Multisite installs should work with WordPress in a subdirectory

[markjaquith]

Currently, Multisite cannot be enabled if WordPress is installed within a subdirectory. This prevents you from using WordPress as an SVN or Git external. We should have parity.

Resolved: find a way to make Multisite work if WordPress is in a subdirectory.

Can you clarify that it's when WordPress is in a folder and the index.php file is moved up a folder?

Because you can enable multisite if the whole install is in a folder, such as for a subdomain. Yes, you can also install it in /whatever/ as long as you're willing to live with that in the address.

You cannot map domains to installs with a foldername in the url though.

I could have sworn there was a ticket for this already.

Anyway, glad to see it considered for 3.4.

Replying to andrea_r:

Can you clarify that it's when WordPress is in a folder and the index.php file is moved up a folder?

Because you can enable multisite if the whole install is in a folder, such as for a subdomain. Yes, you can also install it in /whatever/ as long as you're willing to live with that in the address.

You cannot map domains to installs with a foldername in the url though.

WordPress in a folder ==> site_url != home_url

Taking this out of the description to make it clear that contributions are welcomed from all. We'll call out responsible parties elsewhere.

#12814 seems related

Note: we use this on BuddyPress.org, Rosetta, and WordCamp.org already.

Not happening in 3.4.

eMusic uses Multisite with WordPress as an external in /wordpress - you can make it work by filtering home/site URLs, you also have to define WP_CONTENT_URL and WP_CONTENT_DIR. Is the issue here that WordPress is supposed to figure this out for you?

@wonderboymusic the ticket refers to having the WordPress files in a folder off the root, and running the main install as if it were placed in the root. So without the /wordpress/ in the URL.

right, we do that, by filtering - so are the tasks for this ticket making that happen automagically?

Yes.

Exactly.

So just to confirm, you run multisite on the public facing side as whatever.com, but it is installed in /wordpress/, and you've moved the root index.php?

This process here:
​http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

Sharing your filter-based solution would help to gauge how badly this is needed.

Here are the pieces to making Multisite work in a subdirectory:

1) load files or register external in a subdirectory - let's say "wordpress"
2) move index.php to DOCUMENT_ROOT
3) move wp-config.php to DOCUMENT_ROOT
4) edit .htaccess to internal-redirect ABSPATH files to the proper place

RewriteRule  ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-.*) /wordpress/$2 [L]
RewriteRule  ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ /wordpress/$2 [L]

5) Set define( 'WP_CONTENT_DIR' ) if it is different that ABSPATH (if WordPress is in a subdir, it is)
6) Edit index.php to point at /wordpress/wp-blog-header.php instead of ./wp-blog-header.php

items # 1-4 have to happen manually
items # 5-6 can happen automagically in my patch (attaching)

Rather thorough attempt that emerged from the WordCamp San Francisco Hack Day. Handles subdir and subdomain multisite installs.

To test, install WP in single site mode in a subdirectory. Move the Site URL ('home') to the root. Set up the Network. Boom.

To do:

• use get_option( 'home' / 'siteurl' ) instead of home_url() / site_url()
• Investigate custom content directories
• IIS

Replying to markjaquith:

To do:

• use get_option( 'home' / 'siteurl' ) instead of home_url() / site_url()
• Investigate custom content directories
• IIS

Also:

• Update .htaccess instructions to use the root directory, not ABSPATH

"Add the following to your .htaccess file in /Users/evan/code/wptrunk/wp/"

Should be

"Add the following to your .htaccess file in /Users/evan/code/wptrunk/"

Switch to get_option() and correct the .htaccess install instructions

Done in 19796-hack-day.2.diff :

• use get_option( 'home' / 'siteurl' ) instead of home_url() / site_url()
• Update .htaccess instructions to use the root directory, not ABSPATH

Already done (just works):

• Investigate custom content directories

Add subdirectory base to IIS rewrites

Cleaned up a variable that was used for two different purposes.

This is looking pretty good to me. Let's have a few more eyes on it.

This works for subdirectory installs, for the main blog. For other blogs, I need to figure out the nginx rewrite rules.

Includes $base global removal

Add missing preceding slash to WP_SITEURL_SUBDIR in network.php

.10.diff kills the WP subdirectory from wp-admin URLs. So if WordPress is installed in /wp/install/dir/ you don't get URLs like:

​http://foo.example.com/wp/install/dir/wp-admin/ OR
​http://example.com/foo/wp/install/dir/wp-admin/

Instead, you get:

​http://foo.example.com/wp-admin/ OR
​http://example.com/foo/wp-admin/

There are a few niggling issues. The login link after multisite creation isn't correct, and it doesn't clear cookies (you have to do it manually in your browser).

Oh, it also introduces join_with_slashes(). Pass in arguments, either string or array, and you get back a string with no leading or trailing slashes, and exactly one slash between the concatenated members.

IIS rules need to be updated.

.11.diff brings the following magic:

• Updates IIS rewrites and refactors them into a single HEREDOC to match Apache's
• Abstracts join_with_slashes() into join_with_string(), which join_with_slashes() then calls

Note: We decided that the login link after multisite creation is fine. It still includes the subdirectory install path, but it works since login.php doesn't need any rewrites. On login, you get properly redirected and receive a new set of cookies.

It would be great to get this tested by someone with an IIS install.

Latest patch also skips defining WP_SITEURL_SUBDIR if you're not actually using a subdirectory install. Ridding WordPress of (new) constants, one at a time.

Remove unused IIS multisite rewrites from iis7_url_rewrite_rules()

.12.diff removed unused multisite rewrites for IIS from iis7_url_rewrite_rules(). These came over in the original multisite merge (r12697) but were are unused because this function is never called when is_multisite() is true.

This makes iis7_url_rewrite_rules()more closely match mod_rewrite_rules(), which is defined just before it and also doesn't provide multisite rules.

props duck_

19796-hack-day.13.diff​ fixes a small problem in join_with_string() where is_array( $parts ) should be is_array( $part ).

I also noticed that there are a few calls to join_with_slashes() that have a slash as one of the arguments. Isn't this useless? The call to trim() will create an empty string out of it.

Replying to duck_:

19796-hack-day.13.diff​ fixes a small problem in join_with_string() where is_array( $parts ) should be is_array( $part ).

I also noticed that there are a few calls to join_with_slashes() that have a slash as one of the arguments. Isn't this useless? The call to trim() will create an empty string out of it.

Thanks. Both of these were remnants of intermediate versions of abstracting these functions that I missed when cleaning them up. The slash arguments to join_with_slashes() are removed in .14.diff.

Correct path for .htaccess

.15.diff fixes the path for .htaccess

Also fix path for web.config

Note: This includes the $base/$current_site->path fixes from the patch I attached to #18079 last year. #18079 also suggest some changes to the .htaccess code for multi-network compatibility, however if this ticket goes into the next release, #18079 could be closed as it is largely addressed.

This fixes the multinetwork support lost between 2.9 and 3.0 and enables some featues in the wp-multi-network plugin trunk.

The latest patch could really use testing from a real IIS install. Unfortunately (at least in this specific case) I have a Mac without any Windows VM, and don't have any other machines with a Windows install. If there's anyone around a Windows install that could setup a local IIS, it would be very helpful in testing this patch.

Replying to evansolomon:

The latest patch could really use testing from a real IIS install.

Clean install & db.. Getting an Internal Server Error 500 with 19796-hack-day.16.diff applied. Trunk works as expected.
Win7 x64 - PHP 5.3.16 - FastCGI

EDIT:
Scratch that -- it was just a permissions problem :-/ Continuing to test

Gonna drop this in unless there are any objections.

Talked with Nacin some. I think we can lose the constant. We only need it when constructing the rewrite rules, and we can do that by leaving home and siteurl from the main site unequal, as is. When generating the rewrite rules, we subtract home from siteurl, slashy slashy, and we have our relative path.

In [21813]:

Use network_site_url() for wp-signup.php. props markjaquith. see #19796.

Needs a pretty major refresh after [21823], see #19235. As I caused it, it's on me unless someone beats me to it.

Additionally, needs refresh from Mark's comment above.

Refreshed patch that tries to stick to rewrites to make things work. I think the .htaccess $subdir_match rules are borked, and the technique needs to be tested on Apache 1.3 as well.

My attempt at merging, which probably failed horribly.

Refresh, drop the constant.

Lose the non-capturing regular expression groups.

Lose the non-capturing regular expression groups.

Lose a lot of cruft. Do the rewrite rule base detection based on ABSPATH, not user-provided URLs.

In [22042]:

Make Multisite work when WordPress is installed in a subdirectory. You can now have WordPress Multisite as an SVN external or a Git submodule! props johnjamesjacoby, evansolomon, duck_, jakemgold, nacin, markjaquith. see #19796

In addition to adding a cool new feature, we actually removed 98 lines of code here. Awesome.

Works like a charm.

Open new tickets for distinct issues!

Follow-up: #22235

Hello.
I've upgrade to WP 3.5 beta 2 to use your patch but i still can't use Multisite installation in a subdirectory while accessing it from the root URL (avoiding the subdirectory in URL).

Is there anything special to do to get it working ?
Here's my post on WP Support forum :
​http://wordpress.org/support/topic/accessing-wordpress-subdirectory-from-root-url
Thank you very much for all your work.
Adrien.

Replying to budykiller:

I've upgrade to WP 3.5 beta 2 to use your patch but i still can't use Multisite installation in a subdirectory while accessing it from the root URL (avoiding the subdirectory in URL).

Actually, this ticket is about making it work with the subdirectory in the URL.

Anyway, If anyone is interested in getting this working on nginx, here's what I use: ​https://gist.github.com/4030509

No, this is the install in domain.com/folder, run from domain.com

http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19796#comment:5

You can already install in domain.com/folder and run from domain.com/folder, but without the running in root, when you do that, you can't map domains.

It worked for me.

I'm not sure I follow, Ipstenu. In either case, please take a look at #22235

We're talking about this: ​http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

And it works fine, the user is doing something wrong ;) Addressing in the forums.

I have installed 3.5-beta3-22639 on nginx with multisite enabled and wordpress core files in a subdirectory: domain.com/wp/wp-*. Works fine except a minor issue in the nav from the admin bar, where links to any of the *network* admin pages omit the /wp/ subdir. Hacking the url to add the /wp/ subdir yields the correct pages, which then function as expected until a form submission, which then attempts to return without the /wp/ subdir. Other nav links in the admin bar to the root site admin correctly include the /wp/ subdir.

Replying to toderash:

I have installed 3.5-beta3-22639 on nginx with multisite enabled and wordpress core files in a subdirectory: domain.com/wp/wp-*. Works fine except a minor issue in the nav from the admin bar, where links to any of the *network* admin pages omit the /wp/ subdir. Hacking the url to add the /wp/ subdir yields the correct pages, which then function as expected until a form submission, which then attempts to return without the /wp/ subdir. Other nav links in the admin bar to the root site admin correctly include the /wp/ subdir.

That's actually expected behavior. /wp/ doesn't exist anywhere in the database — only rewrite rules. That's what this ticket ended up being about. So you would continue to go to /wp-admin/ and /wp-admin/network. I think the only case where that wouldn't be true is indeed the main/root site, which would keep /wp/ as before. If you removed /wp/ from siteurl for that site, everything should continue to work as the rewrite rules will handle it. If that isn't the behavior you're seeing, please open a ticket.

In 23107:

Use $current_site->path instead of $base in wpmu_validate_blog_signup(), as $base is now dead. props MarkJaquith. fixes #22787. see #19796.

Does this work with the sub.domain option or just the sub/directory option? It is helpful to know that it is probably user error... so a reply to: ​http://wordpress.org/support/topic/redirects-for-mutisite-35-beta3 may be more appropriate than here on Trac.

Replying to sil.linguist:

​http://wordpress.org/support/topic/redirects-for-mutisite-35-beta3

The htaccess instructions were fixed in r22982.

​http://codex.wordpress.org/Before_You_Create_A_Network

​http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network

​3.5 Check list

Updated for WP in it's own directory and where images are.