Trouble moving wp-content

Ok done a bit more digging and I found this line in the codex

Since Version 2.6, you can move the wp-content directory, which holds your themes, plugins, and uploads, outside of the WordPress application directory.

Previously I took that to mean that I could move wp-content outside of the web root. Maybe I am wrong. Does it just mean I can move it outside the WordPress directory (e.g. if WP is running in a subdirectory) but wp-content would still have to be within the web root?

For WordPress, your wp-content does not have to be at or under the WordPress directory, but some plugins and themes hard-code the URL to wp-content (ignoring WP_CONTENT_URL and WP_CONTENT_DIR settings).

It sounds like your particular theme may have this problem. Do you have a URL that shows the problem?

I am using the twentytwelve theme so I don’t think this should be an issue. Unfortunately I don’t have a URL to show the problem. I am working on a localhost install.

If you have a way of searching your theme and plugin files you could look for wp-content to find out if the content URL is hardcoded anywhere. And try deactivating all plugins as a test, if you haven’t already. Can your browser access other files in https://sitename.com/content/themes/twentytwelve?

I am working on a fresh install, WP 3.5.2, no plugins. I tried accessing the stylesheet URL manually at https://example.com/content/themes/twentytwelve/style.css and get a 404 error. If the request went through WP at all then it would have shown a custom 404 page. But it didn’t. So I’m guessing that means the wp-content directory still needs to be in the web root so that the web server can serve the stylesheet?

I have a site set up in the same manner as (I think) you are after:

content is https://www.example.com/content

WordPress code is in https://www.example com/wp

wp-config.php is in https://www.example.com/ and includes:
define( ‘WP_CONTENT_DIR’, dirname( __FILE__ ) . ‘/content’ );
define( ‘WP_CONTENT_URL’, ‘https://’ . $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’] . ‘/content’ );

index.php is in https://www.example.com/ and includes:
require( ‘./wp/wp-blog-header.php’ );

.htaccess is in https://www.example.com/ and is standard:
`BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress`

I followed Mark Jaquith’s WordPress Skeleten scheme: https://github.com/markjaquith/WordPress-Skeleton

I had to address hard-coded wp-content URLs in the theme files, the database (in post content), and also in a couple of plugins, but after that it all worked.

Good luck!

Hey Martha

Thanks very much for your help. Yes I ended up using something similar to Mark Jaquith’s WP Skeleton. If anyone is wondering, yes you need wp-content to be in the web root.

Cheers,
Joe