superbear

Well, I feel like a little child. LOL! (and I’m 57 this year too!!!) ??
I don’t remember deliberately choosing www, but then again, I did spend 8 hours getting out of the first mess I created and was punch drunk by the time I got around to the re-install.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and I can’t thank you enough for your help with my fledgling site. I just hope it manages to make me a few bucks after all this.

Your code has worked a charm. I only hope that Google won’t penalize me for some reason or other. I’ve also spent an age working on the SEO.

Thank you again, and hopefully you won’t be hearing from me again anytime soon.

Keep up the great work!
Bon courage and Warm regards,
Damon

BTW, I find it confusing that in the WordPress Dashboard > Sites, under Domain, my site is listed as https://www.domain.com regardless of what is in the .htaccess file

??

CORRECTION!
My primary domain is: domain.com (currently adding WWW with .htaccess rule)

But the .htaccess rules I suggested are correct:

If subdomain of domain.com, don’t add WWW
If domain.com add WWW

Kind Regards ??

Hi Ipstenu,
Thank you for sticking with me on this ??

OK. I understand, but haven’t any experience coding for .htaccess. If there is a resource you can suggest for that, I will be happy to take a look.

But, just in case you can help with a snippet or two of code, here’s how my site is setup:

1) The primary domain is https://www.domain.com
2) Users do not register directly via https://www.domain.com
3) I am using a plugin (WP-Client) which acts as a HUB for direct communications with customers.
4) To access the HUB, a new customer registers using the WPC registration form (https://www.domain.com/client-registration/).
5) WPC registers customers in its own database, but they automatically become registered Users of the https://www.domain.com site.
5) WP Multisite Registration Settings are set to “Logged in users may register new sites.”
6) Customers are automatically logged-in after registration, or using https://www.domain.com/wp-admin/
7) Logged-in customers do not have access to https://www.domain.com user dashboard, only WPC HUB interface (page).
8) WPC customers can create their own subdomain site on our www domain (customer.domain.com). They use this site to promote their own products and services.

It’s at this point that the current system fails because the redirect converts “customer.domain.com/wp-login” to “www.customer.domain.com/wp-login”

So, I think I need a .htaccess rule that says:

If subdomain of domain.com, don’t add WWW
If domain.com add WWW

Do you agree?

Many Thanks ??

The redirect rule I added to .htaccess won’t allow me to connect to the subdomain directly in browser, or via WP Dashboard (Sites).

As regards login, when a user creates a new subdomain site, a link is generated (newsubdomain.domain.com/wp-login.php. As soon as I click on the “Log-in” link, the redirect takes me to: https://www.newsubdomain.domain.wp-login.php Login fails due to the www being added as a prefix. ??

It appears to me that if a non-www to www redirect is added to .htaccess, it’s going to do its job and convert all subdomains to www.

I hope you can think of an alternative. Fingers crossed ??

Hi again Ipstenu,

I added a rule to .htaccess that redirects non-www to www:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

This resolves issue (1) and (2), HOWEVER, when I try to connect to a subdomain of my multisite newtwork (subdomain.domain.com) the browser gives up and displays the “too many redirects” message.

Can you tell me if there is another rule I can use that resolves this conundrum?

Thanks again ??

OK… I was able to check the redirect.
It’s domain.com that redirects ??

Hi Ipstenu,

OK. I’ve reverted to subdomain, but not sure how to “check” the redirect; but I can say that Google organic search lists the site as domain.com (without the www) and same with Chrome when I mouse over the link.

Not to distract, but do you have any thoughts about the sitemap issue?

Cheers ??

8 hours later and the deed is done!

I now have a fully functioning WordPress Network running my www domain and 2 subdomains, with all users shared across the network. Yay!

The lesson for an inexperienced (but keen to learn) entrepreneur like myself is: ASK MORE QUESTIONS on this forum, because the answers ARE out there, providing you ask about your specific issue(s).

I also recommend checking the plugins you are using BEFORE the WXR export and find out if the developer has a method for moving data between installs (I forgot to do that too! Lol).

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. A BIG Thank you to Ipstenu for the advice and liquid motivation. It always helps ??

Good luck everyone ??

Dear oh dear! This is a very painful process and no doubt I’ve done something wrong again ??

I followed these instructions to the letter, including Create A Network etc., https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Migrating_Multiple_Blogs_into_WordPress_3.0_Multisite

Everything looked promising and I was having “fun” until I discovered how much plugin data was missing after the imports. So, now having to do the dreaded manual rebuild of all that data. Fortunately, I have a development copy locally, but still a mountain of settings and missing files to wade through.

I think that drink will have to be a bottle of Jack Daniels by the time I get finished!

Here I go…

Ipstenu,
I can see that it’s going to be a triple G&T (steady on the tonic!) Just having fun with my DNS settings at the moment. Getting an Internal Server Error when trying to access Dashbord for the 2 original subdomains, although, I was able to create a wildcard subdomain without any problems. So went to the server and removed the 2 subdomains from the hosted domains settings…

… Think I’ll start on that G&T while I wait for the new settings to be recognised… Hic!

I’ll keep you posted ??

Hi Ipstenu,

Everything you say makes sense and explains the “anomalies” I’ve experienced. Although it’s been a painful learning curve, better now than further down the line, I suppose!

I’ll follow your six point plan and, hopefully, get this thing finished without any further ado.

I’ll post here again when I’ve resolved it, or add further questions if I get stuck ??

Many Thanks for your help and advice.

Hi Ipstenu,

Sorry, I don’t really understand your response.

1) What is the difference between a member and a user across the network? Not that I have a membership program or member database on any of the sites.

2) Are you saying that by “importing data” I can only have one MySQL database for all 3 websites?

3) Does my response to ndsailor above better help to illustrate what I am trying to achieve?

4) Interestingly, I after runing the Multisite User Management plugin tests mentioned above, I disabled the plugin and then disabled All New Registrations in the Network Admin Settings panel, but was still able to register a new user using the registrations form (Formidable Pro) on the www domain. This suggests to me that there may be a disconnect between Network admin and the various sites, which could explain the userbase not being shared?

Ongoing Thanks ??

Hi ndsailor,
I’ve looked at the Multisite User Management plugin and tried it now. I installed it from the Network Admin/Plugins panel and did the following:

1) Registered a new user with a registration form (Formidable Pro) on the www domain.
Logged in as Admin, I can see the new user in “Users” on the www domain Dashboard/Users, and also in the Network Admin/Users list.
I cannot see the new user in either of the subdomain Dashboard/Users.

2) Manually added a new user on a subdomain. I can see the new user on the subdomain Dashboard/Users, but not in the Network Admin/Users list, nor on the www domain or other subdomain Dashboard/Users lists.

So, it looks as though the userbase is still not being “shared” across the network ??

Oh well, I upgraded to multisite and I can see it’s going to take a while to understand how it works!