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Tuesday, 03 February 2015 19:35

Running Redmine Through Apache on Xampp

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Some Notes Before We Start

When you have a webserver running you probably would like redmine through that server aswell to keep things easier, reducing port forwarding requirements and the number of addresses you hand out. You could just hand out the new address which usually looks like http://localhost:3000/ if you want, but why not do a proper integration.

These methods will allow you to run redmine from your normal webserver or localhost, http://localhost/ with no port number on the end (this assumes that your webserver does not have a port number, using port 80).

Tthere are 2 parts of this process to consider:

  1. Changing the folder from which redmine is server ie from http://localhost:3000/ to http://localhost:3000/redmine/
  2. Proxying / Redirecting redmine from the server where it is (ie http://localhost:3000/) to youer apache server http://localhost/

With the following instructions i will assume the following

If you just want the code, click here, this will take you to the bottom where you can just get the code for a quick start without any of the history.

Files

This section is not required reading but might help if you have issues or question later on.

During my research i cam across references to Redmine files where you could put code. I am going to list them here and what i think they do.

  • {redmine}/config.ru - this is the intialization configuration file, i think
  • {redmine}/config/enviroment.rb - This file controls additonal settings that will get applied to both development and production enviroments
  • {redmine}/config/additional_enviroment.rb - This is only present in later version of Ruby/Rails/Redmine and probably needs creating. . This file controls additonal settings that will get applied to both development and production enviroments similiar enviroment.rb does. Not all commands in this file work in this file that would in enviroment.rb .
  • {redmine}/config/application.rb - dont bother altering code in this
  • {redmine}/config/development.rb - this files allows you to add additional commands/instructions to just the development enviroment
  • {redmine}/config/production.rb - this files allows you to add additional commands/instructions to just the production enviroment

Move Redmine to a Sub-Folder

Method 1 - Using WebBrick

This techniques is the best an i have taken most of the information from Defect #12102: Installed Redmine in a sub-URI: Links are generated not correctly - Redmine

This method also utilises the inbuilt WebBrick Webserver, This is an excellent simple solution but if you are going to use this for a lot of users you should perhaps think about using Thin Server, this will require slightly different instructions and some more work. WebBrick is classed as a reference server and if you are going to server more than 20 people at a time there will be large performance issues. For the most of us WebBrick will be fine.

config.ru

# This file is used by Rack-based servers to start the application.

require ::File.expand_path('../config/environment',  __FILE__)
map '/redmine' do
  run RedmineApp::Application
end

Replace the contents of {redmine}/config.ru with this code. This also assumes you have not already made any alterations to this file.

This code does 2 things

  1. changes all links in the pages to /redmine/
  2. changes the actual served root. Files in the /public/ directory are now served as http://3000/redmine/ instead of http://localhost:3000/

The root folder effectively no longer exists, you get page not found supplied by the webserver if you browse to http://localhost:3000/ and this is normal.

Other Static Asset Commands

You can also change the dynamic urls by using the 2 following commands:

  • RedmineApp::Application.routes.default_scope = { :path => '/redmine', :shallow_path => '/redmine'
  • RedmineApp::Application.routes.default_scope = '/redmine'

which cause the following issues:

  • the directory of the dynamic links changes but the root of the webserver stays the same. This means that the static files stay in the root directory (http://localhost/) while all of the dynamic links are in http://localhost:3000/redmine/
  • it is very difficult to proxy these 2 folders because this will involve complex rewrite rules

enviroment.rb 

ActionController::Base.relative_url_root = '/redmine'

Add this to the end of {redmine}config/enviroment.rb. I also think you can put this in either development.rb or production.rb, this change will then only occur in that particular enviroment.

This code alters the path of the links pointing to the static files such as javascripts and CSS. Currently all paths for these still point to the root http://localhost:3000/ but they actual ar now present at http://localhost:3000/redmine/ and even though we have added the code in config.ru these paths are not altered so we need this code to correct that.

NB:

  • RedmineApp::Application.routes.default_scope = '/redmine' works but is not the prefered method. This must also be put before RedmineApp::Application.initialize!
  • ActionController::AbstractRequest.relative_url_root = "/redmine" - Does not work, it was for older versions of Redmine
  • config.action_controller.relative_url_root = '/redmine' - not sure about this

You now have moved your Redmine installation to a subfolder

Method 2 - Thin Server + Passenger Server

this will be for my Thin server notes when i do them, there is also the Passenger Webserver to consider. Each has there own method. Basically youo can run these servers with switches to perform the directory change, You can then proxy this over to your main webserver as in the instructions below. Check my General Links section for resources.

Proxying Redmine to Apache / Xampp

Redmine in Root Folder

This is the easiest of the methods to implement. You can simply proxy Remine to your apache server using the following code, this assumes redmine is at http://localhost:3000/

httpd.conf

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

Make sure these modules are enabled in httpd.conf, they are required.

ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass / http://localhost:3000/
ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:3000/

Add these lines to the end your apache httpd.conf , if you do this you will not be able to run any other stuff from your apache webserver because all requests will get forwarded to the Redmine server.

Or Alter the Redmine Server port directely

Simply run the Redmine server on port 80 by using the following switch which will give the same effect

-p 80

Redmine in Subfolder

Method 1 - Basic (also blunt and site wide)

These instructions will assume the subfolder on apache you want is http://localhost/redmine/

.htaccess file

# Redirects /redmine to /redmine/
RedirectMatch ^/redmine$ /redmine/
RedirectMatch ^/$ /redmine/

add this code to ..../htdocs/.htaccess in your apache server.

You can redirect the non-slashed version, but this is to make sure we have a correct URL. A directory is denoted by having a slash at the end of the URL (ie /redmine/ ) wheresas if you dont, it denotes a page (ie /redmine ).

What we are directing to is more akin to a directory/default index file like a normal webserver, http://www.example.com/ You dont often see http://www.example.com/index.html , but they are the same page. Notice the slash at the end, this is intentional.

httpd.conf

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

Make sure these modules are enabled in httpd.conf, they are required.

ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass /redmine/ http://localhost:3000/redmine/
ProxyPassReverse /redmine/ http://localhost:3000/redmine/

This is code that actualy passes the information/request between Redmine Server and your Apache server.

Can I make this Better

The commands above will work site wide so are a bit blunt, the following methods will allow you to apply these rules to a specific locations.

Method 2 - <Location>

<Location> works on the URLs presented to the server

httpd.conf

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

Make sure these modules are enabled in httpd.conf, they are required.

ProxyRequests Off	
<Location /redmine/>
	RedirectMatch ^/redmine$ /redmine/
	RedirectMatch ^/$ /redmine/
	ProxyPreserveHost On
	ProxyPass http://localhost:3000/redmine/
	ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:3000/redmine/
</Location>
  • ProxyRequests Off will not work in <Location>
  • Notice that the proxy statements do not have a target in them, only the source
  • The RedirectMatch commands will work outside of <Location>
  • rules in <location> can be moved easier that <directory> because there are not absolut addresses

With this method you have to split the commands, ProxyRequests will not work in location so needs to be put in the normal flow of the httpd.conf (i.e. not in <location>)

Method 3 - <Directory>

Directory works on the physical path of the accessed files and is better to be used for security because several URLs can point to a single directory or file whereas the <Directory> command is very specific.

httpd.conf

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

Make sure these modules are enabled in httpd.conf, they are required.

ProxyRequests Off
<Directory "d:\Documents\Developer\xampp\htdocs\redmine\">
	RedirectMatch ^/redmine$ /redmine/
	RedirectMatch ^/$ /redmine/
	ProxyPreserveHost On
	ProxyPass http://localhost:3000/redmine/
	ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:3000/redmine/
</Directory>
  • ProxyRequests Off will not work in <Location>
  • Notice that the proxy statements do not have a target in them, only the source
  • <Directory "D:/Documents/Developer/xampp/htdocs/redmine/"> is also valid
  • this command acts on the Virtual Directory in the xampp public folder
  • This should work even though the directory does not exist
  • The RedirectMatch commands will work outside of <Directory>

Method 4 - VirtualHost

With Virtualhost you can run a another domain name on the 1 xampp/apache server. This is very useful. You can also just use it to apply rules to the server and keep the code neater, easier for copying and pasting.

httpd.conf

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

Make sure these modules are enabled in httpd.conf, they are required.

<VirtualHost *:80>

	## This is for setting a domain name
	ServerName rails.localhost.com
	DocumentRoot "D:\Documents\Developer\RubyRoot\redmine\public\"

	# Make sure there is a trailing slash in the root
	RedirectMatch ^/redmine$ /redmine/
	RedirectMatch ^/$ /redmine/
	
	# The proxying code
	ProxyRequests Off 
	ProxyPreserveHost On
	ProxyPass /redmine/ http://localhost:3000/redmine/
	ProxyPassReverse /redmine/ http://localhost:3000/redmine/

</VirtualHost>
  • If you want to run another domain on you local webserver you need to add a rule to your Hosts file, ie 127.0.0.1 rails.localhost.com
  • All the code required is contained within <VirtualHost> tags
  • This code be used on the whole server or just an individual domain (depends if you define ServerName)

Including the rules in the <VirtualHost> tags is not required but can make handling the code easier and if you do want apply this to a specific domain it is easy to enable it.

My Code

So you have arrived here at the code, just following the simple instructions and edit the files. Redmine will then run at http://localhost/redmine/ on you xampp installation. This does of course assume you have Redmine already running on your Windows PC.

 

Redmine - config.ru

# This file is used by Rack-based servers to start the application.
 
require ::File.expand_path('../config/environment',  __FILE__)
map '/redmine' do
  run RedmineApp::Application
end

Replace the contents of {redmine}/config.ru with this code. This also assumes you have not already made any alterations to this file.

 

Redmine - enviroment.rb 

ActionController::Base.relative_url_root = '/redmine'

Add this to the end of {redmine}config/enviroment.rb. I also think you can put this in either development.rb or production.rb, this change will then only occur in that particular enviroment.

 

Apache / Xampp - httpd.conf

Edit your Apache / Xampp httpd.conf file

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

Make sure these modules are enabled in httpd.conf file, they are required.

#################################
# RUBY SETUP
#################################

	# Enforces a trailing slash for the /redmine/ directory
	RedirectMatch ^/redmine$ /redmine/
	RedirectMatch ^/$ /redmine/
	
	# The proxying code
	ProxyRequests Off 
	ProxyPreserveHost On
	ProxyPass /redmine/ http://localhost:3000/redmine/
	ProxyPassReverse /redmine/ http://localhost:3000/redmine/

#################################
# RUBY SETUP
#################################

Add these lines at the bottom of the httpd.conf file.

 

Done

All the changes are now done, you will find that Redmine will be served from http://localhost/redmine/ and http://localhost:3000/redmine/ , this is normal.

If you had your servers running while making these changes you need to restart them both.

You should note that this setup is non-SSL version so is not secure.

General Links

These are the links i used for my research and might be of use.

Redmine / Ruby

Reverse Proxy

Apache

Read 4665 times Last modified on Thursday, 07 July 2022 07:26
Published in xampp
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