[smt88]

Moving content from one URL to another is going to create SEO issues. The issues aren't permanent, but if you rely on search traffic for cashflow, you just can't do it.

It's possible (but not necessarily as performant) to have your Craft code running at oururl.com/blog and oururl.com/tutorial, but your Laravel code running at your other URLs. It really just depends on how your server is configured (and which server you're using).

Generally speaking, I think there are reasons to use subdomains (addressing different regions perhaps, definitely when running a different SaaS codebase).

For your purposes, I don't see a good reason to use a subdomain, and it does add a little complexity related to configuration, cookies, SSL certs, and user perception.

[swandive]

He told us that it wouldn't be possible to have Craft running as you mentioned though, and that we'd need to set up subdomains and have two instances of Craft running. One for blog.oururl.com and one for tutorials.oururl.com

[smt88]

Your dev doesn't know what he's talking about. Get rid of him. You obviously don't trust him enough to be working with him in the first place, if you're coming here for a second opinion.

Craft has the concepts of "singles" (pages) and "channels"[1]. You only need one copy of Craft running.

I can't recommend a file structure without knowing how your current URLs are constructed, but there definitely is a solution that doesn't involve subdomains.

Just as an example, let's say you install Craft to /craft and your existing Laravel code is in /laravel.

You'd configure your server such that "/tutorials/[whatever]" is always directed to /craft/public_html/index.php, and "/products/[whatever]" (assuming /products is your current URL prefix) is always redirected to /laravel/public/index.php.

All that said, Craft may not be the right solution for you. WordPress isn't particularly well-engineered, but it's totally free, there are millions of themes and plugins for it, and the considerations involved in deploying/managing it are discussed to death online. In short: it has a massive community, and that's important when it comes to saving time/money.

1. http://buildwithcraft.com/docs/sections-and-entries

[swandive]

He's now decided that the subdomain idea is a bad one, and that we'll run the site on Craft, stick the Laravel portion in a folder "browse" and use the .htaccess file to manipulate the urls so that nothing changes.

Does that make sense?

[swandive]

Thanks again for all of your help.

[gus_massa]

I also think that you should try to keep the old URL unchanged.

I'm not an expert in this subject. Is it possible to use something like a Apache redirect or rewrite to implement the different domains under the hood, but show the users only one domain?

[swandive]

Thank you for your feedback!