Proper configuration of Sitefinity as a child application

Our client has an existing web site (their main one) which is set up as a custom-built web application (http://example.com). They are using Sitefinity for several of their other web properties (in a Multisite install), and they would like to start integrating their main site into this Sitefinity install -- in effect, migrating their main site over to Sitefinity piece by piece.

The first project to use Sitefinity is to expand their online magazine. To use their pre-existing SEO equity, they would like this site to be under their main domain as a subdirectory (http://example.com/magazine/). I had initially assumed that we could simply add the existing top-level domain to multisite install (http://example.com), create the pages in it, and then set up the a child application of the existing custom web application, pointing it at the Sitefinity multisite installation folder.

So, I would have:

http://example.com/magazine

pointing at

[SITEFINITY_MULTISITE_ROOT]

and set up a site in Sitefinity with

Home
Magazine
- Magazine section one
- Magazine section two
and so on ...

Unfortunately, what ends up happening is that http://example.com/magazine/ resolves to the Home page, and not the Magazine page, and the Magazine page URL ends up being example.com/.../magazine

The only workaround I could come up with was to make the child application URL http://example.com/sf/ (so that the Magazine page URL is example.com/.../magazine), and then use 301 redirects to send requests to the proper Magazine URL. However, I am dissatisfied with that solution. I am neither a server config expert nor a Sitefinity expert, so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to set this up correctly.

Hello Joseph,

I apologize if I did not get the full picture correctly, but when you host Sitefinity under the root as all pages url is resolved Root/MyPage, so your Sitefinity site should be on top.

Your homepage, which if I got this correct is not Sitefinity one, could be loaded as follows:

• create a page (e.g. "Home")
• set this page as a homepage
• then go to "Title&Properties" and check "This page redirects to another page" and enter the url of your external homepage. That way you will have a homepage which will be external one and magazine page which is Sitefinity page.

Hope this helps.

Hello Vassil,

Thank you for your answer! Unfortunately, simply redirecting the home page will not work for us, because the old site is a custom-built web solution with hundreds of pages and several dependent applications. We cannot migrate them all to Sitefinity at this point, and were hoping to do it piece by piece.

Again, thanks anyway for your answer.

Hello,

 That option to select redirect to another page is not available on a regular page. It is only available on a redirect page.