Technology Joomla DreamHost: How to Enable mod_rewrite in Joomla and SVN Access at the Same Time
Hosting on DreamHost:
How to enable mod_rewrite in Joomla and still allow SVN access at the same time...
By Andrew B. Bartels, August 2010
Scenario: You're hosting your Joomla based web site with DreamHost. You're also using this domain to host source code repositories in SVN. The trouble is, access to SVN stops working when you enable the Apache mod_rewrite option in Joomla. It would be great to have both working at the same time!
The Fix: Fortunately, there is a solution. When enabling Apache mod_rewrite in Joomla, you have to take two steps - 1) enable the mod_rewrite option in Joomla's Global Configuration screen, and 2) rename the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess.
The conflict with SVN hosting at DreamHost comes about because of the contents of the .htaccess file that is supplied with Joomla.
You can easily modify it to allow SVN to work by adding lines to the .htaccess file. The new lines are inserted just after the ReWriteBase line, as shown in red text here:
---------
.
.
# Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL
# is not directly related to physical file paths.
# Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root)
RewriteBase /
# Fix to allow SVN access with Joomla mod_rewrite
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/svn/(.*)$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/failed_auth.html$
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [L]
.
.
---------
Just add these lines, and re-save the .htaccess file to your web server, and the problem should be fixed!
