Installing WordPress in SubDirectory

Hi jlhoffman77,

Do you have read/write access to your root directory? If not, then I fear the instructions at https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory under the heading of “Using a pre-existing subdirectory install” will not be helpful to you being that Step 4 states “Copy (NOT MOVE!) the index.php and .htaccess files from the WordPress (wordpress in our example) directory into the root directory of your site”.

But, if you do have read/write access to your root directory then your concerns about not having a .htaccess file may be relieved by rereading Step 4 which also states “If you are not using pretty permalinks, then you may not have a .htaccess file.” ??

Hope this helps!

Randy

I’m not sure if I have read/write access to the root directory. In FTP, when I click on “File Attributes” for the root directory, the numeric value is xxx, which makes me think I don’t. I can’t find a way to know on Yahoo’s website. Is there another way for me to find out?

Yes I am using pretty permalinks, so I don’t understand why I don’t have .htaccess file.

I appreciate your help! Still confused!

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

I’ve always found the fastest way to find out whether or not I have read/write access is to a) download (read) a file from the directory in question, change its name, then b) upload (write) it back to the same directory. As for the .htaccess file, note the “.” in front of the filename makes it invisible. Meaning that you usually need to make a settings change in your FTP application to view invisible files.

You’re very welcome. These things can be quite challenging. But ultimately you’ll get where you want to go. ??

Randy

Thanks Randy. Ok yes I do have read/write access to the root directory.

Any yes I know about the hidden files, but I’ve already set FileZilla to show hidden files. I asked Yahoo about this and they told me they don’t support any files that start with “.” I have a file called “wp-links-opml.php” in both the root and subdirectory which I’m wondering if it does the same thing. I could be totally off base, but the name of the file has me wondering.

Should I go ahead and try the instructions give at the link I pasted above? Or what do you think?

Hi Jennifer,

Well, it sounds like you can follow most of the steps within the “Using a pre-existing subdirectory install” section at https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory. But, the issue with Yahoo! not supporting files that begin with a “.” bothers me. Being that I believe WordPress has to have a .htaccess file in order to use pretty permalinks. So, hmm, maybe turn OFF pretty permalinks for now and try the steps. And, if that works then try turning pretty permalinks back on and see what WordPress does. Heck, maybe then we’ll see a web.config file rather than a .htaccess file get created!

P.S., Why Yahoo!? Why not use a more normal host, such as Bluehost, that doesn’t put up such odd obstacles? Just curious. ??

Hope this helps,

Randy

Hi Randy,

So I looked through the steps before doing anything and noticed an issue. My index.php file does not have the exact same text that the instructions say to edit. See below.

My index.php file:
require(‘./wp-blog-header.php’);
?>

Instructions say it should look like this:
require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . ‘/wp-blog-header.php’ );

Thoughts on this?

And on the Yahoo thing – I can’t stand Yahoo! This website is my client’s website and they had Yahoo before they started working with me. Yahoo is the worst host I’ve ever worked with.

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

Hmm, I just looked at my WordPress 4.0.1 install’s index.php file and found the following:

/** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/wp-blog-header.php' );

which looks exactly like they say it will:

require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/wp-blog-header.php' );

So, I am now confused why you are seeing something different. Here is the entirety of my index.php file for comparison to yours:

<?php
/**
 * Front to the WordPress application. This file doesn't do anything, but loads
 * wp-blog-header.php which does and tells WordPress to load the theme.
 *
 * @package WordPress
 */

/**
 * Tells WordPress to load the WordPress theme and output it.
 *
 * @var bool
 */
define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);

/** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/wp-blog-header.php' );

As for the Yahoo! decision, I totally understand and feel your pain! ??

P.S., I found my index.php file in the root of my WordPress install. Right next to license.txt, readme.html, and wp-activate.php. That is, there are other index.php files lurking within various subfolders. But the one you want to copy over to your root folder is the one you see when you first click into your WordPress folder. I’m sure you already know this but I have to take off soon so I thought I’d say this just in case it helps. ??

I just upgraded WordPress to 4.0.1 and now the index.php file says the right thing, so I guess I’ll give this a try. Fingers crossed it works!

Ok, so I followed the instructions exactly, but it didn’t work. I got the white screen of death.

However, interestingly when I put the permalinks back to the default setting, the directory name disappeared, but I of course want to use pretty permalinks.

I put the original index.php file back so the site isn’t down for now. Thoughts on this?

Oh duh, the directory name disappeared because I removed it from the site address in general settings.

I also forgot to mention a very important detail. The homepage is already without the directory name in the URL. This was setup on Yahoo’s website when I installed WordPress. I’m not sure how it’s done. Maybe a redirect… but I don’t know.

Hi Jennifer,

So, your WordPress home page is performing correctly in that it’s viewable at https://pacificpropertyservice.com/. That is, you do not have to add the “/blog3” subdirectory — where I believe all your WordPress files still exist — to access it. BUT, in order to access any pages, the user must add the /blog3 subdirectory making an URL that looks like this: https://pacificpropertyservice.com/blog3/services/.

Hmm, I am thinking your client has two choices beyond the current /blog3 subdirectory solution. One choice, sounds like they can stay with Yahoo! as a host BUT cannot have pretty permalinks. Which, for a myriad of reasons including SEO issues, isn’t a great idea. The other choice, as far as I can see, would be to use a different host that a) doesn’t force subdirectories and most importantly b) allows “.” files in the root directory.

P.S., I am just a software tester so my hope here is that some other much wiser WordPress developer will take a look at this issue of yours on Yahoo! and say, “Oh wait, I got a much better solution for you. All you got to do is …!” ??

Sincerely,

Randy

Thanks Randy. That’s what I’ve concluded as well. Hopefully there is someone out there who has a solution for me. I appreciate your help. ??

Jennifer

You’re more than welcome Jennifer. I’ll keep my fingers crossed! ??