Apache Guide: Generating Fancy Directory Listings with mod_autoindex Page 2

IndexOptions

The IndexOptions directive provides a list of options to set various features of the index listing. These options don't warrant their own directive, and so are lumped together here.

The syntax of the IndexOptions directive is:

     IndexOptions +option1 -option2 ...

Options marked with + will be included in the set of options, and those marked with - will be ommitted. Note that if you forget the + or - in that list, the last item on the list is all that you get. That is,

     IndexOptions SuppressDescription ScanHTMLTitles

is exactly the same directive as

     IndexOptions ScanHTMLTitles

And, furthermore, it overrides all previous IndexOptions directives that are already active. Don't forget the + and -!

I'm not going to go over all of the available options - see the docs - but here are a few that I like.

List Folders First

Those of you that are used to a graphical representation of your directories -- something like the Windows file explorer, for example -- are used to seeing the directories at the top of the listing, and the files below that. The default Apache view is to have the directories listed in the same alphabetic ordering as the files.

To override this behavior, use the FoldersFirst option:

     IndexOptions +FancyIndexing +FoldersFirst


Note that the FancyIndexing option is necessary for several of the
options to work, including this one.



Descriptions from HTML
Titles
 

Using the ScanHTMLTitles option, you can get a
description of each HTML file in a listing by looking in the
<TITLE> tag of each file. If you have written good HTML, this
will give a very good idea of what each file is, before the user downloads.
Note that in order to do this, Apache will need to open each file and
parse it looking for a title tag. This can take a long time, and
use up a lot of system resources.



Describe your Files


An exceptionally useful feature of mod_autoindex is the ability
to provide descriptions for your files, and have these descriptions
appear in the directory listing. This is accomplished with the 
AddDescription directive. As with several of these directive,
you can specify exact file names, or you can give wild-cards to
indicate a group of files.
     AddDescription "My dog" /images/fido.jpg
     AddDescription "PNG images" *.png


If you are in the habit of using really long file descriptions,
or if you are using the ScanHTMLTitles option above, you 
might find that the space allocated to you for displaying a
description is insufficient. You can correct oft this with the
DescriptionWidth option. This is an option for the
IndexOptions directive. You can specify a particular
width, or you can specify ''*'', indicating that the field should
be wide enough to accomodate the largest description you
have.
     IndexOptions +DescriptionWidth=42



Readme Files


OK, one more. It may be desirable to display some informative
text at the top of a directory list. This may be information about
the files in the directory, or it might be administrative information
about the server. Or whatever. The HeaderName and ReadmeName
directives allow you to indicate a file that will be put
at the top or bottom (respectively) of the directory listing.
The argument for this directive is a filename stub. That means
that if you have: