Roots Installation
Requirements
You need a web server, preferably Apache. It must be capable of the following:
- Server-side includes
- URL rewriting via mod_rewrite (or some other hack if you're using IIS)
- Settings override capability via .htaccess files, if you want to have section-based include files
Download the latest version
You can't use it if you don't have it. Download the latest version so we can get started.
Unpacking
Place the packed version of Roots into the root folder of your website, and extract it . You may wish to backup your root .htaccess file and index.html if they exist. If by some chance you have an /_assets/ folder in the root directory, back that up too. You'll end up with the following structure:
- /webroot/
- /_assets/
- css
- data
- files
- flash
- images
- includes
- js
- xsl
- .htaccess
- index.html
- /_assets/
where /webroot/ is the folder you are using for your website.
Configuring Apache and mod_rewrite
Roots is designed to work with mod_rewrite out of the box, but sometimes Apache doesn't want to cooperate. Here are several steps you might try to get everything running correctly:
- Make sure that .htaccess overrides are allowed in your httpd.conf file. Make sure AllowOverride is set to All for the directory of the website you are running Roots on.
- Ensure that the .htaccess file is actually in the root folder of Roots. Sometimes, certain operating systems "forget" about files that start with a "." (full stop), and don't copy them because they're hidden.
- Is mod_rewrite actually running? You should see LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/httpd/mod_rewrite.so and AddModule mod_rewrite.c in httpd.conf. Make sure both lines are there and are not commented out.
Test it out!
Roots loves to show off, so give him a chance. Browse to that index.html page in the root directory using a web browser to see the sample page.