{"id":3446,"date":"2017-03-14T12:22:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T11:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/florianbrinkmann.com\/en\/?p=3446"},"modified":"2020-02-09T11:36:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T10:36:20","slug":"wordpress-multisite-mix-of-subdomains-and-subdirectories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/florianbrinkmann.com\/en\/wordpress-multisite-mix-of-subdomains-and-subdirectories-3446\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress multisite with a mix of subdomains and subdirectories"},"content":{"rendered":"

While setting up multisite, you decide to use either subdomains or subdirectories \u2014 mixing both in one multisite is not possible without modifications. This post shows you how to run a multisite with subdomains and subdirectory sites.<\/p>\n

I recently moved my site from .de<\/code> to .com<\/code> and the English version from en.florianbrinkmann.com<\/code> to florianbrinkmann.com\/en<\/code>. The problem: besides the English and German site, the demos of my WordPress themes are also part of the multisite, and they should stay on their subdomains. So I needed a mix from subdomains and subdirectory in one multisite.<\/p>\n

Luckily I am not the first with this problem, and while searching for a solution, I found the posts \u00bbWordPress Multisite: (Sub-)Domains und Sub-Directories kombinieren\u00ab by David Naber<\/a> and \u00bbWordPress Multisite mit mehreren Domains einrichten\u00ab by Thomas Scholz<\/a>, which were very helpful.<\/p>\n

These are the steps I made for changing the structure of my site (starting from a multisite which is set up for subdomains):<\/p>\n

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  1. Inserting define( 'NOBLOGREDIRECT', 'https:\/\/example.com' );<\/code> into wp-config.php<\/code> to disable registration of new sites via the frontend. Perhaps you need to write remove_action( 'template_redirect', 'maybe_redirect_404' );<\/code> into the theme\u2019s functions.php<\/code> or (better) into a (MU) plugin, to prevent the site from redirecting 404 errors to the main domain<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Defining the following constants in wp-config.php<\/code>:\n
    define( 'ADMIN_COOKIE_PATH', '\/' );\ndefine( 'COOKIEPATH', '' );\ndefine( 'SITECOOKIEPATH', '' );<\/code><\/pre>\n
    Without this code, you would have to log in into the subdirectory site(s), also if you are already logged in into the main site or a subdomain site. The starting point for this solution were the linked articles and an answer in the WordPress.org forum<\/a>.<\/p><\/li>\n
  3. Modify WordPress\u2019 rewrite rules inside the .htaccess<\/code>, so they match the rules of subdirectory installations, to let you access the backend of your subdirectory install:\n
    RewriteEngine On\nRewriteBase \/\nRewriteRule ^index\\.php$ - [L]\n# add a trailing slash to \/wp-admin\nRewriteRule ^wp-admin$ wp-admin\/ [R=301,L]\nRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]\nRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d\nRewriteRule ^ - [L]\nRewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+\/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L]\nRewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+\/)?(.*\\.php)$ $2 [L]\nRewriteRule . index.php [L]<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  4. Create a new site in your multisite (it does not matter which subdomain you choose).<\/li>\n
  5. Open the site\u2019s information and enter the main domain with the subdirectory. Until a few WordPress versions, there was an extra field for the path.