XF 2.0 Moving the forum to a subdirectory

vexx

Active member
Hey guys,

I want to add a Wordpress installation to my site, to cover news, guides and other media. However, Xenforo is installed to the root of my site and I want to move it to a subfolder (eg. /forums). How do you guys recommend I approach this? Should I move everything into the subdirectory manually?

Thanks!
 
Hey guys,

I want to add a Wordpress installation to my site, to cover news, guides and other media. However, Xenforo is installed to the root of my site and I want to move it to a subfolder (eg. /forums). How do you guys recommend I approach this? Should I move everything into the subdirectory manually?

Thanks!

It's unfortunate that you cannot have both in the root, however that's the way it is.

Yes, you can just move the files into the subdirectory manually.

A couple of things to sonsider:

  • If you subdirectory is /forums/ you will get the double /fourms/forums/ in the URL when people are viewing the forum list or view. So many people choose a name such as /community/ instead of /forums/ (As it is here)
  • Redirects may be important to you, and you cannot just do a blanket redirect from root to subdirectory as the WP pages would also be redirected. I would suggest specific redirects, e.g. for threads, forums, resources etc.

e.g.
Code:
RewriteRule ^threads/(.*)$ community/threads/$1
RewriteRule ^forums/(.*)$ community/forums/$1[R=301,NC,L]

( Ican't guarantee that's exactly correct, but something like that would work just on threads and forums and leave WP alone)
 
It's unfortunate that you cannot have both in the root, however that's the way it is.

Yes, you can just move the files into the subdirectory manually.

A couple of things to sonsider:

  • If you subdirectory is /forums/ you will get the double /fourms/forums/ in the URL when people are viewing the forum list or view. So many people choose a name such as /community/ instead of /forums/ (As it is here)
  • Redirects may be important to you, and you cannot just do a blanket redirect from root to subdirectory as the WP pages would also be redirected. I would suggest specific redirects, e.g. for threads, forums, resources etc.

e.g.
Code:
RewriteRule ^threads/(.*)$ community/threads/$1
RewriteRule ^forums/(.*)$ community/forums/$1[R=301,NC,L]

( Ican't guarantee that's exactly correct, but something like that would work just on threads and forums and leave WP alone)
these work
 
Note that theoretically you could redirect other "directories"

Code:
RewriteRule ^accounts/(.*)$ community/accounts/$1[R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^resources/(.*)$ community/resources/$1[R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^members/(.*)$ community/members/$1[R=301,NC,L]

But these are less likely to have any incoming links (apart from search engine index which will update anyway after a while and less SEO important)
 
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Thank you @Mr Lucky
I wonder if you can help me further. I am having difficulty with the proper rules. I want to install a CMS (Drupal) in the root and move xenForo to its new subdirectory /community.
It seems the rules I am using keep redirecting mydomain.com/index.php to /community
How can I permanently redirect years of xenforo links to the new /community sub while enabling a CMS into the root?

here are the root rules I am using.

Code:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
RewriteRule (.*) /community/ [R=301]
RewriteRule ^threads/(.*)$ community/threads/$1
RewriteRule ^forums/(.*)$ community/forums/$1[R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^tags/(.*)$ community/tags/$1
 
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It seems the rules I am using keep redirecting mydomain.com/index.php to /community

You have some extra stuff in there.

What I'm suggesting only moves the essential xenforo stuff /forum/ and /threads/

I imagine this is your issue: RewriteRule (.*) /community/ [R=301]
That isn’t part of what I recommended.

The following (as mentioned above) will not move index.php which you really shouldn't be doing

Code:
RewriteRule ^threads/(.*)$ community/threads/$1
RewriteRule ^forums/(.*)$ community/forums/$1[R=301,NC,L]
 
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They should drop the old and index the new
I had your rewrite working perfectly! (up until I mistakenly included (the recommended code xenforo has in their support page) erk
RewriteRule (.*) /community/ [R=301].
That rewrite killed my drupal install .

Hope this all makes sense.

Now..
After I removed the xenforo rewrite and reinstalled drupal again, your rewrites no longer work. Its like the xenforo rewrite has cached something permanently. Can you please help . Here is my root htaccess with your rewrites in there that don't seem to do anything now.

Code:
#
# Apache/PHP/Drupal settings:
#

# Protect files and directories from prying eyes.
<FilesMatch "\.(engine|inc|install|make|module|profile|po|sh|.*sql|theme|twig|tpl(\.php)?|xtmpl|yml)(~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig|\.save)?$|^(\.(?!well-known).*|Entries.*|Repository|Root|Tag|Template|composer\.(json|lock)|web\.config)$|^#.*#$|\.php(~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig|\.save)$">
  <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
    Require all denied
  </IfModule>
  <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
    Order allow,deny
  </IfModule>
</FilesMatch>

# Don't show directory listings for URLs which map to a directory.
Options -Indexes

# Set the default handler.
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm

# Add correct encoding for SVGZ.
AddType image/svg+xml svg svgz
AddEncoding gzip svgz

# Most of the following PHP settings cannot be changed at runtime. See
# sites/default/default.settings.php and
# Drupal\Core\DrupalKernel::bootEnvironment() for settings that can be
# changed at runtime.

# PHP 7, Apache 1 and 2.
<IfModule mod_php7.c>
  php_value assert.active                   0
</IfModule>

# Requires mod_expires to be enabled.
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
  # Enable expirations.
  ExpiresActive On

  # Cache all files for 2 weeks after access (A).
  ExpiresDefault A1209600

  <FilesMatch \.php$>
    # Do not allow PHP scripts to be cached unless they explicitly send cache
    # headers themselves. Otherwise all scripts would have to overwrite the
    # headers set by mod_expires if they want another caching behavior. This may
    # fail if an error occurs early in the bootstrap process, and it may cause
    # problems if a non-Drupal PHP file is installed in a subdirectory.
    ExpiresActive Off
  </FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

# Set a fallback resource if mod_rewrite is not enabled. This allows Drupal to
# work without clean URLs. This requires Apache version >= 2.2.16. If Drupal is
# not accessed by the top level URL (i.e.: http://example.com/drupal/ instead of
# http://example.com/), the path to index.php will need to be adjusted.
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
  FallbackResource /index.php
</IfModule>

# Various rewrite rules.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on

#xenforo /community rules
RewriteRule ^threads/(.*)$ community/threads/$1
RewriteRule ^forums/(.*)$ community/forums/$1[R=301,NC,L]
#RewriteRule ^tags/(.*)$ community/tags/$1[R=301,NC,L]

  # Set "protossl" to "s" if we were accessed via https://.  This is used later
  # if you enable "www." stripping or enforcement, in order to ensure that
  # you don't bounce between http and https.
  RewriteRule ^ - [E=protossl]
  RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
  RewriteRule ^ - [E=protossl:s]

  # Make sure Authorization HTTP header is available to PHP
  # even when running as CGI or FastCGI.
  RewriteRule ^ - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

  # Block access to "hidden" directories whose names begin with a period. This
  # includes directories used by version control systems such as Subversion or
  # Git to store control files. Files whose names begin with a period, as well
  # as the control files used by CVS, are protected by the FilesMatch directive
  # above.
  #
  # NOTE: This only works when mod_rewrite is loaded. Without mod_rewrite, it is
  # not possible to block access to entire directories from .htaccess because
  # <DirectoryMatch> is not allowed here.
  #
  # If you do not have mod_rewrite installed, you should remove these
  # directories from your webroot or otherwise protect them from being
  # downloaded.
  RewriteRule "/\.|^\.(?!well-known/)" - [F]

  # If your site can be accessed both with and without the 'www.' prefix, you
  # can use one of the following settings to redirect users to your preferred
  # URL, either WITH or WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix. Choose ONLY one option:
  #
  # To redirect all users to access the site WITH the 'www.' prefix,
  # (http://example.com/foo will be redirected to http://www.example.com/foo)
  # uncomment the following:
  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
  # RewriteRule ^ http%{ENV:protossl}://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
  #
  # To redirect all users to access the site WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix,
  # (http://www.example.com/foo will be redirected to http://example.com/foo)
  # uncomment the following:
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
   RewriteRule ^ http%{ENV:protossl}://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

  # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory or in a
  # VirtualDocumentRoot and the rewrite rules are not working properly.
  # For example if your site is at http://example.com/drupal uncomment and
  # modify the following line:
  # RewriteBase /drupal
  #
  # If your site is running in a VirtualDocumentRoot at http://example.com/,
  # uncomment the following line:
  # RewriteBase /

  # Redirect common PHP files to their new locations.
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?/(install\.php) [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?/(rebuild\.php)
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !core
  RewriteRule ^ %1/core/%2 [L,QSA,R=301]

  # Rewrite install.php during installation to see if mod_rewrite is working
  RewriteRule ^core/install\.php core/install.php?rewrite=ok [QSA,L]

  # Pass all requests not referring directly to files in the filesystem to
  # index.php.
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
  RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

  # For security reasons, deny access to other PHP files on public sites.
  # Note: The following URI conditions are not anchored at the start (^),
  # because Drupal may be located in a subdirectory. To further improve
  # security, you can replace '!/' with '!^/'.
  # Allow access to PHP files in /core (like authorize.php or install.php):
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/core/[^/]*\.php$
  # Allow access to test-specific PHP files:
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/core/modules/system/tests/https?\.php
  # Allow access to Statistics module's custom front controller.
  # Copy and adapt this rule to directly execute PHP files in contributed or
  # custom modules or to run another PHP application in the same directory.
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/core/modules/statistics/statistics\.php$
  # Deny access to any other PHP files that do not match the rules above.
  # Specifically, disallow autoload.php from being served directly.
  RewriteRule "^(.+/.*|autoload)\.php($|/)" - [F]

  # Rules to correctly serve gzip compressed CSS and JS files.
  # Requires both mod_rewrite and mod_headers to be enabled.
  <IfModule mod_headers.c>
    # Serve gzip compressed CSS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip.
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s
    RewriteRule ^(.*)\.css $1\.css\.gz [QSA]

    # Serve gzip compressed JS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip.
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s
    RewriteRule ^(.*)\.js $1\.js\.gz [QSA]

    # Serve correct content types, and prevent double compression.
    RewriteRule \.css\.gz$ - [T=text/css,E=no-gzip:1,E=no-brotli:1]
    RewriteRule \.js\.gz$ - [T=text/javascript,E=no-gzip:1,E=no-brotli:1]

    <FilesMatch "(\.js\.gz|\.css\.gz)$">
      # Serve correct encoding type.
      Header set Content-Encoding gzip
      # Force proxies to cache gzipped & non-gzipped css/js files separately.
      Header append Vary Accept-Encoding
    </FilesMatch>
  </IfModule>
</IfModule>

# Various header fixes.
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
  # Disable content sniffing, since it's an attack vector.
  Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
  # Disable Proxy header, since it's an attack vector.
  RequestHeader unset Proxy
</IfModule>
 
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