July 15, 2012
Instructor: Angie Meeker (@angiemeeker)
Slides: http://slidesha.re/LZT6T3
Angie's Multisite-mentor: @angela_r
Multisite = one instance of WordPress running multiple sites with one database. Can share users, plugins, and themes across sites. Gives network admins the ability to manage multiple sites from a single dashboard. Best example: WordPress.com
If you don't need to share users across sites, Multisite might not be the best choice.
Examples
- Best Buy - individual store locations have their own sites
- BGSU Blogs - Individual blogs for students, orgs, etc. (Go Falcons!)
- YourCrimeSite - Share some content across the sites
Child sites will have either subdomains (subdomain.yourdomain.com) or folders (yourdomain.com/folder)
You'll need to make changes to your Htaccess and wp-config.php file to convert a site to multisite
"Multisite is like your wife. She's already in your bed, you just need to turn her on" - @angiemeeker
WordPress Multisite setup instructions from the WordPress codex
Users can have access to 0+ sites - if they have 0 sites, they're treated as a subscriber to the parent site; upon login, they'll be taken to the user edit screen.
Plugins
- WordPress.com Custom CSS - Extremely useful if you want your network sites to be able to customize their site's CSS
- s2Member - Membership plugin used by @angiemeeker
- WP MultiSite Replicator - Quickly duplicate a site (I believe this is the one that was used)
- WordPress MU Domain Mapping - Map fully-qualified domains to multisite blogs
- @jjj says this approach is hacky - you can create Inception-style networks within networks (plugins exist, Networks+ was mentioned)
- WordPress MU Sitewide Tags Pages - Aggregate content across multisite blogs