RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php

The nice thing about this is that it doesn’t affect querystrings.  With this solution, both of these URLs are effectively the same:

http://example.com/page.php?id=123

http://example.com/page?id=123

Of course, the caveat is that you don’t have “clean querystrings”, but it’s a reasonable trade-off between “clean” and configuration.

 ##
 ## www.domain.com --> domain.com
 ##
 RewriteEngine On
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]
 

 ##
 ## domain.com --> www.domain.com
 ##
 RewriteEngine On
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
 RewriteRule (.*) http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]
 

If you plan on using these, you’ll need to make sure you have the mod_rewrite module enabled on your server.

1. Run » cmd
2. cd \[path to wamp]\bin\php\php5.x.x
3. Run go-pear.bat
4. Follow the on-screen instructions (use ENTER for defaults)
5. In an explorer window, navigate to the same PHP directory as above and run PEAR_ENV.reg. This will add PEAR to your environmental variables list.

Of course, replace [path to wamp] and 5.x.x with the appropriate values. Once you’re done, PEAR should be installed properly on your system :)

These notes follow the general instructions on PHP’s SSH2 installation page. They also cover some critical details for installation on a Media Temple DV 3.5 server. The notes on this page are provided as-is, and are not guaranteed to work on your server. Please use them as a guideline and, if you don’t understand what you’re doing, get someone experienced to help you.

Enabling Root Access & Developer Tools

The installation process requires root access to your machine and developer tools to be installed. To do this:

• In the (mt) Account Center, select your primary domain and navigate to Root Access & Developer Tools
• Enable root access and set a root password
• Install developer tools (this might take a few minutes to complete—be patient and make sure this shows as Installed before continuing)

Installing Yum and libssh2

Next, you will need to SSH in to your server. If you don’t have an SSH client, you can use PuTTY. You’ll need to install the Yum package manager and libssh2 first:

• Install Yum:

  rpm -Uvh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/python-iniparse-0.2.3-4.el5.noarch.rpm
  rpm -Uvh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/yum-3.2.8-9.el5.centos.1.noarch.rpm
  

  Note: Versions are subject to change so you may need to browse the mirror for the appropriate version number.

• Install libssh2 and libssh2-devel packages:

  yum install libssh2
  yum install libssh2-devel
  

Installing the SSH2 Extension

Now we can start working on getting the SSH2 extension installed:

• Set environmental variables:

  export PHP_AUTOCONF=autoconf
  export PHP_AUTOHEADER=autoheader
  

• Mount the temp path as executable:

  mount -oremount,exec /var/tmp
  

• Perform the install. Use the -f switch to force the install of the beta package, as a stable version does not exist at the time of this writing:

  pecl install -f ssh2
  

• Once the install has completed, remember to make the temp path non-executable again:

  mount -oremount,noexec /var/tmp
  

• Make sure that ssh2.so exists in /usr/lib/php/modules. If not, you’ll have to copy it to that directory from the build location.
• Add extension=ssh2.so to your php.ini file (located at /etc/php.ini)
• Restart apache (can be done via Plesk)

Verify the Installation

To verify that the extension was installed properly, you can use phpinfo() or you can check by executing a PHP script:

<?php
if( !function_exists('ssh2_connect') ) echo 'SSH2 is not installed';
?>

I’ll be honest. I’m really not a systems guy and I all but hate the linux terminal (I’ve made my peace with it but I find myself a much happier developer when I don’t have to bother with it). With WampServer, you simply download and install it and your local development server is running. Beautiful.

WampServer even lets you turn on and off PHP modules with one click. You can download and switch PHP versions just as easily, which is great for testing. Finally, WampServer gives you easy access to phpMyAdmin, an important tool for database management.

So WampServer is pretty easy to setup, but there is one vital configuration that you can’t access with just a click: virtual hosts. Alas, the Apache config file that I’ve tried so hard to avoid needs to be manually updated every time I want to add or remove a virtual host. But, as it turns out, it’s actually quite easy if you can remember the following steps.

The following configuration is being done on a Windows Vista box running WampServer 2.0. You should always make a backup copy before editing any configuration file.

1. Click on the WampServer icon in the taskbar (it looks like half of a clock)
2. Select Apache > httpd.conf
3. Scroll down to the very bottom of the file and append the following:

   <VirtualHost 127.0.0.100>
   ServerAdmin    your@email.com
   DocumentRoot   c:/path/to/wamp/www/
   ServerName     yourdomain.local
   ErrorLog       c:/path/to/logs/yourdomain.local-error_log
   TransferLog    c:/path/to/logs/yourdomain.local-access_log
   </VirtualHost>
   

   Make sure you update the paths and only use forward slashes. Also, if 127.0.0.100 is already taken, increment 100 to the next available number. You cannot have two virtual hosts with the same IP address.

4. Save the httpd.conf file.
5. Now, open your hosts file in a text editor (I.E. Notepad). In most cases, the hosts file is located at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.
6. Append the following line to the hosts file: [apache]127.0.0.100 yourdomain.local[/apache]If you used a different IP address in the httpd.conf file, use the same one in the hosts file.
7. Save the hosts file
8. Using the WampServer icon in the taskbar, select “Restart All Services”

Once Apache restarts, you will be able to navigate to http://yourdomain.local/ and see your development website. If you get a server configuration error or your website isn’t appearing, check both configuration files. Make sure that your paths are correct and that you used a unique IP address for both the httpd.conf and hosts files.

Of course, to remove a virtual host you would simply reverse these steps, deleting all of the appropriate blocks from both configuration files.

php_flag magic_quotes_gpc off

.htpasswd

Create a text file with the following text:

username:password

The usernames and passwords are stored in this file, one per line, separated by a colon. To allow multiple users:

firstUser:password
secondUser:password
thirdUser:password
...

Now, for each password, you have to encrypt it using the htpasswd program (included with Apache). If you don’t have this program, you should be able to find a tool on the web that can do it. If you have Apache installed on your local system, I strongly recommend using it (You can also generate the entire file with this program, saving you the hassle of creating it in a text editor. Visit Apache’s website to learn how).

Windows Users

1. Open a command prompt (Start | Run | command.com)
2. type htpasswd -nb username password, replacing username and password with the appropriate values

If you get an error message, you’ll have to navigate to the directory containing htpasswd.exe (usually \Apache[version]\bin\). If you’re not sure where it is, do a search on your system to find it. Once you’re in the right directory, try the command again.

Linux Users

1. Open a terminal
2. type htpasswd -nb username password, replacing username and password with the appropriate values

The program will output something like: username:password. Copy this into your .htpasswd file.

Save it as ‘.htpasswd’ (windows users will have to save it as ‘htpasswd.txt’ and rename it to ‘.htpasswd’ after uploading).

.htaccess

Now you’re ready to write your .htaccess file. This will let Apache know that you want it to use your .htpasswd file for authentication. You can protect one or more directories and/or files this way. To create your .htaccess file, create a new text file:

Protecting an Entire Directory

AuthUserFile /[path]/.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Login to access this folder"
require valid-user

Protecting a Single File

AuthUserFile /[path]/.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Login to access this file"
Allow From All
require valid-user

AuthUserFile is the server location of the .htpasswd file you have just created. You will need to adjust the path according to your directory structure so that it points to the correct location. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

Save it as ‘.htaccess’ (windows users will have to save it as ‘htaccess.txt’ and rename it to ‘.htaccess’ after uploading).

Uploading

Upload both of the files to the appropriate directories on your webserver. Open a browser and navigate to the respective URL. You should get a login dialog that prompts you for a username and password.

Troubleshooting

If the authentication doesn’t work, I would suggest:

1. Checking the path you set after AuthUserFile in .htaccess
2. Verifying that AllowOverride None is not present in the section of your Apache config file (usually called httpd.conf) that corresponds to the correct host. In some cases, you may have to specify AllowOverride All before it will work (even though this is default setting).
3. If you used a web-based password encryptor instead of the htpasswd program, try another one. I found that many would return encrypted strings that Apache could not authenticate for some reason.

Good luck!