Rename htaccess.txt to be .htaccess in Windows

Dagu — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:00:26 +0000

In default Joomla 1.5 installation, there is a file named htaccess.txt. This file will be used if we use Joomla SEO, that is option Use Apache mod_rewrite. Before it can be used, this file should be renamed to .htaccess. In Linux OS, this case is not a big problem, because it allows creation this kind of file (file name is started with “dot” character). For Windows user this case is a problem, because Windows doesn’t allow creation this kind of file. If we force it, then a warning is appear like shown below:

Error while renaming htaccess.txt to .htaccess

In order to rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess, we could do it through command prompt. Syntax:

ren [htaccess.txt directory]\htaccess.txt .htaccess

Example:

ren DaGu\htdocs\joomla15\htaccess.txt .htaccess

That’s it!

Activate mod_rewrite in Apache

Dagu — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:51:31 +0000

On the Internet, we often find URL which has many query strings, like show below:

http://blog.danigunawan.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=27

URL with form above will be hard to be indexed by the search engine if we compare with the URL below:

http://blog.danigunawan.com/joomla15/joomla-overview

URL which has many query strings can be formatted like in second example using rewrite URL. To rewrite URL, it could be done using certain class in web programming language. I won’t discuss it here. Besides, it can be done using a module in apache web server named mod_rewrite. As default, mod_rewrite is not active.

Module mod_rewrite can be activated by editing apache configuration file. Apache configuration file is usually saved in httdp.conf file. Apache configuration file for XAMPP Windows version can be found in [XAMPP installation directory]/apache/conf. Open httpd.conf with text editor and find the word “mod_rewrite”. For XAMPP Windows version it usually can be found in line 118. As default, in inactive module, there is character “#” in the start of the line (It means that line will not be executed by apache). Example:

#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

To activate it, we need to remove character # only. After that, restart apache. Module mod_rewrite will active after apache run.

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Rename htaccess.txt to be .htaccess in Windows

Activate mod_rewrite in Apache