As WordPress continues to grow and attract more enterprise organizations, a new set of challenges are surfacing based around integrating existing sites and applications. One of the key requirements for many enterprise sites is the ability to use a CMS for managing content. Find out how WordPress can play nicely with other sites and become a component of a larger solution.

1. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
WordPress and Reverse Proxy
How WordPress can integrate with enterprise websites

2. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
About Me
Solutions Engineer @ WP Engine
Front End Dev
Agencies, Publishing, Ad Tech
Edmund Turbin

3. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
What is a Proxy
I make a request
proxy gets what I asked for

4. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Forward Proxy
client makes request to proxy
proxy gets request from server
proxy returns request
caches request
Intermediary assocated with the client

5. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Proxy
The cloud
FORWARD PROXY

6. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Reverse Proxy
client makes request
external proxy
returns cached request
or, gets request from server
Intermediary assocated with the server

7. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Varnish
The cloud
CACHING DIAGRAMServer

8. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Why Reverse Proxy?
Not on the same network
custom application
Legacy system transition
Users restricted to system by role
Two systems on the same domain

9. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Reverse Proxy and WordPress
WordPress to handle content
external system to integrate seamlessly
same domain
users will not be able to tell they’re on two systems
How does this apply to WordPress?

10. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Enterprise WordPress

11. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Enterprise WordPress
What makes WordPress enterprise ready?
Scalability
Security
Complex Integrations
Multilingual Support
SSO / Access Control

12. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Enterprise WordPress
Who’s Using WordPress in enterprise?

13. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Enterprise WordPress
Large community
No license costs
Extensible - Many integrations
Stable, actively maintained, trusted
Simple for users, content creators
What are the benefits?

14. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Enterprise WordPress
No support
Awareness in enterprise market
What are the challenges?

15. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Solutions
Proxy pass from WordPress
Proxy pass from external website
CDN based solution
Subdomains

16. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Requirements
Proxy Pass to/from WordPress
Block requests from other servers
Update links to reflect site structure
wp-config.php
plugin

17. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Whitelist IP
Allow access from only a single IP

18. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
nginx
PROXY PASS
if URL matches:
fetch content from other server
location /some/site {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1;
}

19. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
wp-config
define('WP_HOME','http://site.com/subfolder/');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://site.com/subfolder/');
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = '/subfolder' . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] = '/subfolder' . $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'];
$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] = '/subfolder' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];

20. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
WordPress Reverse Proxy
The cloud
App 1
App 2site.com/blog
site.com/app
site.com
REVERSE PROXY 1

21. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
WordPress Load Balancer
The cloud
App 1
App 2site.com/blog
site.com/app
site.com
REVERSE PROXY 2

22. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Simpler Solutions
3rd party DNS level split
Requests will not pass through additional infrastructure
If issues arise, troubleshooting is narrowed down

23. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Content Delivery Networks

24. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
WordPress Load Balancer
The cloud
App 1
App 2site.com/blog
site.com/app
site.com
REVERSE PROXY 3
CDN

25. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
Subdomains
Simple solution
Create subdomain with your domain registrar
Forward the subdomain to new site
Mask the domain so that the original URL displays

26. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
WordPress Load Balancer
The cloud
App 1
App 2blog.site.com
site.com/app
site.com
REVERSE PROXY 4

27. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
The Future
Couldn’t we just use the REST API?

28. Edmund Turbin - Solutions Engineer
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
@spicecadet
edmundturbin.com
edmund.turbin@wpengine.com
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