Setting Up the Website for Your API Endpoint on Your LAMP Stack

In the previous tutorial, we discussed how to install the LAMP stack on your Ubuntu system. Now, we are ready to start hosting a website on it. In this article, we will explore how to set up a new website, adjust proper file and folder permissions, and provide an Apache configuration example.

Step 1: Creating a Directory for Your Website

Firstly, let’s create a directory that will hold your website’s files. You may replace your_domain with your actual domain name or the name of your website.

sudo mkdir /var/www/your_domain

Step 2: Assign Ownership and Permissions

For the Apache web server to function correctly with your site, we need to adjust some permissions and ownership settings.

We’ll assign ownership of the directory to the current user with:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/your_domain

Next, we set the correct permissions for the website’s root directory to ensure that read access is given to visitors.

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/your_domain

Step 3: Create and Configure a New Apache Configuration File

Now, we will create a new Apache configuration file for your website.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_domain.conf

Add the following content to the new configuration file. Replace your_domain and your_email with your domain and email respectively:

ServerAdmin your_email
ServerName your_domain
ServerAlias www.your_domain
DocumentRoot /var/www/your_domain

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all

DirectoryIndex index.php

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/your_domain_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/your_domain_access.log combined

After editing the configuration file, save and close it.

Step 4: Enable Your Site

Once you’ve configured Apache to serve your site, you need to enable the site using the a2ensite tool:

sudo a2ensite your_domain

You should also disable the default site provided by Apache:

sudo a2dissite 000-default

After these changes, restart Apache to implement your changes:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Your new website should now be active!

In conclusion, setting up a new website on your LAMP stack is as simple as creating a directory for your site, adjusting the necessary ownership and permissions, and configuring Apache to serve your website. File and folder permissions are critical to ensuring the right level of access to your site’s resources. Correct Apache configuration ensures that your website can be accessed by visitors.

Remember to always follow best practices when configuring your web server to maintain the security and performance of your website. Happy web development!