---
title: "Apache HTTP server - Subfolder hosting of your documentation"
slug: "apache-http-server"
description: "Learn to host your Document360 knowledge base in a subfolder with Apache, configure redirects, and prevent duplicate content issues effectively."
tags: ["Custom domain", "sub folder hosting"]
updated: 2026-06-02T13:58:36Z
published: 2026-06-02T13:58:36Z
---
> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.document360.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Apache HTTP server
To host your Document360 knowledge base in a subfolder (such as `example.com/docs`) using the Apache HTTP server, specific configurations are required. This article walks you through the necessary steps to enable required Apache modules, configure proxy and redirect rules, and manage paths for articles, APIs, and sitemaps. It also explains how to prevent duplicate content issues in search engines by correctly handling URL redirection.
> [!NOTE]
> ** NOTE
>
> Replace the example domain with your document360 provided domain/custom domain.
>
> - Example domain represented using `example.document360.io`
> - Subfolder/subdirectory path (/v1) represented as `example.document360.io/v1`
> - Subfolder/subdirectory home page path (/help) represented as `example.document360.io/help`
### Setting up a subfolder path
Ensure the following Apache server modules are enabled. These modules are part of the Apache server installation. • proxy • proxy_http • headers • substitute • proxy_html Run the following bash command to enable the modules:
```bash
sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_http headers substitute proxy_html
```
#### Home page
1. Configure the following Virtual Host configuration location blocks.
For example,
- **Location block** - Proxy all requests where the path starts from "/help".
This block will proxy requests for the home page.
```plaintext
ProxyPreserveHost off
RequestHeader set Host example.document360.io
RequestHeader set requested-by proxy
RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
ProxyPass https://example.document360.io/v1
ProxyPassReverse https://example.document360.io/v1
AddOutputFilterByType SUBSTITUTE text/html
substitute 's|href="/docs|href="/help|ni'
substitute 's|href="/v1/docs|href="/help|ni'
substitute 's|href="https://example.document360.io/docs|href="https://docs.example.com/help|ni'
```
**Redirect block to fix article preview links for subfolder hosting**
1. The article preview links in the Document360 portal contain the workspace and language slug in the URL.
For example,
- **Article URL**: `docs.example.com/getting-started`
- **Preview links in the Knowledge base portal**: `docs.example.com/v1/en/getting-started`
You can either add one more location block to handle `/v1/en` path, or have a redirect set from `/v1/en` to `/`.
Please refer to the code snippet below for setting the redirect:
```bash
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^v1/en$ / [R=301,L,NC]
```
You should install the `rewrite` module for the redirection to work. Use the following code to install the `rewrite` module.
> `sudo a2enmod rewrite`
#### Article/Category pages
1. Configure the following Virtual Host configuration location blocks.
For example,
- **Location Block** – Proxy all requests where the path starts with `/help/` (for article and category pages).
- **Location Block** – Proxy all requests where the path starts with `/api/` (for Site API requests used in KB Site 2.0).
These blocks will proxy requests for your documentation content and API calls.
Add them to the same Apache Virtual Host configuration file.
```apache
ProxyPreserveHost off
RequestHeader set Host example.document360.io
RequestHeader set requested-by proxy
ProxyPass https://example.document360.io/docs/
ProxyPassReverse https://example.document360.io/docs/
AddOutputFilterByType SUBSTITUTE text/html
substitute 's|href="/docs|href="/help|ni'
substitute 's|href="/v1/docs|href="/help|ni'
substitute 's|href="https://example.document360.io/docs|href="https://docs.example.com/help|ni'
ProxyPreserveHost off
RequestHeader set Host example.document360.io
RequestHeader set requested-by proxy
RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
ProxyPass https://example.document360.io/api
ProxyPassReverse https://example.document360.io/api
AddOutputFilterByType SUBSTITUTE application/json
substitute 's|href="/docs/|href="/help/|ni'
substitute 's|href="/v1/docs/|href="/help/|ni'
substitute 's|href="https://example.document360.io/docs/|href="https://docs.example.com/help/|ni'
```
1. Restart the Apache server
> **For example**, If you are using Nginx on Linux, then use the command `$ sudo systemctl restart nginx`
> [!NOTE]
> ** NOTE
>
> - If you are on KB Site 2.0 and wish to host your Knowledge base as a subfolder, you have to define the **Subfolder path** as well as the **Site API path**.
> - Replace `/docs` and `/api` with the exact values configured under **Subfolder path** and **Site API path** in the Document360 portal.
---
## Sitemap generation
> [!NOTE]
> ** NOTE
>
> Replace the example domain with your document360 provided domain/custom domain.
>
> - Example domain represented using `example.document360.io`
> - The sitemap prefix remains the same except for the language code (en, fr, de, etc.) `example.document360.io/sitemap.xml.en`
```bash
RequestHeader set Host example.document360.io
RequestHeader set requested-by proxy
ProxyPass https://example.document360.io/sitemap.xml.en
ProxyPassReverse https://example.document360.io/sitemap.xml.en
```
---
## What happens next?
Once you have successfully configured the web server, your knowledge base site will be live in your custom subfolder/subdirectory.
However, the existing URL for your project will serve the requests.
> **For example,** `example.document360.io` and `example.com/docs` (if `/docs` is your folder path) will point to the knowledge base site.
This will cause duplicate content in Search engines (Google, Bing, etc.). To do this, you will need to enable a URL redirect.
> [!NOTE]
> ** NOTE
>
> To prevent duplicate content, enable the **Restrict subdomain access** toggle under **Settings > Knowledge base site > Custom domain > Subfolder hosting**. Ensure a canonical domain is configured before enabling this. Once enabled, your Document360 subdomain will automatically redirect to your canonical domain.
## Related
- [Nginx server - Subfolder hosting](/nginx-server.md)
- [Hosting Document360 on a subfolder](/document360-on-a-sub-folder.md)