Apache2 Single Page Application

Pre-Requisites

To route all requests to a single HTML/PHP page, mod-rewrite must be enabled.


sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart the Apache2 service afterwards for the changes to take effect.


# Older Debian Systems
sudo service apache2 restart

# Newer Debian Systems
sudo systemctl restart apache2

vhost Configuration

Rewrite configuration may be defined in the vhost file.


<Directory "/var/www/html">
	Order allow,deny
	Allow from all

	Require all granted

	RewriteEngine on

	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
	RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
	RewriteRule ^(.*) /index.html [NC,L]
</Directory>

Restart the Apache2 service afterwards for the changes to take effect.


# Older Debian Systems
sudo service apache2 restart

# Newer Debian Systems
sudo systemctl restart apache2

htaccess Configuration

Apache2 doesn't read .htaccess files by default. Modify the vhost file to enable it.


<Directory "/var/www/html">
	Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

	AllowOverride All

	Order allow,deny
	Allow from all

	Require all granted
</Directory>

Rewrite configuration may be defined in the .htaccess file.


<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
	RewriteEngine On
	#RewriteBase /

	# skip existing files
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
	RewriteRule index.html - [QSA,L,C]
	RewriteRule .* - [QSA,L]

	# deny access php files
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.*\.php$
	RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.html [QSA,L]

	# assets
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^assets/*$
	RewriteRule ^assets/*$ - [QSA,L]

	# redirect root access (/) to index.html
	#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
	#RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA,L]

	# redirect 404 for non existent files
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)\..*$
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
	RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.html [QSA,L]

	# default, redirect to our front web controller
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
	RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.html [QSA,L]
</IfModule>