How do I make virtual host DirectoryIndex file appear in the url?

Question

I have setup a virtual host which specifies a default file to load when the URL is called.

The problem I have is that I need that default DirectoryIndex file to appear in the URL.

So when I go to: www.mysite.co.uk, I want www.mysite.co.uk/app.php to appear in the URL.

How can I achieve this using my virtual host configuration within my apache.conf file?

Here is my current code:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName *.mysite.co.uk
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/mysite/web/"
DirectoryIndex app.php
</VirtualHost>

Answer 1

I am not sure if you are able to force the browser to show the default page, as that sort of defeats it's purpose. The best idea I could think of would be to leave the default as index.html, and use mod_rewrite to direct index.html to app.php.

This should work for the default index (http://domain.com/) and show desired url in browser (http://domain.com/app.php)

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName *.mysite.co.uk
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/mysite/web/"
DirectoryIndex index.html

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^index\.html$ app.php$1 [L,R=301]

</VirtualHost>