Enhance Apache directory listings with AutoIndex

We want to implement a user-friendly web interface for accessing a public file repository. We will use AutoIndex which works with PHP 5 (but maybe not all later versions). This guide assumes the following:

A host running CentOS 7.9 and Apache web server with mpm-itk (package httpd-itk) so each vhost may run under a separate uid and gid.
Multi-Processing Module (MPM) ITK is loaded (see /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-mpm-itk.conf).
PHP 5 module is loaded (see /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/10-php.conf) and enabled for vhosts (see /etc/httpd/conf.d/php.conf).
The vhost website.tld runs with uid and gid of the user named website.
The repository is accessible at https://website.tld/public/

As user website retrieve the AutoIndex tarball, unpack it to the repository base directory (e.g. /home/website/www/website/public) and set the correct file attributes:

> wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/autoindex/AutoIndex-2.2.4.tar.gz -P ./
> tar -xvzf ./AutoIndex-2.2.4.tar.gz --strip-components 1 -C /home/website/www/website/public/
> find /home/website/www/website/public -maxdepth 1 -type f | xargs chmod -x

Edit the directives for the repository directory in the Apache configuration file of the vhost user (e.g. /etc/httpd/conf.d/website.conf):

<Directory /home/website/www/website/public>
  DirectoryIndex index.php
</Directory>

Test and reload the Apache configuration:

> apachectl -t
  Syntax OK
> sudo systemctl reload httpd

From your web browser connect to the PHP configuration page (e.g. https://website/tld/public/index.php). Set and save the AutoIndex configuration parameters which will be saved to AutoIndex.conf.php in the public directory (e.g. /home/website/www/website/public/AutoIndex.conf.php).

Edit hidden_files to add names and patterns of files and subdirectories that will not displayed in the AutoIndex directory listing (e.g. /home/website/www/website/public/hidden_files).

Modify display and other parameters by editing files in the templates subdirectory (e.g. /home/website/www/website/public/templates). See the readme.html file in templates for more information.

You may optionally remove the information files which were extracted from the AutoIndex tarball:

> rm /home/website/www/website/public/{change_log,license,readme}.html

Enhance Apache directory listings with AutoIndex

References