Managing website by testing in one folder with live website running on root

As of WP 3.5, you can run WordPress out of a subdirectory. https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory#Using_a_pre-existing_subdirectory_install

Though this isn’t ‘wrong’:

b) Upon copying the folders, only the landing page shows on the root.
https://www.ewclchina.com
Upon clicking the link “Skip intro” – it leads to files on the /wpr2/ folders.

You need to edit the index file on that domain.

Dear Mika,

Thank you so much for your prompt reply.
Here is my index.php code in the root of ewclchina.com

[ Moderator Note: Please post code or markup snippets between backticks or use the code button. ]

<?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('./wp-blog-header.php');

I guess what I need to be able to do is to update the links (internal as well as menu option links) in all the files in root folder.
But I am unable to access the files via WordPress.
Please see below the two admin panels I can access:
My Installs
Here is a listing of your currently installed scripts. You can fully manage your scripts from this section. Sorted
icon_WordPress.gif icon WordPress
3.5 https://www.ewclchina.com/wpr/
Admin Login | Extend | Uninstall | Advanced | Find Support | Restore
3.5 https://www.ewclchina.com/wpr2/
Admin Login | Extend | Uninstall | Advanced | Find Support | Restore

If only I am able to access https://www.ewclchina.com/ and log in, I can update all the links.

The copy has been successful as you can view the pages if you input url seperately in the browsers:
https://www.ewclchina.com
https://www.ewclchina.com/who-we-are/
https://www.ewclchina.com/services/
https://www.ewclchina.com/contact/
https://www.ewclchina.com/products/

It is now just the links and admin access which is pending to be resolved.

Much appreciate your input in this matter.

Kind regards,
VB

Ah, it’s not the index file, it’s the static front page of your main site. Edit that ??

However… I’m not sure why you’re doing this in Multisite if you’re fully rebuilding a site.

Anyway, your login is STILL: https://www.ewclchina.com/wp-admin

That redirects you to https://www.ewclchina.com/wpr2/wp-login.php

Dear Mika,

Thank you for your response.
You mean to change the path in the url for “Skip intro” and “Saltro intro”?
But that does not reslove the issue here.

Want I want to be able to achieve is:
a) Have seperate password access for the root and /wpr2/.
b) To make updates in /wpr/ first, test, debug and then update the root if all good. Something like acting as a production and live servers.
c) If I am unable to do that, then I would rather update all in my root and do away with /wpr2/ completely. (delete it).
d) My problem is: access to root is redirecting me to /wpr2/ – instead of helping me access admin for the root.

The WP-online-store has many features I am trying to experiment with and cannot do this in a live site. Hence the need to keep test and live sites on seperate folders.

IMPORTANT: You see at the moment, something has gone terribly wrong with the product catalog page: https://www.ewclchina.com/product-catalog
or https://www.ewclchina.com/wpr2/product-catalog. The header has moved below the WP-store section. I have sent in a request to WP-store support and not received any feedback. Had I had seperate access, my live site https://www.ewclchina.com would have still shown the correct page (as od Dec 23). Not sure what went wrong and the live site is now showing the incorrect formatted page!!! Frustrating!

Do you think you could help with this issue as well?

Hope you could help me resolve the problems.

Thank you again Mika.

Warm regards,
VB

Yeaaah, Multisite’s the wrong tool for the job here.

Honestly, you’re so unclear on what you did do, I can’t begin to tell you how to undo it. What I can say is the best approach is to have two totally separate installs of WP, each in it’s own folder. Build out one, swap them out, and carry on.

My problem is: access to root is redirecting me to /wpr2/ – instead of helping me access admin for the root.

Yes, and I have no idea what on earth you did. I don’t believe you did this in Multisite, because you’d know very well what you did in switching sites.

Dear Mika,
All was working well before the christmas & new year break.
I found the solution now….. it was the Jetpack plugin! WP-online store support got back and advised it maybe Jetpack or the css. Deactivating Jetpack resolved all issues.

The reason I was experimenting with Jetpack was I wish to have two different image / animation display styles on the website. For the home page, I have three slides and was using Nextgen gallery. However, Nextgen limitations: cannot use different gallery formats for different pages in the same website. Also, cannot delay the timeline for some images in the gallery.

For the Product Categories page, I used Jetpack and was very happy with the results. But now had to revert back to Nextgen.
All Jetpack functionalities work with WordPress galleries only and not with others.

Is there a way around this. I am too nervous to reactivate Jetpack again. As it also caused problems with my Spanish language contact form. This is also fixed now once Jetpack deactivated. ??

As for the ewclchina seperate access, I reinstalled and all is fine there as well.

Thank you, Mika,

Warm regards,
VB