How do I escape from Plesk?

I also run many WordPress projects via Plesk and don’t have the app directory you described or weird stuff in wp-config.php. Presumably this WordPress was installed there with some additional tool in Plesk.

Maybe you should try UpdraftPlus for the migration. It should provide you with several ZIP files that you can all unpack in the target system in wp-content. Then import the database and customise wp-config.php to your requirements (especially set the database access data & prefix). This usually works without any problems, although this strange Plesk configuration is of course a challenge.

Thanks for your response,@threadi. Sounds like I shouldn’t blame Plesk, but some kind of additional configuration that doesn’t make sense. Let me try and be more specific about how weird this is.

wp-admin and wp-includes are right there in the WordPress installation root (‘wp’ folder), along with index.php and the other standard WordPress files. However, wp-config.php is one level up, and the content I’d expect in wp-content is in a separate ‘app’ directory at the same level as ‘wp’.

Thus (some stuff left out for clarity):

The wp-config.php file is a stub file doing nothing but refer to /config/application.php and /vendor/autoload.php (as well as point to wp-settings.php, as usual).

application.php seems to do the work wp-config.php normally dus, but in an unfamiliar-to-me Config:: class syntax.

The autoload.php file seems to bootstrap something called Composer.

Almost none of this makes any sense at all to me, though mention of DotEnv in the application.php almost suggests that .NET development was involved. Which I have a hard time believing.

If not Plesk, what is responsible for this mess?

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• This reply was modified 12 months ago by Floris.

This sounds to me like a Composer-based installation that also appears to be somewhat customized. Basic instructions can be found here, for example: https://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/how-to-install-wordpress-using-composer-installation-guide/

This is definitely a viable way to implement WordPress projects with very precise version control. I would say that it actually has absolutely nothing to do with Plesk.

Furthermore, I would stand by my opinion that an UpdraftPlus backup of this project should be exportable. Since UpdraftPlus runs as a plugin in the project, it would also have to find the configured folders for plugins, themes and uploads (which are actually particularly relevant for a move). If not, you would have to manually search for these folders, zip them and unzip them at the destination.

Okay, sounds like UpdraftPlus is definitely something to try. Am I understanding you correctly that an UpdraftPlus migration would pull the actual WordPress bits out of the claws of Composer?

No, UpdraftPlus also cannot see where the WordPress is embedded. But it doesn’t need it either. It accesses the paths managed by WordPress to secure the data. The plugin doesn’t actually care what these paths are configured with. The main thing is that they are there and accessible.

You were absolutely right, @threadi, UpdraftPlus managed to move the website, needing very little effort afterwards to become usable in the new location. Thanks!

Nice if I could help. You are welcome to set the topic to solved.

Oops, forgot. Solved now!