Apache not working with user Sites folder on macOS 10.13 High Sierra

When accessing websites on your "localhost", there are several permissions which are required. The localhost content may be in your Sites directory, in which case, these commands may help prevent any "Forbidden" messages.

Ensure the Users directory allows read directory access:

cd /
sudo chmod -v 755 Users

Ensure the username directory allows read directory access:

cd Users
sudo chmod -v 755 username

Ensure your Sites directory allows read directory access:

cd ~
chmod -v 755 Sites

Every subdirectory of Sites needs read access:

cd ~/Sites
find ~/Sites -type d -print -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Every file in Sites and subdirectories needs read access:

cd ~/Sites
fing ~/Sites -type f -print -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Apache uses the _www group so, to give Apache full access to everything in the Sites directory, set the extended attributes with this:

chmod -R +a "group:_www allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit" ~/Sites

The "Forbidden" (error 403) error message is something that's generated by the Apache web server

• Your global Directory has Options -Indexes (this prevents the server from showing an index of the directory and file structure in the absence of an index.htm or index.html file. Having this option set and no index.htm file will cause this 403 message to be generated.

• You have the line DirectoryIndex index.html index.php specified. This will ensure it automatically opens either file name upon entering the directory. You also want to make sure you have an index.html or an index.php file in the directory.

If you want to test out your PHP installation, there's a small piece of code you can put into an index.php file (you can name it anything you want, but it must end with .php).

<?php  
   phpinfo(); 
?>

When you point your browser to localhost you should now see (your settings will vary of course):

phpMyAdmin

As for phpMyAdmin, you can put this anywhere. You can put it in your users directory (not recommended if you have multiple users that need to use it) or your can create a port based virtual host so that it will be available only if someone knows which port it's listening on. Have a look at the Apache documentation to see examples and explanations.

Also, you might want to have a look at Adminer instead of phpMyAdmin. I have found it much easier to deploy and much more robust.