switching my app from http to https

Question

hello,

i'm working on an extranet for my school, in php and mysql, running on apache2 and using friendly urls via mod_rewrite.

I'm thinking that since there is potentially sensitive data involved, it would be better to work on an https url rather than http. The thing is: i have absolutely no experience in https. The pros, the cons and will my app actually work or will i need to modify it?

Does it also mean i have to set up something specific on the server? Will it not break the mod_rewrite rules?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

For your app, everything is the same but the URL.

But the Apache must be configured to properly handle it. Its just another VirtualHost entry in httpd-vhosts.conf, but using port 443 and...

<VirtualHost *:443>
SSLEngine On
SSLCertificateFile "/..path../certificate.crt"
SSLCertificateKeyFile "/..path../certificate.key"
DocumentRoot ...

httpd.conf:

LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

Search Google for instructions of how to create your 'testing purpose' SSL certificate.