This is a helper for Symfony php development on localhost. In this guide, SYMBOX mainly means a Symfony install in a specific location. So if you have 10 sites configured, you have 10 symboxes. symbox.apache.conf file is a virtual host definition for Apache web server. Once the config file is installed and apache is restarted, new symboxes can be added without server restart. When this file is installed, your web server will respond to following urls: symbox.local [EXAMPLE].symbox.local where [EXAMPLE] is an individual symbox Subdomains are enabled for each symbox, so that EXAMPLE symbox is accessible by all of these domains: EXAMPLE.symbox.local TEST.EXAMPLE.symbox.local SUB.TEST.EXAMPLE.symbox.local SETUP: Load symbox.apache.conf into your apache. You should know how to do that already. You should be able to symlink it to the right location. Basic Directories: /www/symbox -- symbox container. location accessible by web server /www/symbox/.public -- default symfony install or static html files Symbox Directories: /www/symbox/EXAMPLE -- EXAMPLE symbox /www/symbox/ANOTHER -- ANOTHER symbox Tested with Symfony 1.4 Depends on Symfony being installed in lib/vendor/symfony/data/web/sf inside symbox We have a Symfony dependency only for /sf* urls. You can still use .htaccess files with this approach. You'll have to enable "RewriteBase /" because DOCUMENT_ROOT points to /www/symbox/.public. If you want to point a production domain to your symbox, like "www.example.com" you'll need to create another apache conf file, like you usually do. If you want to be able to serve symboxes from a machine other than your localhost you can either: - add a server alias like *symbox.your.company.domain - use a URL-based proxy tunnel so that *.symbox.example.com is taken from *.symbox.local on a symbox server NON-Symfony Applications ------------------------ You can use this approach to host non-symfony PHP applications as long as they obey the following rules: - web-visible code (like index.php) must be located in symbox' /web directory (/www/symbox/EXAMPLE/web) - .htaccess files need to be placed in /web directory as well - must not use /sf* urls (because they will fail as they are hardwired to symfony)