How to match dynamic sub-domain alias to sub-folder on apache server

Question

I am currently developing a SaaS web based project using PHP which requires users to have unique sub-domains to use the application.

I am done configuring the server with wildcards: Eg. user.example.com ==> *.example.com . The application creates a subfolder for the user under /var/www/html/ with the name of the user Eg. user.example.com would be in /var/www/html/user/ .

I am stuck on getting the user's link without the base folder such as user.example.com to point to /var/www/html/user/ without having to include http://user.example.com/user .

I have tried virtual host and aliases but it seems like I have to manually assign the variable which is not applicable for the project.

I just need the subdomains to point to their respective subfolders.

My apache config file

<VirtualHost *:80>
        # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
        # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
        # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
        # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
        # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
        # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
        # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
        #ServerName www.example.com
        ServerAdmin admin@xxxxxxx.tdl
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html/%1/
        # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
        # error, crit, alert, emerg.
        # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
        # modules, e.g.
        #LogLevel info ssl:warn
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
        # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
        # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
        # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
        # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
        # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
        #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
        ErrorDocument 404 /error_404.html
</VirtualHost>

Answer 1

Finally after researching I got a solution. I realised that I had not activate the alias module and so I activated as follows:

    sudo a2enmod vhost_alias

I also noted that serving each sub-domain to its respective sub-folder required a dynamic config script to auto-pick the VirtualDocumentRoot through Directory Name Interpolation as follows:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin admin@vspace.ke
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html/
        VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/html/%1/
        <Directory "/var/www/html/">
        Options FollowSymLinks
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
        AllowOverride All
        </Directory>
</VirtualHost>  

I also noted that you have to declare all sub-domains and non sub domain in the host configurations: IE Alias for www

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.vspace.ke
    ServerAlias www
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/
    <Directory /var/www/html/>
        Options +FollowSymLinks
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Alias for no sub-domain

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName vspace.ke
    ServerAlias
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/
    <Directory /var/www/html/>
        Options +FollowSymLinks
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

And * (wild card) sub-domain

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin admin@vspace.ke
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html/
        VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/html/%1/
        <Directory "/var/www/html/">
        Options FollowSymLinks
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
        AllowOverride All
        </Directory>
</VirtualHost>  

Thank you so much for contributing.