Title: Understanding File &amp; Folder Structure
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# Understanding File & Folder Structure

 *  Resolved [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/)
 * I don’t get it. I installed WordPress Multi site and I’m now working on designing
   the first client sub domain site using Headway, etc. But this is what I don’t
   understand:
 * Even though I have a site at [http://www.subdomain.domain.com](http://www.subdomain.domain.com)
   
   and the main root site at [http://www.domain.com](http://www.domain.com)
 * I don’t understand how to access individual site pages. Like how would I access
   the index.php file of the sub domain site as opposed to the root site?
 * Also, I eventually may need to be able to copy / export an entire client sub 
   domain site. Is that only possible through the WordPress Admin area? Because 
   I am not seeing a sub folder with the sub domain site inside of it.
 * How does this work?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)

1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/page/2/?output_format=md)
[→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/page/2/?output_format=md)

 *  Thread Starter [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376303)
 * Ok, I just read that the sub folders in a multi site install are basically **
   virtual**, meaning that a multi site install is simply a single installation 
   of WordPress with multi site functionality (which is what I had originally thought)
   but then I kept asking myself, well then how would one go about adding custom
   php to a single page on one of the sub domain sites for example? If one never
   has actual physical access to separate php files for each sub domain site, then
   wouldn’t this be impossible? If so, then how would one go about doing this?
 * What I need to do for example, is tell WordPress to show breadcrumbs on the home
   page. I have designed a cool CSS breadcrumbs bar and it shows up on other pages,
   but need it to show up on the home page, but the method I looked up said I needed
   to add a php call to show breadcrumbs on the home page, but that it needed to
   be added to the **actual home page**, which in a multi site intall, I suppose
   I don’t have physical access to.
 * Any advice? Thanks.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376385)
 * They’re not basically virtual, they are virtual 🙂 The only folders that exist
   are the ones in blogs.dir.
 * Adding files like that just to ONE site is much harder on MultiSite.
 * Can you make your breadcrumbs bar into a plugin or a part of the theme?
 *  Thread Starter [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376472)
 * I suppose what you are suggesting is to simply add the same CSS for the breadcrumbs
   bar to the homepage (using the CSS class and page ID to single the home page 
   out), even though it’s not the actual breadcrumbs function showing up? Or maybe
   I could use Headway to add a little horizontal leaf under the navigation that
   would contain the same CSS bar to make it look like the other pages. It would
   be a lot simpler if there was a way to simply tell the breadcrumbs to appear 
   on the home page.
 * Is there no way to tell them to show up? How in multi site could I use a hook?
   Is there no way to edit individual pages of a sub domain site’s pages in multi
   site?
 *  [darichardson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/darichardson/)
 * (@darichardson)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376478)
 * Corey, I’m not really much of a PHP developer, but you’ll probably need to use
   some built-in WordPress hooks like is_frontpage().
 * Maybe something like:
 *     ```
       global $blog_id;
       if( is_frontpage() && ($blog_id == 2) ) {
       //insert special CSS/HTML here
       }
       else {
       //insert CSS/HTML for regular pages here
       }
       ```
   
 * Someone else can probably take that code a little further, but that’s the gist.
   You would change the number of after blog_id == to whatever it should be. This
   would need to go somewhere in the template that you are using.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376489)
 * > It would be a lot simpler if there was a way to simply tell the breadcrumbs
   > to appear on the home page.
 * They do on my theme, which is on a MultiSite install. Which makes me think this
   is actually a THEME problem. The theme itself should be edited to show breadcrumbs,
   but you may have to ask Headway how to do that. They’re supposed to be dynamically
   generated by the page, or rather they are when I’ve seen them, so you just … 
   turn it on and edit the theme to show them on the front page (which tends not
   to show breadcrumbs as it’s the start of the trail).
 *  [darichardson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/darichardson/)
 * (@darichardson)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376492)
 * > Which makes me think this is actually a THEME problem. The theme itself should
   > be edited to show breadcrumbs, but you may have to ask Headway how to do that.
 * Exactly. You need to edit the theme (or have someone do it for you) as it was
   probably designed this way intentionally. The code I provided above would be 
   something that you could replace on the current theme, probably in something 
   like body.php or page.php (or maybe header.php, depending on how the theme was
   set up) wherever the breadcrumbs code currently is.
 * If you’re using a separate theme than the one from your main domain, you shouldn’t
   need to worry about the code above even, you’d probably just need to remove some
   code so that the breadcrumbs display on every page.
 * You can edit your themes in wp-content/themes.
 * If you can’t find it, this might need to be moved to a theme/design forum because
   that’s clearly the issue.
 *  Thread Starter [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376495)
 * Yeah, even before I came back and read these responses, I saw that Headway is
   the platform which controls the breadcrumbs (although I’m still confused as to
   whether Headway is simply using a native WP function or whether it is completely
   related to Headway. You can tell a post in the WP admin to turn off breadcrumbs
   for a particular post. Not sure if this means much.
 * Anyway, I found the option in the Headway visual editor to turn on/off breadcrumbs,
   but I also see the they are turned on when I am viewing the home page, meaning
   that I’m going to have to ask the guys over at Headway how to do it with coding.
 * Thanks.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376497)
 * It’s a headway function. There’s no WP breadcrumb function.
 *  Thread Starter [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376533)
 * There must be a WP breadcrumbs function for individual posts though. Otherwise
   why would there be the “turn off breadcrumbs” feature at the bottom of every 
   edit post page?
 *  [darichardson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/darichardson/)
 * (@darichardson)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376534)
 * Nope. That option doesn’t exist in default WordPress. It probably has to do with
   a plugin that came with your theme/framework.
 * Again, this is definitely a template issue. Headway essentially contains some
   version of the code that I posted above, only it probably doesn’t have that option
   built-in for the homepage. It probably has a plugin that displays the option 
   for breadcrumbs on each post, but again this is not a native WP thing.
 * Other than finding and editing that code yourself, your best bet is to contact
   the folks over at Headway or ask in their forums.
 *  Thread Starter [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376535)
 * Strange. I guess it was added with Headway. I posted this question over on Headway
   forums and all he said was “it can be done with a bit of code and an easy hook”
   but didn’t go on to tell me what that code would be or what the easy hook was.
   lol *facepalm* then he gave me a link to a tutorial page which did me no good(
   the word “bread” didn’t even appear on the page once) as it described nothing
   having to do with breadcrumbs. Sheesh.
 *  [darichardson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/darichardson/)
 * (@darichardson)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376537)
 * Corey,
 * The hook was the code that I posted above. As I said, you’d need to go into your
   template files and find the area where the breadcrumbs appear. I don’t know what
   the code looks like, so I can’t tell you exactly what it would need to be changed
   to, but you can definitely manually do this.
 * Breadcrumbs is arbitrary. You’re worrying too much about that specific term. 
   The code I posted above could be used for anything. Say if you wanted to post
   some text in the footer but only on the frontpage and on your subdomain.
 * Question: Will you be exporting the entire WordPress multisite for a client or
   just the subdomain?
 *  Thread Starter [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376538)
 * Ok, I would have used your code, the problem is the template files with Headway.(
   and i just want to say thanks for even helping me with a non WP related issue)
   To edit the template files via the WP admin you have to go to the Network Admin
   area to see them, which to me means that they can only be customized network 
   wide (no individual sub domain site customizations). Here are the template files
   I see in Network Admin > Themes > Editor:
 * **TEMPLATES:**
 * Comments
    (comments.php)
 * **Footer**
    (footer.php)
 * **Header**
    (header.php)
 * **Main Index Template**
    (index.php)
 * **Theme Functions**
    (functions.php)
 * **custom_functions.php**
    (custom_functions.php)
 * **network_custom.php**
    (network_custom.php)
 * **STYLES:**
 * **Stylesheet**
    (style.css)
 * **custom.css**
    (custom.css)
 * So if these can only be edited network-wide, wouldn’t any changes I make affect
   every site?
 *  [darichardson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/darichardson/)
 * (@darichardson)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376539)
 * Are you using the same theme for every site? In either case it shouldn’t matter
   with the code above as it checks to make sure that you’re on the correct site(
   thus the $blog_id bit).
 * The reason I asked about whether you’ll be exporting your entire site for a client
   or just the subdomain has to do with that bit. That’ll change if you export just
   the subdomain but won’t change if you export the entire site.
 * Also, I generally don’t advise editing files within WordPress like that. Use 
   an FTP client and download some sort of editor. I really like Komodo Edit. Much
   easier to edit code in that. An FTP client also makes it WAY easier to understand
   file structure.
 * So two questions for you.
 * 1) Sharing the same theme for every domain or are they different?
    2) Will you
   be exporting the entire site or just the one subdomain?
 *  Thread Starter [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * (@coreymj78)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/#post-2376548)
 * Nevermind, I got it now. But there is a problem. Ok, I was told to use this code
   in an “after navigation” easy hook in Headway:
 *     ```
       <?php if(is_front_page() ) { ?>
   
       <div id="breadcrumbs"><p>You Are Here:   <a href="http://yourdomain.com">Home</a>
       </p></div>
       ```
   
 * That gave me an “unexpected end” syntax error on line 4, on my homepage. So I
   did some research on basic PHP and came up with this statement:
 *     ```
       <?php if(is_front_page) echo '<div id="breadcrumbs"><p><a href="http://flooringlifemagazine.com">Home</a>
       </p></div>';
       ```
   
 * **BUT** now on all other pages I get **double** breadcrumbs. Grrr. How can I 
   change this code so that other pages don’t show them in double?
 * Thanks!

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)

1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/page/2/?output_format=md)
[→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/page/2/?output_format=md)

The topic ‘Understanding File & Folder Structure’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/)
 * 17 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [coreymj78](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreymj78/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-file-folder-structure/page/2/#post-2376555)
 * Status: resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics
