the public folder in the the doc root? I think the host is already using rewrite to launch parked URLs. Seems like with multiple URLs things could get pretty messy.
Anyone got a map for this kind of environment?

Chilion, 08 June 2011 16:07

Doenst work neither here, gives an 404 error :)

Kunal Sagar, 15 June 2011 08:53

Thanks a lot.. You save the day!!!

snoopy, 15 June 2011 21:23

Kind Help needed
Am having an issue after deploying my zend project on my host server. am having 404 error for my css files (not found)as my path for my stylesheet is relative <link href=\'/skin/blues/css/layout.css\' type=\"text/css\" rel=\"stylesheet\"> i have followed the tutorial http://akrabat.com/zend-framework/zend-framework-on-a-shared-host
if i refered an absolute path for css file it works , but i dont the path to my css files to be absolute, i want it to be relative.
eg with absolute path it works <link href=\'/myzendproject/public/skin/blues/css/layout.css\' type=\"text/css\" rel=\"stylesheet\"> however it it need to be <link href=\'/skin/blues/css/layout.css\' type=\"text/css\" rel=\"stylesheet\">
my ftp is in following structure
/ /myzendproject /application /public .htacess index.php /cgi .htaccess
thank u for helper

Ryan, 27 June 2011 04:15

Thanks for this info - it was definitely helpful to me.
One question I would like to ask is what rule would you need to place in the .htaccess to handle the following case of URL typed by the visitor: http://website.com/index.php ?
When it\'s just http://website.com/, or http://website.com/public/, etc., the rewrite rules from the top of this page work out fine, but in the case of the user typing in the home page file name, it doesn\'t appear to redirect to http://website.com/public/index.php like it does in the other cases.

Ryan, 29 June 2011 23:41

In regard to my previous post:
I\\\'ve just been learning about the mod_rewrite functionality, and today I happened upon a solution to my previoulsy mentioned problem that I thought I would share with everyone.
A Redirect statement can send a URL like http://example.com/index.php to one of the cases covered by the mod_rewrites, so you could say something like the following in the .htaccess:
Redirect /index.php http://example.com/
and then the mod_rewrite statements will handle it from there.

mattador82, 15 July 2011 05:32

Cool post, any way to force \"www\" in the url every time for SEO purposes a la http://www.mattfarina.com/2007/07/24/www-or-no-www-seo-question?
Thanks!

m4niac, 27 August 2011 14:43

Thank you! It worked for me! Make sure your hosting has AllowOverride directive of Apache set to All.

Alex, 29 August 2011 17:07

Great! Yoy saved my day

Kees Schepers, 15 September 2011 14:46

Thanks for this nice solution, it worked for me :) Example: http://www.keesschepers.nl/pikegrid/

eliseo, 05 October 2011 22:27

hi there lorenzo, this article help me a lot, with a zend application godaddy hosted. also i have to add the APPLICATION_PATH when calling some code with require or include.

Huw Pascoe, 24 October 2011 20:55

This script fails when zend is placed in a subdirectory in the server. You can replace all public with subdir/public, but it still fails due to zend mistaking the base url as subdir.
I\'m not a rewrite wizard and don\'t understand why this happens. But adding the following to [production] in application.ini can be a workaround:
resources.frontController.baseUrl = \"/subdir\"

IBAN, 09 November 2011 07:35

Thank you for that. But on plesk (version 10 in my case), I change in vhost.conf the webroot to /.../httpdocs/public to make sure there is no way to access other zend directories like library etc. from outside.

Max, 14 November 2011 20:06

Hi,
I\'m rather new to zend and to hosting. I got the application working on a shared dreamhost account without a htaccess file and navigating to the public folder. The files are in the myDomain.com/project/app folder.
When I place the .htaccess file from above to the app-folder I get a 404 Not Found page.
Any idea on what I need to do to get this working?

Robert, 28 December 2011 07:54

Hi there
This worked for me...just have a question: Is is possible to have links like www.domain.com/contact-us, instead of www.domain.com/public/contact-us ??
Thanks!!

Tilo, 05 January 2012 22:55

Thank you so much for that! Works fine for me, after hours of false tryouts... Regards, Tilo

Shaman, 19 February 2012 18:39

Thanx a lot! Really works!
>>Is is possible to >>have links like www.domain.com/contact-us, instead of >>www.domain.com/public/contact-us ?? Place this file in Controller Folder (sure you need to rewrite it by MVC ideology) then setup your Zend_Router at config or bootstrap. It takes for ten minutes and the most right way

Richard Ayotte, 24 February 2012 15:02

It worked for all my controllers except for the one named Publications which has a uri of http://mysite.com/publications Can the regex be tightened up to avoid this problem?

francis, 01 April 2012 10:52

Can i use this same procedure to set up zend in localhost local pc ?

Tomas Pavlatka, 04 May 2012 06:11

Thanks a lot, it was more than helpful.

JellyBelly, 09 May 2012 14:45

Hi! This work only for default module, but not work for other modules! ex: admin module! If i go to www.domain.com/admin where admin is module, i\'m redirected to www.domain.com/public/admin
how fix this please?

Jayafida, 14 May 2012 16:19

Thank you very much for great solution,, you save a lot of my time :)

jonisiaco, 21 June 2012 23:48

This work for me:
My project is not allocated in root. i.e. \"localhost/myprojects/project\"
myprojects/ project/ .htaccess -->(a) application/ configs/ application.ini -->(b) public/ .htaccess -->(c)
#(a) RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^\\.htaccess$ - [F] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} =\"\" RewriteRule ^.*$ public/index.php [NC,L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/.*$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f RewriteRule ^.*$ – [NC,L] RewriteRule ^public/.*$ public/index.php [NC,L]
;(b) application.ini resources.frontController.baseUrl = /myprojects/project/
#(c) RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L] RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

Marcel D., 10 August 2012 16:52

Hello Thank You 4 this helpfull tutorial. Have some questions, hope some one can help me: 1) Structure is html/zend_project and to use your snippet i created a subdomain. Now i need redirect http://subdomain.domain.com to http://domain.com How can i do it? 2) My hosting located to godaddy and have intermitent \"no input file specified\", i try different solution but nothing seems to solve my problem. Any idea? Thank You and here my htacess located in html/myproject

Tony1986, 04 September 2012 19:42

Matchless topic, it is very interesting to me )))) tHANKS www.alberton.info tEAM

bobotime, 14 September 2012 15:50

Anche a me non funziona mi restituisce \"error 404\" il mio ambiente diTo me it does not work I would return \"error 404\" my test environment running under xampp, could this be the problem?
help me, please.
thank you in advance


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