Comments on: TUTORIAL: Setting Up WordPress – Single Install, Many Blogs

By: Theo

Theo — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:09:39 +0000

I haven’t actually set up any caching plugin yet, but I dont see why it wouldnt work. If the file exists, its going to serve up the file.
With the htaccess file thing, I figured that out. Its an apache issue that if some file called index.php doesnt exist, it serves up some weird apache screen that says my webserver needs content. Just make a file called index.php and all should be good to go.
I have since used this technique with a few more sites and its really working great but before you implement it, you should also look into WP3 multi-site features. Please report back if you figure out anything.

By: John

John — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 07:29:34 +0000

Hi Theo,

Very interesting technique which I think I’ll try to get working. A couple of questions if I may:

Does this work OK with cache plugins?

The htaccess file above has a line that says “#This rule doesnt seem to work for me… Anyone know why?”

Is this still an issue for you? or have you got a more up to date htaccess that works better now? Anything else you’ve changed since the original post to get this working?

I’d love to get something like this working so would be great to hear how you are getting on.

By: Theo

Theo — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:24:33 +0000

So I haven’t actually used the Multisite features since this has been working for me. If someone thats used the Multisite features wants to weigh in, that would be much appreciated, but from a video I just watched, it looks like the Multisite features are really good if you want WP to do things for you. Like spitting out your new rewrite rules and having your sites as subdomains or subdirectories. It also has some neat features for sharing users between sites and running multiple sites off the same database. That could be good if you wanted to do something like listing posts from your entire network of sites. If youre a single admin (or group of admins) running a few sites, its probably really sweet.

In my case, where I just have a bunch of completely separate sites with separate databases, and separate wp-content folders, my solution allows you to share the core wordpress files (for easier updating) but treat everything else like a regular wordpress install and maintain complete flexibility. If you play with Multisite though, please report back!

By: Freddy

Freddy — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:10:53 +0000

Theo:

So I am unclear now…. what is the difference between this setup and WP3.0 with Multisite?

Thanks!

By: shadow

shadow — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:10:06 +0000

hey theo, thanks for the reply.
I have manage to setup the first base blog with a better solution.
I skipped the whole .htaccess as I know it’s a pain.
I hope the following info will help you.

Here’s how I do it, in order for the index to display on the domain.com instead of domain.com/subdirectory, I moved the index.php into the domain.com level directory.
so now the httpdocs directory contain the index.php together with the rest of the config file and content directory.

Mainly follow the instructions from here. http://www.corvidworks.com/articles/giving-wordpress-its-own-directory

It’s much more secures as no one will know where’s your admin login as you can set your subdirectories or wordpress install to other name than wordpress, sort of hide it away from people.

I guess this will solve all the plugin problem as you do not use the htaccess to redirect anything behind it.

Check it out. =)

By: Theo

Theo — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:50:37 +0000

Im not positive, but I think it should as I have permalinks working as well now but I still need to post the updated rules. I will test sometime this week with the cache plugin as I need to install it myself. I will edit the post soon after some more experiments but in general, the downside to this method is that often plugin writers use $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] or just hardcoding in paths and things and sometimes things dont work because of it. I have to sometimes change a few links or form submit urls in order to make them work. Usually it takes about 5 minutes to figure out though so as of now, its hasnt really been a problem. Specifically the main issue is that sometimes the url will actually become url.com/wordpress/asdf instead of just url.com/asfd and when this happens the wordpress authentication system doesnt recognize that you are logged in any more. If you figure anything out, please report back! htaccess is really a pain so its been a slow process to test and debug new ideas…

By: shadow

shadow — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:23:38 +0000

thinking of trying out this method, by far the cleanest of all.
However, may I ask will WP cache plugin still works?
since editing of the htaccess were being done to it.

My other worries is not all the users are given root access, so unless I put them in the same group and chmod the root wp install to allow permission. That makes it slightly complicated.

Anyway, thanks for the instructions. Will try it out.

By: Theo

Theo — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:27:57 +0000

1) Thanks for the headsup on the quotes. That was quite strange, they were actually single quotes but some were getting changed when being displayed for some reason… added some

tags and it fixed the problem.
2) I guess you’re right about the htaccess part not being totally required, but I did it since I wanted the solution to be able to go at any url or in any sub-folder. For some it may be a good idea to get it working without it first though.
3) I imagine most users would create a new database for each blog, since usually they are probably for different clients, but in the case where the blogs are for the same user, it could make sense to use the same database with a different table prefix (good idea). And yes, you always need to run the install. Remember its just like installing a new copy of wordpress, only theres no new copy of wordpress!

Lots of people have been looking at this post but no comments. Anyone else out there having success with this method?

By: TheMilkman

TheMilkman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:48:18 +0000

First off thanks for the posting. It really helped steer me in the right direction on having multiple blogs on one site. Especially, when the 1st blog, or master in your case, is installed by the hosting company.

I do have a couple questions and comments though.

1) Your code has smart quotes turned on in some places so when you cut and paste something like ‘/wp-config.php’ you get ./wp-config.php. in the php code. The quotes should all be single quotes like ‘ ‘ not smart quotes like ‘ ’. You could correct the quotes in the blog, or people reading can know to double check the code if they just cut and paste.

2) The .htaccess part is not required. In fact it can make it harder to debug at first. It looks like it just removes the wordpress name on the URL anyway, ie http://losbyers.com/wordpress would end up as http://losbyers.com/. I think it’s a very good idea to have it if you can after you know the sub-blog is working. Some hosting sites don’t allow code in the .htaccess if they allow .htaccess at all.

3) On step 8 I am confused when creating the next sub-blog. Do you need to create a new database for the new blog or can you use the existing database and use a new table_prefix for the sub_blog?
3.1) Do you need to run the install.php for each new sub-blog?

Update: I did find that you can use the same database information, and just change the table_prefix element for the sub-blog. Then run the install.php to get the sub-blog site built.

Thanks so much for the write up.