Can you link to the site, or perhaps PM me if that's not an option?

I think you should just be able to setup your WP install so that it looks different on the members-pages - you can install a different theme, for example, and have that incorporate a static menu and ignore the one built into the wordpress installation. Posts and pages and other content can be split by simply using categories and some PHP tweaks that prevents non-registered members from accessing the members-only area.

You could of course install a new WP inside that folder, may be, in fact, a neater solution. It'd be an independent install, so it shouldn't really create any issues/conflicts. Use a different database to be on the safe side. I would only worry about server overhead/load times, and the like.

I need to evaluate the complexity of your present WP install to make comments of any intelligence, hence the request for a link.


Cheers,
Avani

Hi Lisa,

I've never specifically nested Wordpress but I have installed Wordpress on multiple subdomains before. Is your domain all sitting on one server? Shared or dedicated?

There isn't too much information but if I were building this site, it can all be handled with one WP installation. Use categories and Page templates and a lot of conditional statements in your theme to achieve different sidebars etc you can even have different headers/footers/skins.

You can do what you planned to do, the only thing is you cannot create Pages with the same name as your nested WP. Still, I wouldn't do that because now you'll end up with 2 WP to manage, 2 sets of plugins. WP upgrades are hell so the fewer installs you have the happier you will be

Although it can work, it will be bulky as all get out - especially w/ WP growing in size w/ every release. The point about maintaining two installs, two sets of plugins, upgrades, etc. really needs to be considered. Is it a quick fix - yes... but this is one of those cases where a little time and investment up front will save you headaches and time later on...

I have done exactly what you are asking but the second install is more like a sample blog/site than a blog that I post on or even keep up to date. I have a few pages and a few sample posts on it and that is it. There are no technical problems with having as many WP installs as you want on a domain as long as you can keep up with them, as the others stated above the only real issues are keeping up with them.

Yes, you can do it. I have done it several times. You can even use the same database as long as you change the table prefix in the config file.

Why not just use Word Press MU? That is what it is for, multiple, independent blogs, but with a single adminstration interface. You get the maximum flexibility without having to maintain multiple sets of plugins and updates, etc.

Check it out here: http://mu.wordpress.org/

I guess this is a stupid question, but why would you want to attempt to nest wordpress? It already nests, doesn't it?

"Regular" Wordpress by itself is a php based CMS (Content Management System) that has a standard structure that consists of a single "Blog Page" - usually the main page, that displays the blog posts, and any number of static "Pages" which can have children pages - which can then be modified as html type web pages for example. These are pages such as the "about" page, and perhaps a form page for a newsletter or offer, etc. They can be anything - I use one for Simple-Press:Forum.

Unless you do a lot a modifications to the underlying php, getting multiple blog pages will requires multiple installs of the WP system, and then the management of this in either case can be quite a hassle - enter Wordpress MU - this is the system that you find on Wordpress.org with zillions of blogs each one owned with a username/password. The beauty is that you only have a single Administration page to manage this large hierarchy of blogs.

If I needed only two blogs one domain I'd take two wp installs over one mu install any day of the week, mu doesn't give you the selection of plugins and themes, and it's not as easy to administrate or install. Even fantastico let's you set up two blogs in the same directory as long as you set up the lowermost first, pretty easy. The size of a wordpress installation is largely irrelevant even with the cheapest shared hosting I'm aware of.

Lisa,

I've done exactly this, it's not really a problem.

For example, my http://www.7MinuteMinisites.com/ is a wordpress install.

But for members, I have a completely different WP install on the /members directory, http://www.7MinuteMinisites.com/members

On this one, I use the Wishlist plugin to protect the pages, only logged in members can see most of it.

Each is complete separate install, with a different w-admin interface.

You should be able to do as many of these on a domain as you'd like!

Dave

You are correct about MU currently not as robust as regular WP - however they are merging the two,and by version 3.0 there will only be WP MU (According to the WP crew anyway) - so by then multiple blogs will simply be one more aspect of WP.

For only two blogs that is not so bad to mange, but if later on you want three or four, or several for blogvertising/affiliate CPA/member sites/ etc. Then I would argue that MU is preferred.

Thanks everyone for their input. Here is more information for what I am doing:

I have a main website that is set up using WordPress. The blog page no longer exists - I replaced it with a custom home page. There are several (nontechnical) users that need the ability to update the website pages. This website also has a password-protected members-only section in a subfolder (like Dave's example above). Originally, I just added the header and footer code to the members pages to make it look the same, and then added another sidebar page for the members menu. But now, the users need the ability to actually update these pages as well, so I was looking for an easy way to load the members pages into WordPress so they could update them that way, but not have the pages show on the main site menu.

It did not occur to me that I could use category tags and conditional statements to control the views of the member pages. Does someone have a link to a code sample that does this? I think I understand how that would work, but it would be nice to see a short example. I do know how to exclude pages from the menu listing. I think I will check into that first just to see if it could be done easily. As far as keeping up with the WP updates, I am using a host that offers one-click install/upgrade process, so that is not a big problem. And this site only uses a few plug-ins.

Thank you all for your input and assistance. If you can point me to some code samples, that would be wonderful. I will be sure to post back with my process and results once finished.

Thanks again!

Lisa

Lisa wouldn't a subscription plugin give you most of that functionality without the headaches?

No it protects pages or entire sites from being seen by anyone that isn't a subcsriber (your members). You can give your users the ability to modify pages as they wish and no one will see the pages besides the subscribed members. There are a few plugins for this

This sounds like precisely the site structure I need to repeat. The members section doesn't need a "blog" it's just a normal website that is password saved.

Have you considered, Buddypress, I know it is a little different, but it might be something to have a look at, there are even some commercial options that are really interesting.

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