resolving localhost in php so can be views outside VM

Question

I'm running Windows 7. Within, I'm running Virtualbox and Ubuntu. Within Ubuntu, I'm running Apache and using PHP codeigniter. To reference our CSS and JS files, we use this syntax:

<?php echo site_url('css/styles.css'); ?>

When viewing the site locally (within Ubuntu VM) that resolves to:

http://localhost/styles.css

So works fine.

The catch is when I access that site from within Windows 7 (for IE testing). To access the site in Windows 7, I refer to the IP address of the VM:

http://xx.x.x.x/

That loads the site but, alas, all the site_url variables are still being rewritten as 'localhost'. Said files obviously don't exist on the localhost of my windows 7.

Is there a way around this short of just hard-coding relative links in my PHP file?

Answer 1

The site_url() function in CodeIgniter, documented here, uses whatever you have set up in your configuration file. You should just be able to open your main config file (application/config/config.php) and change the base URL setting to your VM IP, and then your links will work for both environments. It's the first setting in the file:

$config['base_url'] = "http://x.x.x.x/";

Answer 2

More practical would be to set up a virtual host on Apache and adding a host name to the windows 'hosts' file, so that you can use something like 'mysite.local' instead of 'localhost' or ip address.

more info

Answer 3

Many options here from very simple to crazy complex:

Easy

$config['base_url'] = 'http://'. $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].'/';

This supports:

• http://localhost/
• http://local.mysite:8080/
• http://sub.example.com/
• http://example.com/

Complex

$config['base_url'] = isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && strtolower($_SERVER['HTTPS']) == 'on' ? 'https' : 'http';
$config['base_url'] .= '://'. $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$config['base_url']l .= str_replace(basename($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']), '', $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);

This supports:

• http://localhost/
• http://local.mysite:8080/
• http://sub.example.com/
• http://example.com/
• https://example.com/
• http://example.com/sub-directory

Potentially insane

This one is very similar but keeps your config.php clean, offers a fallback if HTTP_HOST fails, gives you a constant to use throughout the site and can give you a relative URI to BASEPATH and APPPATH from web root too.

Put this in constants.php:

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Docment root folders
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| These constants use existing location information to work out web root, etc.
|
*/

// Base URL (keeps this crazy sh*t out of the config.php
if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']))
{
    $base_url = isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && strtolower($_SERVER['HTTPS']) == 'on' ? 'https' : 'http';
    $base_url .= '://'. $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
    $base_url .= str_replace(basename($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']), '', $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);

    // Base URI (It's different to base URL!)
    $base_uri = parse_url($base_url, PHP_URL_PATH);
    if(substr($base_uri, 0, 1) != '/') $base_uri = '/'.$base_uri;
    if(substr($base_uri, -1, 1) != '/') $base_uri .= '/';
}

else
{
    $base_url = 'http://localhost/';
    $base_uri = '/';
}

// Define these values to be used later on
define('BASE_URL', $base_url);
define('BASE_URI', $base_uri);
define('APPPATH_URI', BASE_URI.APPPATH);

// We dont need these variables any more
unset($base_uri, $base_url);

In your config.php you can simply use:

$config['base_url'] = BASE_URL;

This supports:

• http://localhost/
• http://local.mysite:8080/
• http://sub.example.com/
• http://example.com/
• https://example.com/
• http://example.com/sub-directory

(Yes, that's the same list as the complex method).

This should get your app running pretty much anywhere you put it, but as of yet it does not support /~userdir URL's.