Can two installations of WP access the same database?

  • Resolved Jonas Grumby

    (@ss_minnow)


    14 years, 3 months ago

    Recently I have had two clients ask me to move their site to a new domain URL on the same server. I was thinking that an easy way to do this would be to install a new instance of WordPress, upload any added content like themes, images, etc. and simply set the config file to point to the existing database. Would that work?

    I have tried exporting and importing the data from one site and for some reason it imported the categories but not the post or page content. This got me to thinking that maybe I could just use the existing database instead of exporting & importing. The idea would be to set up the new site, then delete the WP files on the old domain and set up a 301 permanent redirect so that Google will index the new site and not penalize for duplicate content.

    Thanks for any advice

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Rev. Voodoo

    (@rvoodoo)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    couldn’t you just change the site url?

    or is hosting changing too?

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL

    Thread Starter Jonas Grumby

    (@ss_minnow)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    Good info there. I will have to read all of the options after lunch. It seems like the first example is the easiest way. That is pretty much what I was referring to as well although I didn’t have the correct code to do it. Funny how they don’t mention that the WordPress files have to be present at the new domain but it seems like a foregone conclusion, unless I’m misunderstanding something.

    Thanks

    Rev. Voodoo

    (@rvoodoo)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    I’m confused as to what your are asking I guess?

    Domain is just a name….your url…..if you are just switching domains, but keeping your hosting….nothing has to be ‘moved’ anywhere? You said ‘on the same server’ so I assume host/domain remain the same and only domain is changing (URL) ….if you are moving to a different server/host too then you need:

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress

    Thread Starter Jonas Grumby

    (@ss_minnow)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    No it will be the same server. So I guess what you’re saying is that I have to set up the new domain name to point to the same folder on the server that the current domain points to? Otherwise it seems like the new domain name would be pointing to an empty folder, and I don’t see how that could possibly work. Sorry if these seem like really basic questions but I am not a server admin.

    I have some domain names that I’m not using and will of course test any theories on those w/ a dummy WP install before doing anything with a live site.

    Thanks for bearing with me.

    Rev. Voodoo

    (@rvoodoo)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    yeah…I’m actually not sure about how domain stuff works….mapping or whatever. If it’s possible to map the new domain to the old folder great. I’m pretty sure I know how to do that on godaddy….but that’s the extent of my knowledge. If you fcan’t….I guess you have to follow some combination of those instructions. You’d need to move WP to the new folder, and change the site url to reflect

    Thread Starter Jonas Grumby

    (@ss_minnow)

    14 years, 2 months ago

    Ok, when you say “You’d need to move WP to the new folder” it seems like that’s what I’m talking about. The WP files would have to be in the folder that the new domain name points to, and then I could update the database to use the new base URL. I’ll try it w/ some unused domain names that I own and report back. Thanks.

    Thread Starter Jonas Grumby

    (@ss_minnow)

    14 years, 2 months ago

    The answer was in the http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL article that RVoodoo posted.

    The first example, editing the wp-config.php, just makes your new URL redirect to the old URL. The second example, adding two lines of code to the functions.php worked exactly the way I wanted it to, making the new URL the base for the site. I would recommend setting your site to the default theme before you try it just so you’re not messing with the functions.php of your real theme.

    In my case, when I add a domain to the account I have to pick a folder off of the root for the domain name to point to. Since the original WP installation was in a sub-folder I had to create a new folder off of the root and copy all of the WP files to that folder, including the modified functions.php. Then I just went to the site and it came up. Then deleted those lines from functions.php and it still works fine. Worked perfectly on the test site. Now to try it on the real site…

    Thread Starter Jonas Grumby

    (@ss_minnow)

    14 years, 2 months ago

    Ok, the real site is now done too, but one thing the Codex article doesn’t mention is that WordPress adds lines to the .htaccess file and in my case since the original installation was in a sub-folder of the root, and the new domain name points directly to that folder, I had to remove the references to the sub-folder from the .htaccess file. So, if you make a domain name point to your WordPress installation via a different path, make sure your .htaccess file is correct. If your site is in the root folder it will look like this:

    # BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

    If your site is in a sub-folder called /blog it will look like this:

    # BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress
Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • The topic ‘Can two installations of WP access the same database?’ is closed to new replies.