Xampp - Redirect external url to localhost

Question

I use an installation of Xampp to test my files locally before I upload them to my web server. My web pages usually contain a lot of 'hardcoded' links, which means to test any links (or any forms etc) I need to change the hardcoded link to point to localhost, and then rechange it after I am done testing.

What I am looking for is a way to redirect an external url to point to my localhost folder, so I could set it as my website and then I would be able to make changes before I upload them. For example, if I were to enter 'www.mysite.com/example/view.php" in my browser, I would actually be looking at 'localhost/example/view.php'.

Is such a thing possible?

Answer 1

Two solutions come to my mind:

1. Use relative URLs (preferred)

2. Add your external URL to your hosts file which can be found either in

   C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (Windows)

   or

   /etc/hosts (Linux)

   Just add this line:

   www.mysite.com localhost

   Maybe you have to use your servers ip instead of mysite.com, I'm not sure right now