{"id":456,"date":"2019-09-11T16:39:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T16:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/?p=456"},"modified":"2019-10-09T14:12:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T14:12:16","slug":"subdomains-vs-directories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/subdomains-vs-directories\/","title":{"rendered":"Subdomains Vs Directories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Consider this scenario: you want to have a personal blog on your new Web space, where you share pictures and short written pieces with family, friends, and colleagues. In addition, you\u2019re working on a large research project that requires you to build a Web-based repository of digital images related to your discipline. You want to use one application (for example, WordPress<\/a>) to manage your personal blog. For your research project, you\u2019ve settled on another open-source application (let\u2019s say, Omeka<\/a>). Both of these are applications that need to be installed on your Web host, but you can\u2019t just put them both on your main domain name \u2013 if you did, both sites would quickly experience conflicts and errors. You need to cordon off separate spaces for your different Web \u201cproperties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two primary strategies for parceling up your Web space. You can create subdomains <\/strong>or directories<\/strong>. But before you can understand the difference, you need to first understand what we mean when we talk about your root<\/strong> domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Root domain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve registered a new subdomain for Coventry.Domains called pseudonym.coventry.domains. Anything that is stored at this core URL<\/a> is considered to be at the root<\/strong> of your domain: nothing comes before the address or after the address. You can certainly decide that you simply want to have a single site on your Web host (say a blog running WordPress), and you can set that blog up at your domain\u2019s root. To get to your site in this scenario, users would simply go to pseudonym.coventry.domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subdomains<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you want to do more than just have a single website on your domain, you need to decide now to organize your space. One way to do so is by setting up subdomains<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re already familiar with the concept of subdomains, even if you don\u2019t know it. Consider Coventry University\u2019s public website at https:\/\/coventry.ac.uk<\/a>. As you browse parts of that site, you\u2019ll notice that the domain changes. When you\u2019re looking at your department website, for example the site for the Library team’s Locate service at\u00a0http:\/\/locate.coventry.ac.uk\/<\/a>, the URL is no longer just coventry.ac.uk. Now the root of the URL is locate.coventry.ac.uk<\/strong>, indicating that you\u2019re on a different area that is dedicated to the Locate library online system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you browse to the student pages at\u00a0students.coventry.ac.uk<\/a> you will notice that the domain changes again, this time indicating that you\u2019re in the Students Pages of the Coventry University website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see the domains serve two purposes: they help to organize the site from a technical perspective, but they also serve as indications to the users that they are in a new\/different space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you work on your Coventry.Domains space, you\u2019re welcome to create as many subdomains as you like, and in each subdomain you can create a distinct, individual website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The alternative for organizing your space is to simply set up directories. These function much like file folders on your computer. Instead of creating a blog on a subdomain at blog.pseudonym.coventry.domains<\/strong> you would place it in a directory called \u201cblog\u201d making the address pseudonym.coventry.domains\/blog<\/strong>. Setting up a directory is really easy. You can create folders on the fly when installing applications (like WordPress), and you can also manually create them in your file manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one particular issue you need to be aware of. Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve installed WordPress to be your primary blog at pseudonym.coventry.domains<\/strong>. Later, you decide you want to create another image gallery site on your site, and you want to place it at pseudonym.coventry.domains\/gallery<\/strong>. But, if for some reason you\u2019ve already created a page on your WordPress site called \u201cGallery\u201d then the URL pseudonym.coventry.domains\/gallery<\/strong> will already be taken. If you try to create a directory of the same name, you\u2019ll get a conflict and errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tips and review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n