Scott's Spiel

Many people are now considering using WordPress as a content management system (CMS). While that is not what WordPress was originally designed for, it can be an excellent CMS if used properly.

One of the problems for those trying to set up a CMS with WordPress is to try and have the URLs make sense. Imagine having a site with a root install (WordPress) and also wanting a forum (in /forum say). It wouldn’t make much sense to have links for blog posts coming from the root but yet having to go through a folder for a forum. At least, it doesn’t make much sense to me.

What I wanted to do was separate blog posts from the rest of WordPress. We want WordPress to run the whole show but we need to make the actual blog look like a separate entity.

As it turns out, this is rather simple. The permalink features of WordPress can sort it all out. To set this up you’ll need everything mentioned in the Codex Permalinks article.

On the permalinks screen, select the structure of your choice. A numerical indicator is recommended at least somewhere. You should have some content in the Custom Structure box by selecting one of the default options. Simply modify this to include the “subfolder” you want your blog to live (something like /blog/ would make sense, no?). You should be left with something like this: Simply Save and your blog will now appear as if it is in a subdirectory. Much more logistical. Pages are unaffected by this change so you can add pages to your CMS to your hearts content. I’ve found this works well, although plugins may be affected.

Would be interested if anyone has done this differently.