Replace/Update default website on OS X Server (Yosemite)

Question

I am certain this comes down to a fundamental lack of understanding on my part, but I cannot for the life of me work out how to replace the default website on OS X Server.
I have read that it is not designed to be replaced, so I have created a new entry in the website list... but with no luck. I followed the instructions here: Setting up a local web server on OS X but still continue to get 403 errors.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a set of instructions for setting this up? I really (at this stage) only want it to serve locally, not over the internet - which I thought would make it simpler...
Thanks!

Answer 1

There's a bit of guesswork on my part here because I have not used OS X Server.
Obviously you've found httpd.conf.
The root directory of the standard web server is defined in there - on OS X it is:
DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
<Directory "/Library/WebServer/Documents">
Require all granted        <-------------- means anyone can access it from any domain ----------------->
</Directory>
The instructions to which you are referring I guess are the ones about allowing users to set up their own sites, needing the relevant modules to be activated in that file:
#LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so
to
LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so
#Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf
to
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf
...then in http-userdir.conf....
#Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf
to
Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf
At this point I am assuming that Apache doesn't really care that this is a user-related issue and so any file ending in .conf in that directory will be included in the Apache Server config (once stopped and started). However, the fact the the site name is then ~shortname suggests the user model is important and access permissions may mean you need to be logged in as that user for all I know.
....in the shortname.conf file in that /private/etc/apache2/users/ directory would be something like this:
<Directory "/Users/shortname/Sites/">
    AddLanguage en .en
    LanguagePriority en fr de
    ForceLanguagePriority Fallback
    Options Indexes MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from localhost
     Require all granted
</Directory>
The relevant directory is /Users/shortname/Sites/ ---- I suggest putting a simple index.html page there to test first.
....then http://localhost/~shortname
.....should work.
Remove the line Allow from localhost and access from elsewhere should also be possible.
I wish I could be more help - but without a server to use and check what I am saying I think that is about all I can offer, and I suspect none of this is new to you.
Andy