This WordPress plugin changes the upload URL to use "/files" instead of e.g. "/wp-content/uploads/sites/42" by using a combination of a WP filter that changes the base URL and two rewrite rules.
You can see this as a functional revival for the old ms-files.php concept that has been abandoned since WordPress v3.5.
What it does:
- It will overrule any options set in
upload_url_path. You should remove any entries there not to get confused later. - It does not change or touch the
upload_pathoption. So you can either leave the default or use whatever local path you want.
It's main purpose is to make staging, migration etc. painless.
In combination with Andrew Patterson's plugin Absolute Relative URLs you will be able to migrate your blog sites with ease.
Although this plugin should work for standard WP installations its main purpose is to be used in a multisite network environment.
If you are not running a multisite, changing the options upload_path and upload_url_path directly would have basically the same result.
To do that, just open the kind-of-hidden options page https://foo.bar/wp-admin/options.php
I tried to change the options upload_path and upload_url_path in a multisite network to achieve the same result,
but there is happening some weirdness inside the WP core that always adds sites/{ID} to whatever path you set.
Not sure if this is by desgin or a bug, but I hate it and it makes development and staging pain in the a...
So I ended up creating this small plugin that does not touch the core functionality for the folder structure itself, but fakes the resulting URL so to say.
It's slower than direct downloads, but imho still acceptable. Modern browsers will cache the files anyway.
Although being field tested, it's not foolproof to set up and use.
Honestly, I fear that people expect magic happening here only to be disappointed straight away.
Requires at least: WordPress v5.1.17 (I mean it! -> 5.0.2 does! not! work! and I did not test it below that version)
Following PHP extension has to be enabled in php.ini depending on your setup:
extension=fileinfo.so || extension=php_fileinfo.dll || extension = fileinfo
Web server requirements:
- Nginx: should work OOB
- Apache:
rewrite_modulehas to be loaded - IIS: URL Rewrite Module has to be installed
Other web servers are untested. Feel free to try out on your own.
After having the plugin installed and activated jump over to the settings page of the plugin and find a detailed description on how to create rewrite rules for your environment.
The concept behind this whole thing is to fake the URL. So please do not start to manipulate the folder structure for the uploads unless you understand how this is working. Just leave everything default at the beginning!
Go to your media library, find an image file and it's URL. You should see that the path changed from e.g.
https://[your-domain]/wp-content/uploads/sites/[blog-id]/[year]/[month]/my-image.jpg
to
https://[your-domain]/files/[year]/[month]/my-image.jpg
If you have the option Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders disabled then it will look like this:
https://[your-domain]/files/my-image.jpg
If you copy the URL and can open the image in a new browser tab then everything works as expected and you can start adding media links with the new URL path to your blog content.
If not, check your folder structure! Especially when your WordPress site is not in the root folder.
My inner Monk hates the fact that the mainsite upload folder is wp-content/uploads per default while the other sites start with wp-content/uploads/sites/2 and so on.
If you are like me, you might want to change the option upload_path for the mainsite to point to wp-content/uploads/sites/1 to have everything nice and tidy while leaving the other sites default.
The plugin will not change any content whatsoever after being activated. That said you can either decide to live with already existing old links
since they work like before or you could e.g. change all links in your wp_posts table using a replace SQL statement.
Enjoy!