Server Configuration

Document Root Configuration

Critical Security Requirement: Your web server’s document root MUST point to the /public folder.

The public folder is the only directory that should be accessible via the web. This prevents direct access to:

Application code in /application
Configuration files
.git repository
System files and temp directories

Correct structure:

/var/www/html/myproject/
├── application/          # NOT accessible via web
├── public/              # Document root points HERE
│   ├── index.php
│   ├── css/
│   └── js/
├── .git/                # NOT accessible via web
└── .htaccess            # Fallback redirect

Apache Configuration

Step 1: Enable mod_rewrite

mod_rewrite is essential for clean URLs in MINI.

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo service apache2 restart

Detailed guide: Enable mod_rewrite on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and ensure:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Then restart:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Open xampp/apache/conf/httpd.conf

Uncomment this line:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Restart Apache via XAMPP control panel

Detailed guide: Enable mod_rewrite in XAMPP for Windows

mod_rewrite is usually enabled by default in MAMP. Verify in:

/Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf

Detailed guide: How to get .htaccess to work on MAMP

Step 2: Configure Virtual Host

Create or edit your virtual host configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName myproject.local
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/myproject/public"
    
    <Directory "/var/www/html/myproject/public">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        Options -Indexes
    </Directory>
    
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/myproject-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/myproject-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Configuration explanation

ServerName: Your local domain (add to /etc/hosts or C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)
DocumentRoot: Points to the /public folder
AllowOverride All: Allows .htaccess to work
Options -Indexes: Prevents directory listing
Require all granted (2.4) or Allow from all (2.2): Grants access

Save to:

Ubuntu/Debian: /etc/apache2/sites-available/myproject.conf
CentOS/RHEL: /etc/httpd/conf.d/myproject.conf
XAMPP: xampp/apache/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Enable the site (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo a2ensite myproject
sudo service apache2 reload

Step 3: .htaccess Configuration

MINI includes a pre-configured .htaccess file in /public/.htaccess:

public/.htaccess

# Necessary to prevent problems when using a controller named "index"
Options -MultiViews

# Activates URL rewriting
RewriteEngine On

# Prevent directory listing
Options -Indexes

# Rewrite rules
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]

This file is already included with MINI. You don’t need to create it manually.

Fallback .htaccess

The root .htaccess provides fallback if the document root isn’t set to /public:

.htaccess (root)

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*) public/$1 [L]

This is a fallback only. Always configure your document root properly for production.

nginx Configuration

nginx is fully supported with the following configuration:

/etc/nginx/sites-available/myproject

server {
    server_name default_server _;   # Listen to any servername
    listen      [::]:80;
    listen      80;

    root /var/www/html/myproject/public;

    location / {
        index index.php;
        try_files /$uri /$uri/ /index.php?url=$uri;
    }

    location ~ \.(php)$ {
        fastcgi_pass   unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

nginx configuration notes

Adjust fastcgi_pass for your PHP-FPM socket location:
- PHP 5.x: unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock
- PHP 7.0: unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock
- PHP 7.4: unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock
- PHP 8.0: unix:/var/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock
- Or TCP: 127.0.0.1:9000
root must point to the /public folder
For detailed discussion, see GitHub issue #55

Enable the site:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myproject /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t  # Test configuration
sudo service nginx reload

File Permissions

Set proper permissions for security:

# Navigate to project directory
cd /var/www/html/myproject

# Set directory permissions
sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# Set file permissions
sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

# Restrict config file access
sudo chmod 600 application/config/config.php

# Set ownership (adjust user/group as needed)
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data .

Replace www-data with your web server user:

Ubuntu/Debian: www-data
CentOS/RHEL: apache
Mac: _www

Installation Tutorials

Detailed step-by-step installation guides:

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Auto-install script for Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

LAMP stack setup on Ubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu 14.04 mod_rewrite

Enable mod_rewrite on Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 12.04 mod_rewrite

Enable mod_rewrite on Ubuntu 12.04

XAMPP Windows

Enable mod_rewrite in XAMPP

MAMP Mac

Configure .htaccess on MAMP

EasyPHP

EasyPHP and .htaccess setup

AMPPS

AMPPS rewrite configuration

Vagrant Setup (Automated)

For a fully automated development environment:

Prerequisites

Install Vagrant
Install VirtualBox

Setup Steps

Add Ubuntu box (if not already added):
```
vagrant box add ubuntu/focal64
```

Copy Vagrant files:

mkdir myproject
cd myproject
# Copy Vagrantfile and bootstrap.sh from _vagrant/ folder

Start Vagrant:
```
vagrant up
```
Access the application: Open http://192.168.33.44 in your browser

What Vagrant installs automatically

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Apache 2.4
PHP 7.4
MySQL
PHPMyAdmin
Git
Enables mod_rewrite
Clones MINI from GitHub
Creates database and imports demo data
Configures everything automatically

Default credentials:

MySQL root password: 12345678
PHPMyAdmin password: 12345678
Project location: /var/www/html/myproject

Vagrant commands:

vagrant up      # Start the VM
vagrant halt    # Stop the VM
vagrant reload  # Restart the VM
vagrant ssh     # SSH into the VM
vagrant destroy # Delete the VM

Subdirectory Installation

MINI works perfectly in subdirectories without additional configuration.

If you install MINI in a subdirectory (e.g., example.com/myapp/):

Upload files to your subdirectory
Ensure .htaccess is present in /public
The application auto-detects the subfolder path

No code changes needed! The URL detection in application/config/config.php8 handles this automatically:

define('URL_SUB_FOLDER', str_replace(URL_PUBLIC_FOLDER, '', dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'])));

Security Best Practices

Always follow these security guidelines in production:

Document root → /public folder only
File permissions → Restrictive (644 for files, 755 for directories)
Config files → Not web-accessible (600 permissions)
Database credentials → Use strong passwords
Error reporting → Disable in production (config.php3)
Directory listing → Disabled (Options -Indexes)
Git folder → Not in document root
.htaccess → Properly configured

Testing Your Setup

Check mod_rewrite

# Apache
apache2ctl -M | grep rewrite

# Should output: rewrite_module (shared)

Test URL routing

Access these URLs:

http://yoursite.com/ → Should show homepage
http://yoursite.com/home/exampleOne → Should show example page
http://yoursite.com/songs → Should show songs list

Verify security

Try accessing:

http://yoursite.com/application/ → Should return 403/404
http://yoursite.com/.git/ → Should return 403/404

Next Steps

Database Setup

Configure database and import demo data

Troubleshooting

Fix common server issues

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Deployment

Server Configuration

Document Root Configuration

Apache Configuration

Step 1: Enable mod_rewrite

Step 2: Configure Virtual Host

Step 3: .htaccess Configuration

Fallback .htaccess

nginx Configuration

File Permissions

Installation Tutorials

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Ubuntu 14.04 mod_rewrite

Ubuntu 12.04 mod_rewrite

XAMPP Windows

MAMP Mac

EasyPHP

AMPPS

Vagrant Setup (Automated)

Prerequisites

Setup Steps

Subdirectory Installation

Security Best Practices

Testing Your Setup

Next Steps

Database Setup

Troubleshooting

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Deployment

​Document Root Configuration

​Apache Configuration

​Step 1: Enable mod_rewrite

​Step 2: Configure Virtual Host

​Step 3: .htaccess Configuration

​Fallback .htaccess

​nginx Configuration

​File Permissions

​Installation Tutorials

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Ubuntu 14.04 mod_rewrite

Ubuntu 12.04 mod_rewrite

XAMPP Windows

MAMP Mac

EasyPHP

AMPPS

​Vagrant Setup (Automated)

​Prerequisites

​Setup Steps

​Subdirectory Installation

​Security Best Practices

​Testing Your Setup

​Next Steps

Database Setup

Troubleshooting

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Document Root Configuration

Apache Configuration

Step 1: Enable mod_rewrite

Step 2: Configure Virtual Host

Step 3: .htaccess Configuration

Fallback .htaccess

nginx Configuration

File Permissions

Installation Tutorials

Vagrant Setup (Automated)

Prerequisites

Setup Steps

Subdirectory Installation

Security Best Practices

Testing Your Setup

Next Steps