One of these days I’m going to knuckle down, find the copy of WordPress for Dummies that Auntie M. gave me for Christmas*, recover the password for my webhost and do another installation of WP on the second SQL server.
(* WP was messing me about at that point. Possibly the three-hospitals-in-11-days thing didn’t help either. So I bought that book with Auntie M’s usual book voucher. I’m not sure the book did me any good but the hospital visits became less frequent and certainly not as dramatic. Unexpected side-effect.)
See, I am really getting into this weird and wonderful world of fibre arts knitting. I have stories to tell about projects, interactions with other knitters, yarn photos and all that. And I don’t really want to fling it all on 4th Edition because my brain isn’t compartmentalised like that. So I want a knitting blog. Oh yes. Hosted by myself, of course. And you people who are yet to be smitten by my enthusiasm can avoid reading about knitting. And I’ll be writing scores of fascinating entries about lace patterns, knitting podcasts and buying yarn. For people who’ll appreciate it
Deadline for myself: end of August. Baby steps. Any links to WP-on-2nd server baby steps much appreciated.
More power to the knitting! x K
Absolutely! Remember the green swallowtail I showed you? I’m thinking of ripping it out and redoing it on larger needles – I don’t like its lack of drape.
Ooh! Great idea. (And I’ve got blisters from crocheting. And I blame you.)
Unless the methods of creating multiple instances of WordPress you’re planning to use specifically requires that the different blogs’ databases be held on different servers, you probably don’t need to set up a second database on a different SQL server.
The WordPress config file allows you to set a prefix for table names for that instance of WordPress, so whereas the default is that all tables for your WordPress installation begin with ‘wp_’ you can set up a second installation so that it uses a prefix of, say, ‘wp2_’ (or perhaps ‘knit_’?) and the tables for that WordPress blog will sit quite happily alongside those for your existing site.
The fun bit isn’t the database, it’s getting different instances of WordPress to sit alongside one another without tripping one another up. See here for some options.
*suddenly feels very male and full of testosterone as he knows next to nothing of knitting … but the more powet to ‘ya*
@John: I forgot about that, duh!!! Thanks for the advice. That does sound relatively straightforward(ish).
@DK: So many things I could say but won’t :p
@KM: Are you crocheting with cotton? That might explain your blisters? And I refuse to take responsibility!
Unfortunately, getting two sets of WordPress databases to sit alongside one another in your SQL database is the easy bit. The problem is getting two instances of WordPress running on the same host whilst sharing the same domain (e.g. with fourth edition remaining at http://www.fourth-edition.co.uk/ and your knitting site living at http://www.fourth-edition.co.uk/knit/ and using a different theme, set up plugins etc.)
As I understand it, the simplest approach is to set up a subdirectory which will serve as the root directory for your new weblog, whilst leaving your present site as it stands. It’s slightly fiddly to have two sets of WordPress files to maintain through two separate Dashboard panels, but it is a workable solution and (IMHO) preferable to having to deal with the various hacks and modifications to the system files that people have come up with over the years in the hopes of turning WordPress into a true multi-blog platform.
[Email me if you want to discuss this in more detail.]
@John: I’m going to be AFK but will *definitely* come back to you on that one. I’ve only looked at it briefly but am I right in assuming that I’ll need to look at WP as a multi-user enviroment (although I’ll be the only one writing) rather than a single-user? And that it essentially boils down to either subdomain OR subdirectory? Man, I really should just go for another domain but I like being in one place.
Some of your options may be constrained by the way your web host works, but in general you have the right idea: if you have two installations of WordPress in different subdirectories (regardless of whether one of those subdirectories actually shows up to users as a subdomain rather than a subdirectory) then you’ll end up having to administer the two sites separately. Not ideal, but not the end of the world.
I’ll await your email…
Oh, I just came across these ones. Nicelynice.
http://mingyisung.com/
http://www.anacam.com/hats/