Can I run a second wordpress site as a subdomain without using multisite?

Question

I have an two wordpress sites that I would like to host on the same domain. One is already up and running, the other is sitting in waiting.

Can I get the second as a subdomain, or simple within a folder, to run on the same domain (different DB) without converting to multisite?

Answer 1

Point the subdomain to the same directory as the main site, and define different settings in your wp-config.php per $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']:

Example from my local setup:

switch ( $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] )
{
    case 'zzl.dev':
        $table_prefix = 'zzl_';
        $table_name   = 'zzl';
        break;

    case 'wpbuch.dev':
        $table_prefix = 'wpbuch_';
        $table_name   = 'wpbuch';
        break;

    default:
        $table_prefix  = 'wp_';
        $table_name   = 'wpdev';
        break;
}

$sub                 = '/wp-content/' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
const WP_CONTENT_DIR = __DIR__ . $sub;
const WP_CONTENT_URL = 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $sub;
const DB_NAME        = $table_name;

You can change much more variables in the switch: all DB_* definitions, WP_PLUGIN_DIR and WP_PLUGIN_URL (to share the plugin list between different sites), WPLANG and so on.

Answer 2

As addition to @toscho's excellent answer, I will add several things...

======== Safety ========

Always be careful with safety. If you try to use any test site in this manner (with many sites paralelly) and on that test site you'll install any crappy/suspicious plugin, which might infect whole WP-Core, then all your other sites will be under risk (although,that risk similarly exists even while you use completely separated installations). This is just a small thing, however, dont worry much about it (because worrying wont help at all).

======== Needed steps to setup on Localhost =======

To point subdomain to main WP-INSTALLATION (while just using special wp-config.php), you need to set-up Alias commands in webserver.

1) Go to ..wamp\bin\apache\apache2.4.9\conf\httpd.conf and uncomment this line: Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

2) in extra/httpd-vhosts.conf add (just modify to your specifics. In the below example, I use already setup domain name localhost... however, you can add anything)

<VirtualHost *:80>
                    #UNCOMMENT_THIS_LINE_ONLY_WHEN_YOU_NEED_SUBFOLDER_TOO#  Alias /subdirectory_name    C:\wamp\www\wp_installation_folder
    ServerName localhost
    ServerAlias subdomain.localhost
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "C:\wamp\www\wp_installation_folder"
    ErrorLog "logs/4-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/4-access.log" common
</VirtualHost>

3) [You dont need to do this step if you use localhost name] In case you with to use you anything other than localhost, then you should point that name in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, like:127.0.0.1 myexample.org`

Restart WampServer and that's all