Heather is confused, and I don’t blame her:
I am want to use subdomains in my multisite. 1. Install WordPress in the subfolder and set it up to run from root before you create your subsites. 2. You should not use www in your URL ….. Where exactly do need to change this? Settings/ General ( that’s how i saw it in your book) or in my file manager, having to change it in many different files…. ( saw and read this from other internet sources).
Let’s take this by the numbers.
- Install WordPress in the subfolder and set it up to run from root before you create your subsites.
If (and that’s a big if) you want to install WordPress at example.com/wordpress but have the URL look like example.com then you must do this before you activate Multisite. Can it be done after? Yes. But you will go insane.
- You should not use www in your URL
If you’re using subdomains, just don’t. The issue where WordPress breaks if you use the www here is not to do with WordPress so much as the variant hosts out there and how they handle the www/non-www redirects. Save yourself a headache. Don’t use www. You don’t use www. Yes, I know Google does. They don’t care so long as you’re consistent.
In both cases, on your single site install of Wordpress, you go to the General panel. The value for Site Address (URL) is what you want people to see when they visit your site. The one for WordPress Address (URL) is where WordPress is installed.
Make sure they both match in terms of schema and www. Then change the Site Address from http://example.com/folder to http://example.com and save it.
The official directions are on the codex – Giving WordPress it’s own Directory. There’s a bit more when it comes to moving a couple files, but really that’s it. Once it’s done and working, go ahead and activate Multisite.
By the way, I always get the WordPress Address and Site Address confused. It’s not just you.
Comments
4 responses to “Mailbag: Multisite Subdomains Live Where?”
“By the way, I always get the WordPress Address and Site Address confused. It’s not just you.”
Truth.
Also, for me, “front page” vs. “home” is a source of constant confusion.
I thought this post was going to be about the subdomains automatically creating themselves, and not having to manually be created, and also that the subdomains don’t have their own directories. This seems to be a regular source of confusion for folks new to multisite.
@Bet Hannon: That’s a host dependent answer.
Example! Anyone with cPanel can make a subdomain of * and point it to public_html and cPanel will automatically know that means it’s a wildcard subdomain.
But not all hosting plans allow this, so there can’t be one right answer except this: Point your wildcard subdomains to the same folder where WP is installed.
Bloody
home_url()vssite_url()… if I had a buck for every time I messed those up… and I keep seeing it in others’ themes and plugins too…