Use .htaccess to rewrite a wildcard subdomain to a specific php file

Question

I want to use a particular page in my site as any subdomain. I need something like this http://*.example.com/.

So, as the user types http://user1.example.com/ or http://user2.example.com/ then the page must shown will be present in http://example.com/profile.php.

http://user1.example.com/ must point to http://example.com/profile.php and NOT REDIRECT

Is it possible ?

Answer 1

Wildcard VirtualHost

You can use a wildcard VirtualHost statement.

<VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /path/to/doc/root ServerName *.example.com </VirtualHost>

If you have a specific host, e.g. www.example.com, put its VirtualHost stanza above the wildcard one. Apache works on a first match basis.

Also, you may want to add:

DirectoryIndex profile.php

to either a .htaccess or your VirtualHost if you want that file to be served up by default when no file is specified.

This will be needed to serve profile.php when a user type http://*.example.com/.

DNS

You can then setup a wildcard DNS entry for *.example.com or use CNAME/A record for each user.

Answer 2

Are you talking about sharding? Look at "Advanced Apache Rewriting" - at least probably your solution will use a RewriteMap .. although you do say dynamically, I still assume your list of users is static. RewriteMap Apache Documentation should be the way to go - you put your mapping in a text file like so:

Ralf.S.Engelschall    rse   # Bastard Operator From Hell
Mr.Joe.Average        joe   # Mr. Average

Then you define this map in the .htaccess/apache-conf:

RewriteMap real-to-user txt:/path/to/file/map.txt

Then you use that mapping in a rewrite rule:

RewriteRule ^/ex/(.*) ${examplemap:$1}

Another way - if you want to check inside that profile.php you mentioned - would be to do the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !=site.example
RewriteRule ^ http://site.example/profile.php?host=%{HTTP_HOST}&uri=%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

You should have your setup so that your "catch all"-host has that RewriteRule, but your site.example-host is seperate and thus doesn't run into a loop. OFC you'll end up with people accessing user1.site.example and ending up with an address bar filled with site.example/?was=user1.site.tld&uri=/... If you need something different it's probably possible too though.

Answer 3

While searching through out the internet, i got this link.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13875273/dynamic-subdomain-with-htaccess-not-redirect

Here is the solution i got

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ([^.]+)\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^/?$ /member.php?username=%1 [L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ([^.]+)\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^/?contact$ /contact.php?username=%1 [L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ([^.]+)\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^/?album/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/([0-9]+)$ /album.php?username=%1&title=$1&album_id=$2 [L]

But it is exactly not same as my requirement. I need to change this code as my need.