Recently updated a site I maintain that uses the great CMS Made Simple and had to reconfigure SSL (https) for the administrative areas of the site. I’ve done this previously, but had forgotten exactly what I did.

Here’s all it takes:

1. Get an SSL certificate configured on your domain. You can find instructions for that somewhere else.

2. Modify the config.php file in the base directory. Find the line that’s setting up the “root_url” variable. Replace it with the following, replacing with your site’s host name:

   $config['root_url'] = 'http://<hostname>';
   if(isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS']=='on') {
       $config['root_url'] = 'https://<hostname>';
   }
   

3. Create an .htaccess file and place it in the admin directory (or whatever you’ve renamed it to). This file should contain the following:

   # force all access to /admin to SSL protected page
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
   RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
   

Done! Your admin directory should now require HTTPS. This works as of CMS Made Simple version 1.11.11.