Static directories in a WordPress multisite network

Question

I’m planning ahead for a class website, where students will have the choice to either build their pages from scratch, or to use a WordPress multisite install as a CMS.

I would like their work to sport URLs such as :

http:// myschool.edu/2011/project1 ➤ WP blog
http:// myschool.edu/2011/project2 ➤ serves files directly uploaded by the students
http:// myschool.edu/2011/project3 ➤ WP blog

And to have it work for future years too (2012, etc.).

My gut feeling is that this would be possible to achieve with some Redirect rules in the Apache configuration. Even if I have to manually write them.

Can someone with more experience with the WP Network feature and ModRewrite confirm this is possible? Or suggest an altogether better alternative? Thanks!

Answer 1

If a folder physically exists on the server, that will override the blog address in multisite. No fancy rewrites needed.

Your only issue is making sure that they have access to that folder and that folder only, if they choose the static one. ;)

Also: You cannot nest URLs in multisite. You'd need a new install in each year folder to get what you want.

Answer 2

So basically all you want is to have a folder that content's are static?

With the default WordPress's rewrite rules, if a folder or file which has been called exists then the rewrite rule isn't follow and the static folder or file is served. So what would happen is if they try to access the following.

http:// myschool.edu/2011/project2 <- it would get served. http:// myschool.edu/2011/project2/404.html <- WordPress 404 message. http:// myschool.edu/2011/project2/exists.html <- it would get served.