MSM Path Trouble in EE3

Question

In EE2 there was the "Server path to site's templates" for each site in MSM. So it was possible to have two separated folder structures similar to:

domain-A.tld (with whole ee system)
/system
/themes
/css
/js
/templates

domain-B.tld (without any system)
/css
/js
/templates

So it was easy to run two different frontends.

Now in ee3 there is no possibility to set a custom basepath for the templates of different MSM-Sites. So all template files for both domains would now be stored in the directory of domain-A (when looking at the example above)

I'm working with the Editor 'Sublime Text' on a local machine and want to work on two complete different folder structures. How to do it with ee3?

Answer 1

In EE2 this was achieved by setting the tmpl_file_basepath system configuration override either in config.php or in the CP (Global Template Preferences) e.g.

$config['tmpl_file_basepath'] = '/home/usr/domain.com/system/expressionengine/templates/'

The EE2 docs for System Configuration Overrides has this override in its list. Tellingly, the equivalent page for EE3 does not contain this same override, suggesting that it has been deliberately removed. Sorry to say, but barring a 'feature request' to EllisLab, there's no easy way in EE to achieve this.

EE2 docs (link) | EE3 docs (link)

If you have access to the command line for your server, then using symlinks might be a way to get the result you want without hacking EE. Create a symlink (ln -s) from the templates directory in the core, initial site, to wherever you need in your secondary domain.