Need advice on multi-domain wordpress

  • Resolved UnnumberedT

    (@unnumberedt)


    11 years ago

    I’ve been running a single domain/site with LunarPages for several months, and I now want to add a second domain. Basically, I want one domain for my company, and then an additional distinct domain for each product. (Right now, I’ve only got one product, but I hope this will grow in the future.)

    My current setup uses two separate WordPress installations. The first is located in my public_html folder, and supports my original domain (www.fireandflora.com). The second is in a subfolder of public_html called, and supports my new domain/site (www.mindfulmammoth.com).

    The problem with this setup is that it requires separate logins for users. If a user wants to post a comment on fireandflora.com, they need to create an account with that WordPress install. Then, if that same user wants to comment on MindfulMammoth, they need to create another account, this time with the other WordPress install. I’d like to have things set up so that users can create one account that works across both domains.

    This doesn’t sound like a subdomain setup, as both domains start with www. But according to this I can’d to a subfolder install, since my existing install has been around more than a month.

    Is there a way to make this happen? To either reconfigure WordPress, or do a reinstall, so that it can handle two domain names, and have a single login that works for both? Can this be done gracefully so that I can continue to make use of the content in my existing wordpress database?

    Thanks,
    Tim

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years ago

    Is there a way to make this happen?

    Yes.

    Turn http://www.fireandflora.com into a Multisite with subdomains (you need subdomains or all of http://www.fireandflora.com’s urls will get weirder).

    Make a subsite for mindfulmammoth.fireandflora.com

    Export everything from http://www.mindfulmammoth.com and import into mindfulmammoth.fireandflora.com

    Change where mindfulmammoth.com points in your Panel/cPanel whatever (right now it’s pointing to /public_html/folder, you want it to point to /public_html/ only!)

    Install this domain mapping plugin – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/

    Add mindfulmammoth.com and tell WP which site to use for it (obviously the one that is mindfulmammoth.fireandflora.com

    Done!

    Thread Starter UnnumberedT

    (@unnumberedt)

    11 years ago

    Mika – I’m glad to hear this can be done. However, there’s a wrinkle. I made it about half way through your instructions, and realized that I was ending up with not-quite what I’d wanted. The domain names were backwards.

    I’ve got a multi-site install, but it’s using fireandflora as the base domain, and I’d like mindfulmammoth to be the base domain. My company is “Mindful Mammoth”, and “Fire and Flora” is my first product. So I’d like to have domain names like :
    home.mindfulmammoth.com
    fireandflora.mindfulmammoth.com
    {otherproduct}.mindfulmammoth.com

    Now that I’ve started down this path, can I do something to change the base domain name from fireandflora.com to mindfulmammoth.com? I notice there is a line in wp-config.php which says:
    define(‘DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE’, ‘fireandflora.com’);

    but I hesitate to change it without understanding dependencies.

    Could you advise me on this?

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years ago

    DO NOT EDIT THAT LINE.

    You’re right to think it’s got dependencies.

    There is no ‘easy’ way to change a domain name with Multisite. How deep into this are you? It would be easier to move mindfulmammoth to it’s own hosting folder, instead of an add-on domain, in the long run. You’ll get weirdness if you keep it as is.

    Can you do that on your host?

    Thread Starter UnnumberedT

    (@unnumberedt)

    11 years ago

    Not deep. Quite shallow really. The Fire and Flora website has a medium amount of content. The Mindful Mammoth website has none. I was hoping to set up a solid organizational structure, then add some additional content to both places.

    Can I put mindfulmammoth in its own folder? Probably. I’m not clear on what you mean. Do you mean a separate installation of WordPress in a separate folder? If so, then yes. That’s easy. It’s just that it creates potential complexities for potential users. In my wild dreams, I have people who visit this site and comment on my works in progress, and I’d like to have a unified login, one that works across all the projects, so that one login will let you contribute to the discussion on any of the project sites.

    I did go ahead and search around on this topic. There are several pages with instructions on how to change the primary domain of multi site wordpress. I tried using the ones here:
    http://www.wordpress-website.org/change-primary-domain-wordpress-multisite-network/
    With no success. It just ended up kind of mangled. Some content disappeared, some parts of the control panel worked, some didn’t. I’ve got backups, so it’ll be OK.

    I’m planning to try again tomorrow. I have two other ideas.

    1) Try to change the primary domain on the multi-site install using a different recipe. Namely, this one:
    http://support.wpengine.com/how-to-change-a-multi-site-primary-domain/

    2) Use backups to revert to single-site WordPress (only three days back), changing the domain on that to MindfulMammoth, then updating to multi-site WordPress. That would get the primary domain where I want it. I could then create a Fire and Flora subdomain, copy over the Fire and Flora content to that subdomain, and put fresh content on the MindfulMammoth base domain. Copying content would be time consuming and painful (a day? less?), but it appears straightforward.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years ago

    Those are odd directions for changing the primary domain…

    There isn’t a great way to do this, since you have to BOTH change domains and import a site. Make GOOD BACKUPS before you try anything! 🙂

    What I would do is this:

    Keep fireandflora as my main site and create a network.

    Import mindfulmammoth as previous described.

    SWITCH primary blogs so mindfulmammoth is the main site (you can follow WP Engine’s directions, or follow the directions in http://halfelf.org/ebooks/wordpress-multisite-110/ (page 81) )

    Once mindfulmammoth is what you see at fireandflora.com, and yes it has the wrong URLs right now), change your addon domain so mindfulmammoth.com points to public_html

    Now go here – http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress#Moving_WordPress_Multisite – and get the linked to interconnecit tool. You will now search/replace your DB: fireandflora.com becomes mindfulmammoth.com

    This should leave you with mindfulmammoth.com and fireandflora.mindfulmammoth.com

    Now all you have to do is map fireandflora.com within WP, and you should be okay.

    You MIGHT have to search/replace the wp_posts table for weird links in the fireandflora site, though. Can’t be 100% sure.

    Thread Starter UnnumberedT

    (@unnumberedt)

    11 years ago

    So, it’s not all fixed, but this particular piece of the problem is resolved.

    In brief: I did a restore of my website/database, renamed my base-domain as mindfulmammoth.com, then setup subdomain-multisite. The wordpress setup appears working, and I can create new subdomain-sites, but I can’t access any of them. Neither directly nor via WordPress dashboard …

    I’m going to post further questions in a new thread.

    Mika – thanks for all the advice. If I could mod you up somehow, I would.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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