how to properly set forum.mydomain.com with Flarum ?

divideconcept

Hi, I own a domain+shared hosting at namecheap.com, and installed Flarum successfully on it, but now that https://www.mydomain.com/flarum/public works properly, I'm lost trying to figure how to convert it to https://forum.mydomain.com.

In the namecheap cpanel I have a Subdomains category, which I can fill with:
subdomain: forum
domain: mydomain.com
document root: forum.mydomain.com
redirection: https://www.mydomain.com/flarum/public

But when I type forum.mydomain.com in a web browser, it converts to https://mydomain.com/flarum/public which is not what I want. What am I missing ?

wolfman

divideconcept redirection: https://www.mydomain.com/flarum/public

But when I type forum.mydomain.com in a web browser, it converts to https://mydomain.com/flarum/public which is not what I want. What am I missing ?

You said it yourself! That is exactly what a redirection is for!

Sorry, i am not familiar with Namecheap nor cpanel, but instead of redirecting your Flarum-subdomain there should be an option to install Flarum on your subdomain. That is most likely a different path/folder from your currentinstallation of Flarum.

Edit:

divideconcept document root: forum.mydomain.com

That is most likely the path where you want your Flarum installation. And then remove the redirection for your subdomain.

Kalecgos

divideconcept Yes, as @wolfman said, you have set up a redirection for your subdomain which actuall redirects all requests to your main domain. Try to switch it off in CPanel and select /path/to/flarum/public as your document root for the subdomain.

luceos

Have you looked at the custom paths section in the docs?

https://docs.flarum.org/install#customizing-paths

divideconcept

luceos I did test that and was indeed able to manually move the Flarum folders/files to https://www.mydomain.com/forum but as I read the doc it seems to be a plan B option and not the recommended way to set up Flarum. I was wondering if I could try the subdomain thing (https://forum.mydomain.com) first before falling back to moving Flarum folders/files to a /forum folder.

divideconcept

wolfman Kalecgos
Indeed I'm one step in the right direction now, but not fully there yet !

If I try with an empty folder (www.mydomain.com/emptyfolder) I can properly make it root with the following settings (and no redirection):

subdomain: empty
domain: mydomain.com
document root: public_html/emptyfolder

When I then browse to https://empty.mydomain.com the url stay as-is, and I see the content of my emptyfolder.

But when I do the same for my public Flarum folder with the following settings:

subdomain: forum
domain: mydomain.com
document root: public_html/flarum/public

Unfortunately when I browse to https://forum.mydomain.com the url gets rewritten as https://forum.mydomain.com/flarum/public

So I suppose Flarum is doing something to rewrite the url, despite flarum/public being considered as root in the subdomain settings ?

divideconcept

Ok I finally have a fully working Flarum with proper subdomain now !
The trick was to set up and use the subdomain BEFORE setting up Flarum.
It's not possible (or complicated) to set up Flarum and THEN the subdomain.

So first, install Flarum files using composer.
Then, set up the subdomain pointing to the public folder of Flarum:

subdomain: forum
domain: mydomain.com
document root: public_html/flarum/public

And then navigate to forum.mydomaincom to set up Flarum (with the mysql and admin id etc).

luceos

divideconcept the step you probably missed was updating url in config.php after changing the url of Flarum.

divideconcept

luceos Indeed ! Anyway, all set now 🙂