Nancy's Web If you don't know where you've been, how do you know where you are?

Need another test site? Here's how to do it the "easy" way. [Hint: if you want several test sites, make a list right now. Read these instructions all the way through. Now you can do some of the steps in bulk to save some time.]

Why create extra sites? In addition to my having several sites running already, I had some ideas in the back of my head, not the least of which being a site where I could document everything I do (like this book). I also had some idea for other sites that I might put up in the future. So before you totally pooh-pooh the idea, give it a few minute's thought. And you can always change your mind later; it just might be a bit messier then.

At the very least, I would create a "working" site other than my "root" site. This makes it easier to start all over again if you get totally out of control later on.

This may look like a long process, but it's deceiving because I spell it out in detail. It is expanded and updated from the post "Running multiple sites on a local PC (localhost) from a single codebase, using Windows<."

• Open phpMyAdmin (using "other" in Web-Developer Controller)

start bulk loop 1

• On the left, select the Drupal51 database. This is the one that was created by the package installation.
• Click on "Operations"
• Scroll down to "Copy Database to:"
• Enter the new database name.
• Verify that the radio buttons are clicked for:
• Structure and data
• CREATE DATABASE before copying
• Switch to copied database<
• Click on the Go button just below this area.
• When the copy is complete, click on "SQL".
• In the "Run SQL query/queries on database" box, enter:
  
  GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, LOCK TABLES ON databasename.* TO 'admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'superpw';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;<
  
  admin is what I call my administrative role (this is the "super-user" name);
  superpw is the password for this user (I tend to use the same one for all my databases to make it easy).
  Hint: I created and saved this in c:/www/drupal/grant.txt so I could copy and paste.
• Change databasename to the new database's name.

end bulk loop 1

• Close phpMyAdmin.
• Go to the www/Drupal/sites directory.

start bulk loop 2

• Copy one of the site folders (e.g. default<) and name it for your new site.
• Open the directory, then open the settings.php file in Notepad.
• Change the $base_db< and $base_url< lines. The $base_db< line should have the name of the database you just created. The $base_url< will be how you want to access the site.
• Close the file.
• If you are going to have site-specific modules or themes, go ahead and create directories in this site to hold them (named "modules" and "themes").

  end bulk loop 2

• Navigate to the /www/Apache22/conf folder.
• Locate and open the "httpd.conf" file (Hint: I always make a copy of things I'm about to change, just in case I mess up.)

I did notice that my version of Apache sets index.html< ahead of index.php<, so don't have an index.html< in your directory.

• Find the line that says "# Virtual hosts." Remove the "#" from the next line. This allows you to make all your other changes in a separate, and less dangerous file.
• Save it.
• Navigate to the /www/Apache22/conf/extra folder.
• Open the httpd-vhosts.conf file.
• At the bottom of the existing list, comment out ("#") the examples.

start bulk loop 3

• At the bottom of the existing list, enter:
  
  <VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /www/drupal/
    ServerName databasename
</VirtualHost><
• Change databasename to the new database's name.

end bulk loop 3

• Close the file.
• Navigate to the /windows/system32/drivers/etc folder.
• Open the Hosts file with Notepad. Hint: these two steps can be done by using "other" in Web-Developer Controller.

start bulk loop 4

• Add a line that says:
  127.0.0.1   databasename<
• Change databasename to the new database's name.

end bulk loop 4

• Close the file.
• Go back to Web-Developer Controller.
• Click on Apache2 (top left).
• Click the Stop Service button.
• Wait for it to change to "stopped."
• Click the Start Service button
• Wait for it to say "running."

Go for it. You can now start the browser and enter http://databasename<.

For more details on directories for multiple sites, see Setup of /sites directory for multi-site<.