Using PHP to Create a Subdomain

The only way to actually CREATE the actual subdomain itself with PHP would be to use PHP to rewrite the httpd.conf file (on apache) to add the sub domains then you'd probably need to restart the webserver to put it into effect.

This isn't something you'd want to muck about with unless your absolutly sure of what you're doing and you'd have to have your own webserver as well.

*Thinks...*

Now if you have a wildcard subdomain on your account (ie everything.yourdomain.com) that always takes the user to the same place you could detect the subdomain using $_ENV[HTTP_HOST] then redirect the user to the appropriate page or pull the relevent content whereever its coming from based on that instead.

how about like a cron job? what i'm looking for ais an automated subdomain registration...kind like angelfire or w/e does to give the users their own area...

example: i sign up as "myjob52" at angelfire...they give me an account as "myjob52.angelfire.com

So your looking to setup a "free" web hosting company?

If you give me more information about the project as a whole It'll make it much easier for me to suggest a plan of action for you.

No....

I know how I want everything else to run, and I'd rather not talk directly about what I'm working on, but I can't figure out how do to an automated subdomain creation, MUCH LIKE angelfire or a free hosting company

The solution would vary depending on the exact nature of what you want to do.

For instance, if you want to provide a personalised startpage service like Yahoo would then you don't need to create an "actual" sub domain, just detect what was entered in the address bar and display the appropriate content.

If you are actually hosting something then you will need to add info to the end of the httpd.conf file (on apache - other webservers vary). This can be done at the time they register, or you could write all the details to a tempory location (ie a database, text file, etc) then apend the whole lot together at a specified time (for instance via a cronjob).

Of course... you can only do this if your running the stuff on your own personal web server and not a shared hosting platform.

I really can't be any more specific unless you can be more specific about your setup etc...

Well, I'm going to have my own virtual server...but not dedicated. I know it's Linux based, but past that I don't know.

Its more along the lines of the hosted content is what I'm looking for.

Then the first way I suggested should work, as long as your hosting provider can set you up a wildcard subdomain. to do that they need to setup a wildcard a record in your dns *.yourdomain.com and then setup the hosting account the sameway. That's something you may have to ask nicely for.

Once they've done that for you, let me know and I'll give you some example code.

I couldnt wait... something like this should get you started:

of course... you'll have to do some checking to ensure that:

a) they've entered the subdomain.
b) the subdomain isn't www.
c) the subdomain is a valid user

in all of these circumstances you'll have to redirect to your default homepage, but a simple if statement will sort that one for you.

ok thanks

will that be more of a pain than actually editing the httpd.conf file?

no... and since you don't have your own webserver I very much doubt your hosting provider will let you muck about with the httpd.conf anyway. (a virtual server is just a chunk of shared space on an existing server).

yea i knew it was shared...i was just saying

alright, i'll give it a try. thanks.

Wouldn't using mod_rewrite in .htaccess also work just as well, though?

TBH the solution that Andy has come with is the best one. I too have used a simple script in CF that works in exactly the same way and works great with a * sub-domain.

It's the easiest and simplest way to do it without mucking with IIS in my case...

go to http://www.hotscripts.com and type in myLounge. This is a thing to create your own subdomains

okay thanks