By default TYPO3 is administrated from the directory “typo3/”. You can change (rename) that so the backend is available from another directory, eg. “my_typo3_admin_dir/”. But the frontend and backend is tied together in some ways that mean you’ll have to change parts of the source code. That is relatively easy if you follow these guidelines:
- Rename the “typo3/” dir/softlink to “my_typo3_admin_dir/”. Notice that the backend directory must always be a sub directory to the website (extensions inside + frontend edit relies on the backend to be there). Further it cannot be a sub-sub-directory either! (This will work only partially and is currently not intended to be fixed).
- Search for the string ‘define(“TYPO3_mainDir”‘. At least four scripts will be found: typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/index_ts.php (the index.php file), typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/showpic.php, t3lib/thumbs.php and typo3/init.php. With each instance change the constant definition from “typo3/” to “my_typo3_admin_dir/”.
- Any local extensions (those installed in typo3conf/ext/) that has backend modules in them (those with conf.php files) MUST have their $BACK_PATH definition in the conf.php file changed! If they are installed by the extension manager everything should be fine, but if not, you must change manually. You will receive an error something like this:Warning: Failed opening ‘../../../../typo3/init.php’ for inclusion…
- Rarely: The extension “direct_mail” has two cron-scripts, dmailerd.phpcron and returnmail.phpsh. They have “typo3/” hardcoded as admin directory as well. If you use these scripts, you will have to change that too.
- Finally you should remove the “temp_CACHED_ps*” files found in typo3conf/ before you test the new settings. Those will be re-generated with adjusted paths on the first executing of a TYPO3 script. On UNIX systems something like this will do the trick:
rm typo3conf/temp_CACHED_ps*