opening an html file on localhost in xampp/apache 2.2 using subdirectories under htdocs

Question

I'll try again with a new question, appreciate the help...

I have a site directory for html (dreamweaver cs3) with lots of subdirectories that contain html files for a number of drop down menus. They work fine where they are. But, they all have menus that are javascript and could be kept in a separate file. So, I want to use Include. I don't want to have to FTP my files to HostGator every time I want to test the includes. I want to have this on my local machine. So, I am attempting for the first time to setup xampp and then run my html files (site) on localhost, so I can see what they look like before ftping everything to HostGator and putting it live.

I tried copying the main site folder to htdocs, and then copying the path to the file I want to run in front of the localhost in Firefox, but it gave me file not found: http://localhost/xampp/PL_20080923/0-Sections/000-ComingSoon/PHPTestComingSoonNMBT-Test.html

Do I have too many subdirectories? Why isn't the file being found? It is there.

Tried this too: http://localhost/xampp/htdocs/PL_20080923/0-Sections/000-ComingSoon/PHPTestComingSoonNMBT-Test.html

No go.

Answer 1

http://localhost/ should be equivalent to xampp/htdocs/ (i.e. the same files should be accessible but served by the webserver.) This is the document root. So for example on a normal windows xampp installation http://localhost/index.html should serve c:\xampp\htdocs\index.html.

Did you try http://localhost/PL_20080923/0-Sections/000-ComingSoon/PHPTestComingSoonNMBT-Test.html ?

Answer 2

I want open files using Apache.

How do I do this using browser(IE8)? localhost/what goes here to access my html or php files???

--www.24hourapartments.com

Answer 3

[spoiler]my apache don't want to run :([/spoiler]