Multiple Sites, Single Instance of WP using WordPress Address (URL)

  • swani

    (@swani)


    9 years, 3 months ago

    I should start by saying that I know my question isn’t about multisite specifically, but I’m posting here because I think the knowledge required to answer this question will most likely reside with someone who knows about multisite.

    I have a multisite setup at the moment. I thought it sounded like a good idea to have all my client sites on one install using multisite because I could do backups and WP updates in a single location. Well, that (as some of you shaking your heads already know) was a mistake. I’m going to split them all out into their own installs soon. So, now I’m looking at simplifying this again (I didn’t seem to learn the first time). WordPress gives you the option to store the WP instance in a folder that is different from the root folder of the website itself. Here is what I want to know.

    Could multiple websites share one WP instance?

    I think the idea of the “WordPress Address (URL)” field is that you store the WP instance in a subfolder, to keep your root folder clear. But, can you go the other way? Like this:

    – root (holds wp-admin folder, wp-includes folder and all WP files that normally reside in the root)
    — Site 1 (holds wp-content)
    — Site 2 (holds wp-content)
    — Site 3 (holds wp-content)

    Does what I’m explaining make sense? If so, would it work? If it would, is it worth it? Thanks in advance for any replies.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Amibe Websites

    (@amibe)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Take a look at what the folks at https://root.io are doing with Bedrock. Perhaps it could be tweaked to do what you’re looking for using symlinks for each site’s wp folder? You’d need to test it to see what happens with WordPress updates where each site would need to run database updates – it would probably work in the same way as a manual upgrade but test it regardless.

    But why is multisite a mistake? For you or for your clients?

    An alternative is to keep all sites completely separate and use MainWP (https://mainwp.com) combined with UpdraftPlus to centralize control over updates and backups.

    Thread Starter swani

    (@swani)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Hey Amibe,

    Someone mentioned Bedrock to me in passing the other day and now you! I really like it. Thanks for the tip. For anyone reading this thread, the URL above is missing an S: https://roots.io/

    RE: Mistake
    I feel like it was a mistake to put my clients on a multisite installation because the sites have nothing to do with each other. So I end up with tons of plugins installed with only a few active on each site. In some cases, I have multiple plugins installed that do nearly the same thing in a slightly different way, or because that is what the client is used to and they don’t want to change. Also, when I am troubleshooting and the instructions say “disable all plugins and restart them one at a time” I want to scream. The last, and maybe the biggest, is that moving them is harder with a multisite install. I just bought the pro version of Duplicator, so that has made it easier, but nothing will be as easy as wrapping the whole thing up in a Duplicator file and just dropping it wherever you want.

    But, given that I’ve settled on that as my way to move things around, the one thing that would be great is if I could make my Duplicator packages but skip the folders that are already on the server. I’ve actually considered doing that. Just omit the wp-admin and wp-includes folders and use file manager to copy/paste them from a central place on the server. When I thought of that, I wondered if maybe the files that are specific to a given site could just use the files in those folders from the central location. And here we are.

    Amibe Websites

    (@amibe)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Hi swani, yes Bedrock and the other two from Roots are coming up more and more frequently – I’m in early stages of testing these for myself and am very excited as it’s addressing some concerns I’ve add in they way I’ve been working.

    Thanks for answering my question. Opposite to you, moving my clients into a multisite has been the best thing I’ve ever done. I can’t move them in fast enough and feel mild irritation when needing to do work on any that are not yet on the multisite.

    I hear you about Duplicator – it’s fantastic. With the free version you are able to skip folders… then on the target, where the WordPress files already exist (in whatever folder structure), perform a manual extraction of the Duplicator file before running the install.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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