Laravel myfirst.dev Virtual Host On XAMPP

NOTE:
This post was initially written in February 2013. It contained some errors, i.e, the name mysite.dev was written as mysite.local at some places. (refer comment threads below)
I have corrected this post in July 2013.
I have also written a simpler approach to do this on another post, http://setup-steps.blogspot.com/2013/07/laravel-3-development-environment.html

Happy Coding!
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1) Download Laravel package from http://laravel.com/download https://github.com/laravel/laravel/tree/3.0

2) Extract the Laravel package content to XAMPP htdocs folder. Rename the package folder as myfirst.dev.

3) Run XAMPP Control Panel. Start Apache and MySQL.

4) Test the url:
4a) http://localhost (the index.php file at this path will redirect to http://localhost/xampp)

4b) Type http://localhost/myfirst.dev/public (the Laravel public folder shall appear)

5) Add new domain name to Windows host file.
5a) Run Notepad as Administrator.
5b) Open c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
5c) Edit/Add Entry to look like below (be careful to add a space in between the texts)
127.0.0.1 localhost myfirst.dev
5d) Save

6) Move myfirst.dev folder to a new location.
a) Cut the folder [XAMPP_HOME]/htdocs/myfirst.dev
b) Paste it to [XAMPP_HOME]/sites/myfirst.dev




7) We will add a Virtual Host setting so that we can point the URL http://myfirst.dev to the new location in Step 6.
7a) open [XAMPP_Home]\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts
7b) look for the followings:
#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
# NameVirtualHost *:80

7c) Change to the followings (the last line is not commented):
#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
NameVirtualHost *:80

7d) At the end of the file, add the followings:
NameVirtualHost *
  <VirtualHost *>
    DocumentRoot "C:/Z/Dev/xampp/htdocs"
    ServerName localhost
  </VirtualHost>
  <VirtualHost *>
    DocumentRoot "C:/Z/Dev/xampp/sites/myfirst.dev/public"
    ServerName mylaravel.local myfirst.dev
</VirtualHost>

8) Restart Apache. You may get XAMPP new security concept. The httpd-xampp.conf has been configured to be very restrictive in terms of path/folder access.

9) You can turn-off the restriction.

9a) Open [XAMP_Home]/apache/conf/httpd-xampp.conf

9b) Look for the followings:

#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories). 
#
# First, we configure the "default" to be a very restrictive set of 
# features.  
#
<Directory />
   AllowOverride none
   Require all denied
</Directory>



9c) Change the highlighted codes above into:

#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories). 
#
# First, we configure the "default" to be a very restrictive set of 
# features.  
#
<Directory />

# "default" restriction is turned off
        AllowOverride All
        Order Allow,Deny
        Allow from all

</Directory>



10) Restart Apache. Go to http://myfirst.dev/
Notice the URL path and Physical path.