guide.oscdox.com: Add .htaccess file in /catalog dir?

[Elmo]

Hi, may I ask if the following step from http://guide.oscdox.com is mandatory?

 

Add to your DirectoryIndex statement and include the following : default.php index.php . This can be done in the Apache httpd.conf file if you have root access, or can be done in a .htaccess file in your /catalog dir.

 

This is the .htaccess method for adding the DirectoryIndex statement.

 

1. Create a plain text file using a text editor.

2. Add this statement : DirectoryIndex default.php index.php index.htm index.html

3. Save the file as .htaccess (note the period before the h)

4. Upload it to your /catalog directory

 

 

This tells the server to look for default.php as the index page in the /catalog directory, so you can access your catalog by the url http://www.yoursite.com/catalog/ instead of having to include the filename like this http://www.yoursite.com/catalog/default.php.

 

Is the above step necessary or is it for people who don't want to type a longer URL for the catalog page? The reason why I asked is because there's already a .htaccess file under /catalog directory and if this stpe is necessary, it should have been included in that .htaccess file in the script?

[mattice]

It's not necessary if your webserver already sees default.php as an index file or if you do not care.

 

All this does is assign the files that should be considered an index file to your webserver... in this example

 

default.php

index.php

index.htm

index.html

 

will be used as the main page in ANY directory in your site in order of importance (left = 1st choice, right = last choice)

 

If you need it you should add it to your existing .htaccess file.

[Elmo]

Thanks for your help, Mattice! :D