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1. cielle
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   I have mysite.gr set up already ( in Greek ) , it is a single wordpress installation wordpress 3.5
   I want to add mysite.com ( English - not yet built ) to the/a multisite installation so that i will have these two sites linked via multisite...

   I will use domain mapping after i have done the multisite to link them as seperate domains..

   I want to know the best place to start... start with my already built site and make it into multisite or start a new multisite installation on http://www.mysite.com and then add my existing site to that?

   thank you!

2. cielle
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   i think there is something i am not understanding about domain mapping...

   Is it not possible to do when a site already exists? Does it only work with a "parked" domain which points to one's main multisite installation?

   In which case, will my site need to be "down" while i first point it to my new multisite installation and then once it is all set up correctly i import my old site into the new installation?

   Is there no way of doing this without down time?

   thanks...

3. Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
   Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   If you use Multisite, you can do this without downtime.

   1) You have WP at mysite.gr, great! Turn on Multisite (use subdomains)

   2) Create a subsite (en.mysite.gr) and get it working, make it look right.

   3) Use a domain mapping plugin - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/ - and map mysite.com to your EN site.

   4) Park the domain mysite.com on top of mysite.gr (NOT the en site, the main site). This means you have to edit the DNS and tell your server. Your host can help with this, but be specific and tell them "I want anyone who goes to mysite.com to end of up mysite.gr" - You DO NOT have to explain Multisite at this point ;)

   5) Toast your success.

4. cielle
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   thank you so much Mika!
   I will do as you say and let you know!
   one last question for now, if i use domain mapping, does this affect SEO in any way?
   also, i currently have mysite.gr set up so that i am using only one version, the http://www.mysite.gr version and NOT the mysite.gr version ( because i had to do some redirects and from my reading i understood that one had to choose which one to use and since i was used to using www. in links etc i chose that version...

   Was this the wrong thing to do? i see from other posts at times things about not having the www in front of domain name...

   Is any of this relevant here for multisite or is there anything i should be aware of with this before i go any further with building my sites etc , any explanation or help you can offer about this is APPRECIATED.... thank you so much!

5. cielle
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   Hey Mika, i began the process and then i got what i said above.. specifically, it said:

   We recommend you change your siteurl to mysite.gr before enabling the network feature. It will still be possible to visit your site using the www prefix with an address like http://www.mysite.gr but any links will not have the www prefix

   How do i do this?

   Also, it then says that :

   Because your install is not new, the sites in your WordPress network must use sub-domains. The main site in a sub-directory install will need to use a modified permalink structure, potentially breaking existing links.

   and this worries me, i am not sure what the implications are so i have not done it yet... does this mean that my existing site that i am changing into a multisite site will have changed/broken links - is this something i can then fix and why/how will the permalinks be modified ?

   thank you so much for your help, i am completely new to this part and there is so much to learn and so much confusion it seems!

6. Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
   Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   Go BACK to mysite.gr and go to WP Admin -> Settings -> General

   Make your HOME and SITE urls to http://mysite.gr (yes, both)

   Then you're good :)

   Because your install is not new, the sites in your WordPress network must use sub-domains. The main site in a sub-directory install will need to use a modified permalink structure, potentially breaking existing links.

   Remember how I said 'Use Subdomains'? This is why. Use Subdomains :D There is NO change to your URLs if you use subdomains.

7. cielle
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   Mika, you are awesome, thank you so much for taking the time to explain and all your invaluable help! reminds me what an awesome place the internet and communities are...

8. cielle
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   Hey Mika, because i had already moved too far forward to go back and change http://www.mysite.gr to mysite.gr in the admin panel as you said, i basically re-uploaded my whole site from my backup files so that i could start again from scratch... ok so far but when i go to set up multisite is says that there is already a network installed and that

   "Please complete the configuration steps. To create a new network, you will need to empty or remove the network database tables."

   So what do i do now?? Do i just go ahead and do the steps it tells me to do ( add the code to my wp-config.php and .htaccess files OR do i first have to remove the already existing network database tables - either because they will obstruct something or because they include the www. when i don't want them to... ??? If i do need to remove them or do something with them, where do i find them???

   thank you!

   I hope you understand my question... thank you again!

9. sontru
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #
   

   I had this 'remove the network database tables' even with a fresh install. Check the permissions of your file in the WordPress directory.

   I fixed this issue by making all the files owned by the user (and group) Apache runs under (www-data).

10. cielle
    Member
    Posted 4 months ago #
    

    thanks sontru, i am not sure what file exactly to check the permissions for - and what should the permissions be and which file?

    and i don't understand your second paragraph at all, sorry, I am beginner...

11. sontru
    Member
    Posted 4 months ago #
    

    I mean all the WordPress files and directories.

    What system is your install running on? Unix, Linux or something else... Do you have command line access? If so perform an 'ls -la' on the WordPress root directory and see who owns the files.

12. Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
    Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
    Posted 4 months ago #
    

    "Please complete the configuration steps. To create a new network, you will need to empty or remove the network database tables."

    http://wpmututorials.com/how-to/how-to-disable-multisite/ :)

13. cielle
    Member
    Posted 4 months ago #
    

    Mika, you are a shining *star*, thank you...

    i don't understand these couple of things:

    Restore the .htaccess file to the default.

    how do i do this? from wordpress admin area?

    Once the multisite lines are gone from the config file, you can usually restore these by resaving the permalinks.

    why would i want to restore them if i want them gone?

    Drop these global tables in the database:
    wp_blogs
    wp_blog_versions
    wp_registration_log
    wp_signups
    wp_site
    wp_sitemeta

    where do i find these, via ftp? are they in wp-content?

    thanks you so much!

14. Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
    Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
    Posted 4 months ago #
    

    Restore the .htaccess to what it was originally. We keep a copy here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Creating_and_editing_.28.htaccess.29

    Once the multisite lines are gone from the config file, you can usually restore these by resaving the permalinks.

    You read that wrong. It means "Once you remove the multisite lines, you can restore the .htaccess to the PRE MULTISITE version by saving permalinks..."

    The DB tables are in your database, just like it says.

15. cielle
    Member
    Posted 4 months ago #
    

    thanks Mika, i got it sorted, even though i didn't know what and where databases are/were... i know where they are and how to "drop" them now.. so multisite is now working for me! thanks!

16. Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
    Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
    Posted 4 months ago #
    

    Yay! :D

17. cielle
    Member
    Posted 3 months ago #
    

    Hey Mika, I spoke too soon! i hadn't got /i can't get my subdomain site working! i set it up and then when i try to visit the dashboard or the site i get an error message... any ideas why this would be happening? let me know if you need me to post more info etc.... thank you...

18. cielle
    Member
    Posted 3 months ago #
    

    ok, so i set up another multisite site with domain mapping and everything and it worked fine/perfectly BUT it was with a SUBDIRECTORY install... as soon as i changed it to subdomain ( because i didn't want the /blog directory showing up... ) install it also no longer works...

    So i am guessing this whole problem has something to do with the subdomain installation...

    Is there something else i need to do with my webhosts?? Do i need to set up subdomains there also? and have the pointer pointing at the subdomain there??

    I hope we can figure this out/you can help me!

    Thank you!

    xx

19. cielle
    Member
    Posted 3 months ago #
    

    ok, so from looking around a little further i am thinking it is a "wildcard subdomains" issue as shown in this discussion here:

    http://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-sub-domains-not-working-1?replies=13

    I have contacted my host and hope this can be sorted, in any case will let you know! xx

20. cielle
    Member
    Posted 3 months ago #
    

    I contacted them and they fixed the issue, making wildcard subdomains possible for all my domains which they host for me ( and not just the main one, as it was and it is stated is usual practise in the link above... ) and now the subdomains and all is working PERFECTLY! So happy! Hours and hours and hours of work in learning "how to" but now it's done so simple!

    thank you for all your support! :)

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