How do I use https (SSL) in XAMPP while using virtual hosts

Question

I am writing a php app on my local machine and would like to test to see if SSL is working. Bear with me because this is the first time I've ever used SSL.

So far this is what I've done:

1. Created a SSL Certificate. I followed the first part of this this tutorial to create the certificate.
2. I imported the server.crt file into chrome.
3. Removed the semicolon in front of ;extension=php_openssl.dll in php.ini (reference)
4. Edited my httpd-vhosts.conf file based on this page. The relevant section of that file is below. This is the full file: http://pastebin.com/k6Jh2eR6

   <VirtualHost *>
       DocumentRoot "C:\Users\user_name\Documents\project_one"
       ServerName project_one.localhost
       SSLEngine on
       SSLCertificateFile "conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
       SSLCertificateKeyFile "conf/ssl.key/server.key"
       <Directory "C:\Users\user_name\Documents\project_one">
           AllowOverride All
           Order allow,deny
           Allow from all
       </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>
   

I would usually access my project by typing in http://project_one.localhost

When trying to access my project by typing https://project_one.localhost into chrome I automatically get forwarded to https://project_one.localhost/xampp/ (as if XAMPP doesn't recognize https://project_one.localhost as a subdomain at all and treats it as if I'm typing in https://localhost) Any idea where I'm screwing up?

NOTE:

• LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so was uncommented in httpd.conf file

Answer 1

SSL, of the HTTPS://url.here/ variety, is entirely handled by Apache and has nothing to do with PHP, or any of PHP's extensions/modules, or any php.ini settings.

A typical SSL Enabled VirtualHost looks like this and contains at least these parts...

<VirtualHost *:443>
    DocumentRoot "C:/WampDeveloper/Websites/www.example.com/webroot"
    ServerName www.example.com
    ServerAlias example.com

    SSLEngine On

    SSLCertificateFile "C:/WampDeveloper/Websites/www.example.com/certs/public.crt"
    SSLCertificateKeyFile "C:/WampDeveloper/Websites/www.example.com/certs/private.key"

    <Directory "C:/WampDeveloper/Websites/www.example.com/webroot">
        Options All
        AllowOverride All
        order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

(The paths above are from my WampDeveloper Pro set up, Xampp's will be slightly different)

Your <VirtualHost *> line is faulty. It needs a port number, which is always 443 for an HTTPS:// URL, in combination with either an IP address or a star before it. And if using a star, also a NameVirtualHost *:443 line...

NameVirtualHost *:80
NameVirtualHost *:443

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:\xampp\htdocs"
    ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    DocumentRoot "C:\Users\user_name\Documents\project_one"
    ServerName project_one.localhost
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile "conf/ssl.crt/server.crt"
    SSLCertificateKeyFile "conf/ssl.key/server.key"
    <Directory "C:\Users\user_name\Documents\project_one">
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:\Users\user_name\Documents\project_two"
    ServerName project_two.localhost
    <Directory "C:\Users\user_name\Documents\project_two">
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>