WORDPRESSMULTISITESouthern California WordPress Meetup, Feb 26th, 2013 Belsien Thomas, @belsien http://wppowerguide.com

WHO AM I? Im Belsien Thomas (@belsien), building websites with PHP, JAVA, and various programming languages for over 12+ years. Worked with WordPresss since 2006 (version 2.0). Built and Managed a Multisite (5 sites) install for Murad (http://muradinclusivehealth.com ). Utilized Global Navigation, Multiple Access Roles, Caching/Performance Tuning, and other enterprise features. Run a WordPress blog http://wppowerguide.com has guides and tips on how to utilize WordPress as a CMS in powerful ways, other than just a blog.

TOPICS COVERED Multisite Overview and Background Advantages/Disadvantages Setup and Configuration User Roles and Backend Options Network Themes and Plugins Recommended Plugins Uses & Examples of Mutlisite

OVERVIEW & BACKGROUNDMultisite (MS) allows you to createmultiple WordPress websites (aka aNetwork) with a single installation ofWordPress.Previously called WordPress Multi User(WPMU) but renamed to justMultisite, comes with WordPress coresince version 3.0.

ADVANTAGES Create an unlimited number of websites with just 1 installation on your server. Share themes, plugins, and user information across all websites in your network. Easy to Upgrade everything across network at once. Flexible, can be setup to run as Subdomains, Sub folders, or mapped to separate domains.

DISADVANTAGES Database is even more critical, corruption can bring down all sites in network. (Keep backups!) Some Added Steps and Screens to enable plugins and themes. Not every plugin works well in MS environment. Can take more time and effort to troubleshoot, much less articles written online about MS.

2 TYPES OF MULTISITENETWORKS Sub Domain Based Sub Folder Based mysite.com mysite.com mario.mysite.com mysite.com/mario stage.mysite.com mysite.com/stage

DOMAIN MAPPING (PLUGIN) Allows you to map a top level domain to either a subdomain or subfolder.mariosite.co Mapped Mapped luigisite.com to m to mario.mysite.co mysite.com/l m uigi

DECIDE WHICH TYPE OF NETWORK ISRIGHT FOR YOU Can not change the type of network once you choose subdomain or subfolder. Highly Recommended reading.http://codex.wordpress.org/Before_You_Create_A_Networkhttp://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network

SETUP AND CONFIGURATION 3. Copy/paste 1. Allow 2. Choose and your custom 4. Logout and Networks in Create a directives to Login!wp-config.php network type wp-config.php and .htaccess *Previous Versions of WordPress required creating a blogs.dir directory under wp- content, but now not needed.

1. ALLOW MULTISITENETWORKS Add following to wp-config.php define(WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE, true);

2. SETUP A NETWORK Tools > Network Setup

2. SETUP A NETWORK (CONTINUED)Chose either Sub-domains or Sub-directories. CANT be changed later.For sub-domains you need to have a Wildcard (*) entry in your DNS records.*.yoursite.com

3. COPY/PASTE CONFIGURATIONCODE TO WP-CONFIG.PHP AND.HTACCESS

4. LOGOUT/LOGIN GET NETWORK ADMIN.

NETWORK ADMIN & OPTIONS Network Admin Manage/Create new Websites, Themes, Plugins, and Users

NETWORK SETTINGS IMPORTANTAREAUser Registration, New Site Settings, Welcome Emails, and NotificationsMax Upload File Limit Database setting, trumps your php.ini file!Enable/Disable Plugins menu for Site Admins

NEW ROLE SUPER ADMIN! Super Admins can: Super Manage Network Settings & Admin Options Site Manage Sites Admin Manage Network Users Manage Network Editor Theme, Plugins, & ..basically anything in your Author site. Contributor Subscriber

HOW THEMES WORK IN MULTISITE Themes are not available to websites in your network until youNetwork Enable them. By default, site Admins cant install themes only the Super Admin can.

HOW PLUGINS WORK IN MULTISITE Plugins can be installed and Activated across all sites in your Network OR Selectively activated per website.

HOW PLUGINS WORK INMULTISITE By Default Plugins are hidden from Site Admins. To Enable Plugins go to Network Settings in the Network Admin area, check off Plugins under Enable Administration Menus

RECOMMENDED PLUGINSDomain MappingMap a top-leveldomain(example.com) to anysite in your networkAllow site adminscontrol over mappeddomains

RECOMMENDED PLUGINSNew Blogs DefaultsSet defaults used for allnew sites created in yournetworkCan delete defaultcontent like Hello Worldpost, comment, etc.Can auto-add users to allnew sites created by ID

RECOMMENDED PLUGINS WPMU New Blog Templates The default template for all new sites created on your network. A template selection when people sign up for a new site on your network. A template selection when a super admin user creates a new site in Sites > Add New in the network admin dashboard.

RECOMMENDED PLUGINSGravity Forms +User Reg Add-On Allows Users to Create a new Site in your Network through a registration form.

MULTISITE EXAMPLES WORDPRESS.COMBlogs Run by Automatic, over 400,000 Cloud Based multiple DBs

BLOGS @ BARUCHOnline LMS Teachers and Students have their own blogsIntegrated with BuddyPress Members section

DISCOVER-WP.COMUsers can create their own free 30-day site using tools provided byOnTheGoSystemsUses Blog Templates during registration to let user choose which site theywant.

MURADINCLUSIVEHEALTH.COMGlobal Navigation and Branding across all 5 sites easily expandableNetwork type is PATH based (sub folders)