{"id":65521,"date":"2022-07-19T01:58:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T07:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/blog\/?p=65521"},"modified":"2023-08-10T04:34:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T10:34:34","slug":"where-is-the-htaccess-file-in-joomla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/blog\/where-is-the-htaccess-file-in-joomla\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Is the .htaccess File in Joomla?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You’d think that with an open-source content management system like Joomla, you’ll control your entire website from a nicely laid-out dashboard <\/strong>where everything is intuitive and easy to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this is largely true, other components also play a part in your site’s management<\/strong>. The web server<\/strong>, for example, is responsible for processing visitors’ requests<\/strong>, and a lot of your site’s functionality depends on it. Its configuration is not accessible from the Joomla Administrator<\/strong>, and to make it behave the way you want it to, you often need to edit the .<\/strong>htaccess file<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what does this file do exactly? And where can you find it?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is .htaccess?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may have heard of Apache<\/strong>. It’s a web server application<\/strong>, and although it’s nearly thirty years old, it’s still considered one of the best solutions of its kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apache is far from the only web server capable of powering your Joomla project<\/strong>, but it is free, and some people are so used to it, they don’t even want to consider the alternatives. The truth is, an Apache server<\/strong><\/a> can easily support your Joomla website. However, if you want to make the most of it, you need to set it up properly. And this means editing its configuration files<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apache’s primary configuration file<\/strong> is called httpd.conf<\/em><\/strong>, located in the etc\/httpd\/conf <\/em><\/strong>directory (variations are possible depending on the Linux distribution and the web server’s version).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can open httpd.conf with a text editor and add directives<\/strong> to modify the web server’s behavior<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, not everyone has access to the httpd.conf file<\/strong>. For example, on a shared hosting server, you have hundreds of projects running on the same machine. As a website owner, you get your own folder<\/strong>, and you’re not allowed to touch anything outside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t ideal. Some critical tasks, such as forcing the entire website through HTTPS<\/strong><\/a>, are often impossible without Apache directives. In other words, you need to configure the web server <\/strong>according to your website’s needs, but you need to do it without touching httpd.conf<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where the .htaccess file comes in.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An .htaccess file is like httpd.conf for a single directory. It needs to be situated in your website’s document root folder <\/strong>(if your site is hosted under your primary domain, that would be the <\/em>public_html <\/em><\/strong>folder<\/em>). Once it’s in place, you can open it with a text editor and use the same Apache directives as in the primary configuration file without affecting other websites on the server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The .htaccess file can be used for various tasks, including setting up a custom 404 page, password-protecting a section of your website, and restricting access to the site from specific IPs<\/strong>. There are universal directives that can work on all websites, regardless of the platform they’re based on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many content management systems also use the .htaccess file for specific purposes. Joomla is no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joomla and .htaccess<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are two main Joomla-specific tasks<\/strong> you can accomplish with an .htaccess file:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allow search engine-friendly URLs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joomla’s URL structure <\/strong>used to be pretty cumbersome. It contained category and article IDs and other information that didn’t really tell you what the page was about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wasn’t great from an SEO perspective<\/strong><\/a>. Google and other search engines prefer human-readable URLs with keywords that show them what they can expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To improve the CMS’s SEO performance<\/strong>, a Search Engine Friendly URLs option<\/strong> was introduced in Joomla 1.5, and by version 1.6, it was enabled by default. Even with it on, however, all URLs have index.php<\/em> in them. To remove it, you need to have Apache’s rewrite module <\/strong>enabled and a few special directives in the .htaccess file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improve your site’s security by preventing popular exploits<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joomla is under active development, which means that, as long as you use the latest version of the CMS, you can get patches and plug any recently discovered security holes<\/strong>. However, some exploits simply can’t be prevented with an update. For them, you need a properly configured .htaccess file<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using a few directives, you can stop quite a few attacks, including loading JavaScript code into SVG files<\/strong>, modifying HTTP requests<\/strong>, and encoding data within the URL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Can I Find Joomla’s .htaccess File?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You can create your own .htaccess file from scratch<\/strong>. All you need is a text editor and an understanding of Apache’s directives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, you don’t need to do everything yourself. Every standard Joomla installation<\/strong><\/a> comes with a file called htaccess.txt<\/strong>. It’s already inside your site’s root directory, and it contains the directives that allow search engine-friendly URLs <\/strong>and stop the exploits mentioned in the previous section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All you need to do to make these directives come into effect is rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three methods for doing it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an FTP client<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All you need to do is navigate to the site’s document root folder, right-click on the htaccess.txt file, and select Rename<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Where<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With your hosting account’s File Manager<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The steps are pretty much identical. The interface may differ slightly<\/strong> from file manager to file manager, but with most, the Rename<\/strong> option is available in the context menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Where<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Via SSH<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It’s not mandatory, but most people prefer to navigate to the site’s document root directory first. If your site is hosted under your primary domain, you can use the following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$ cd ~\/public_html<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, you need to use the mv <\/em><\/strong>command to rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$ mv htaccess.txt .htaccess<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Where<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NOTE:<\/strong> The dot in .htaccess is at the very beginning of the file name. In Linux, this indicates that the file is hidden. If you position it incorrectly or put a file extension at the end, your .htaccess file won’t work.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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