The Users Tab

This page displays the familiar settings that can be accessed through the admin dashboard.

If you’re not all that familiar with these pages, check out these pages from the WordPress Codex: Users Screen, Users Add New Screen and Users Your Profile Screen.

The Themes Tab

On this page, you should see a list of globally deactivated themes.

Updating a theme through the editor is possible by hovering over the title and clicking Edit, but it’s the best way to edit a theme since the changes are lost when an upgrade occurs.

Below each of the theme titles, you can select the Enable link to make the theme available for use on a per-site basis.

The Settings Tab

While some options aren’t too exciting, this is where the bulk of the powerful changes you can make are housed, but not all the options are up for editing. Some settings are deactivated and the field is populated with the words SERIALIZED DATA.

The following settings on this tab have serialized data:

• Active Plugins
• Sticky Posts
• Widget Categories
• Widget Text
• Widget RSS
• Uninstall Plugins
• Widget Search
• Widget Recent-posts
• Widget Recent-comments
• Widget Archives
• Widget Meta
• Sidebars Widgets
• Rewrite Rules

If your Multisite isn’t a brand new installation, you may notice many other settings that are not covered. These are options that are added from plugins and widgets you have installed. Sometimes changing something through the dashboard also creates new site settings.

The site settings aren’t as scary as they may look. Let’s break them down now:

Siteurl: This is a copy of the same option we already covered from the Info tab.

Home: This option is for the URL of your homepage, the first page you want users to see when they type in your domain. The link you enter into this field ends up being the page that’s loaded.

Just as with the site URL, changing the home URL affects your search engine rankings. It can also break a portion or your entire site if all instances of your site’s URL aren’t changed in your database.

There usually won’t be a problem on installs with no content uploaded. Creating backups are still recommended.

Blogname: This is the field for the title of your blog. If you enabled your theme to display the blog title instead of an image, this is what displays on the front end.

Blogdescription: The tagline for your site goes here. This field shows up only if you have enabled this option in your theme.

Users Can Register: By default, this field is set to zero for false and editing has no effect since users need to register through the network and then become added to a site.

Admin Email: This is simply the email address for the administrator of the site where standard WordPress emails are sent.

Start Of Week: This option sets the day that the week starts on for the site.

There are – of course – seven different values you can enter:

• Sunday –  0
• Monday – 1
• Tuesday – 2
• Wednesday – 3
• Thursday – 4
• Friday – 5
• Saturday – 6

Use BalanceTags: This option asks whether you want your tags balanced for you. What this means is any tags you leave open are closed for you. For example, in the code below, the list tags are left open:

Enabling Use BalanceTags closes the tags for you like in this example:

It’s not particularly pretty, but it gets the job done. It also can’t be found in the dashboard. The default is false (0) and true (2).

Use Smilies: This feature enables you to use smileys on posts and pages.

The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

While this option won’t break your site, it can affect your writing at times as you may end up with an accidental smiley showing instead of your intended full sentence.

Normally, this setting is displayed on single installs of WordPress, but that’s not the case for Multisite. For networks, the only way to enable this feature is through the site settings.

Require Name Email: When someone comments on a post or page, you can control whether or not the user needs to fill out both their name and email in order to comment. If set to true and both fields aren’t filled out, it results in an error message.

The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

For most sites out there, comment spam is a problem even with this option enabled. If you choose to disable it, you may see an increase in comment spam since there’s one less step needed for comments to be published.

Comments Notify: The site administrator can be notified when a comment is submitted with this option remaining enabled.

The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

Posts Per RSS: You can choose how many posts to display on your most recent posts RSS feed with this option. The default amount is 10.

RSS Use Excerpt: On your RSS feed, you can choose whether to display an excerpt or the full length of your posts. The editing options are the default, full-text (0) and summary (2).

Mailserver URL: The cluster of mail server options on this page have to do with connecting an email address to a WordPress site.

This is used for the URL of the server where your email address is stored. If you would like to make use of these settings but aren’t sure what to type here, consult your email provider or hosting company if you set up an email there.

It may be important to note that only the body of the email and the subject line are published. The body publishes as the content of the post and the subject line becomes the title.

Connecting an email address through these settings means that each email that’s sent to the address you specify gets automatically published using POP3 access. This includes spam if you receive it.

It’s important to keep the email you use is secret and not guessable. Setting up an email with a random string of letters and numbers helps keep spam out of your inbox and off your site.

For example, you could create an email such as 3M5nfvYJ@your-site.com since it won’t be easy to guess. Just make sure not to use this example and create one of your own.

It’s also important to make sure the email has its catch-all setting disabled. This ensures that any mail sent to an address that is typed incorrectly does not get sent to this email anyway.

This option is removed for Multisite so this is the only place you can access this feature for your network.

Mailserver Login: This is the email address you created to post to your site.

Mailserver Pass: This is the password of the secret email address you created to use with WordPress only.

Mailserver Port: This is the port that your email server uses. It’s best to check with your email provider or hosting company if you’re not sure what to put here.

Default Category: This option sets the default category ID for your posts. To find the ID of a category you want to use, go to Posts > Categories, then hover over the name of the category you would like to make the default option.

At the bottom of your browser window, a link should be displayed. I should look something like this:

The Id can be found after category&tag_ID= in the URL string. In this example, the category ID is two.

Default Comment Status: When you write a post, one of the settings on the post editor page is for allowing comments on the post. This is where you can adjust the default setting for this feature.

You can disable comments on posts (closed) and enable them (open).

Default Ping Status: This feature is displayed after the enabling comments checkbox under the post editor.

It sets whether you want to allow pingbacks on posts by default.

You can disable pingbacks on posts (closed) and enable them (open).

For more information on cutting down on pingback and trackback spam, check out one of our other posts called How to Stop WordPress Trackback and Pingback Spam.

Default Pingback Flag: Attempts to notify any blogs that you link to on your own posts. If they have pingbacks enabled, they are notified and a comment is displayed on their post with the link to your post. The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

Posts Per Page: You can set how many blog posts to display on the page at one time. The default amount is 10.

Date Format: You can choose exactly how you want the date displayed when posts and pages are published.

Here are all the possible values to use in any combination:

• d – Displays the day of the month, leading with a zero. For example, September 01.
• j – Displays the day of the month without leading with a zero. For example, September 1.
• S – Adds the appropriate suffix to days of the month. For example, st, nd, rd and th for overall results such as “1st,” “2nd,” “3rd” and “4th.”
• l – A lowercase “L” displays the full word for the days of the week. For example, Sunday.
• D – Displays the first three letters for days of the week as a short form. For example, Mon for “Monday.”
• m – Displays the numeric value for the month, leading with a zero. For example, 09 for “September” and 10 for “October.”
• n – This one is similar to the last as it displays the numeric value for the month, but without leading with a zero. For example, 9 for “September” and 1 for “January.”
• F – Writes out the entire word for the month. For example, January and February.
• M – This value also adds the month, but only the first three letters. For example, Sep for “September” and Oct or “October.”
• Y – Displays the year as four numbers. For example, 2015 or 2016.
• y – Also displays the year, except only the last two numbers. For example, 15 for “2015” or 16 for “2016.”

You can also add other characters such as commas and hyphens to break up these values since they will be displayed literally.

Time Format: Just like the Date Format option, this setting displays the time for published posts.

Here are all the possible values to use in any combination:

• a – Displays am or pm in lowercase for the 12-hour clock.
• A – As you may have guessed, this value displays AM or PM in uppercase for the 12-hour clock.
• h – Displays the hour for the 12-hour clock with a zero in front. For example, 01 for one o’clock in the afternoon.
• g – This value also displays the hour for the 12-hour clock, except without a zero in front. For example, 1 for one o’clock in the afternoon.
• H – You can display the hour in military time with a zero. For example, 08 for eight o’clock in the morning or 18 for six o’clock in the evening.
• G – This value also displays the hour in military time, but without a zero in front. For example, 6 for six o’clock in the morning or 13 for one o’clock in the early afternoon.
• i – To display minutes with a zero at the beginning, use this value. For example, 01 for one minute as in 5:01 AM or 35 as in 6:35 PM.
• s – This value displays seconds with a zero in front. For example, 09 for nine seconds as 5:01:09 AM or 59 as in 6:35:59 PM.
• T – Displays the timezone abbreviation. For example, EST for Eastern Standard time or GMT for Greenwich Mean Time.

There are also two ways to display the full date and time:

• c – To display the ISO 8601 format. For example, 2004-02-12T15:19:21+00:00.
• r – This value displays the time in the RFC 2822 format. For example, Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 +0200.

It’s also similar when it comes to punctuation. You can add colons and hyphens to display literally with the time.

Links Updated Date Format: This setting displays the date with the values you choose for any place where the links_updated_date_format string is used. For example, in the twenty fifteen default theme, this string is used for comments.

Comment Moderation: Choose whether a comment should be manually approved before being published. The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

If you choose not to manually approve comments, be sure you have an efficient plugin installed for detecting and filtering out spam comments such as Akismet or Antispam Bee. It’s common for comment spam to get a bit out of hand at times.

Moderation Notify: If you would like the site administrator to be notified when comments are held for moderation, this is the setting you would need to configure. The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

Permalink Structure: You can choose your permalink structure in this text field.

The possible values you can put in any combination are:

• %year% – Displays the year as four digits. For example, 2015 or 2016.
• %monthnum% – This value displays the numeric month with a zero in front. For example, 09 for “September” or 10 for “October.”
• %day% – Displays the day of the month. For example, 07 for “September 7th” or 15 for “September 15th.”
• %hour% – You can display the hour of the day in military time. For example, 09 for nine o’clock in the morning or 20 for eight o’clock at night.
• %minute% – Shows the minutes of the hour. For example, 35 in “18:35.”
• %second% – Displays the seconds with a zero at the beginning.
• %post_id% – This value shows the unique post ID number.
• %postname% – Displays the post’s slug. For example, a title such as To Kill a Mockingbird shows up as to-kill-a-mockingbird.
• %category% – Displays the category slug.
• %author% –  Shows the post author’s username.

Keep in mind that each value can be separated by a forward slash if you would like, but it’s not mandatory, although, you do need one forward slash at the beginning of your permalink structure.

Here’s an example of two valid combinations you could use:

These aren’t necessarily structures you should use for yourself, but it gives you an idea of how you can format permalinks.

Gzipcompression: Some browsers allow and even ask for articles to be compressed with gzip. The editing options are the default false (0) and true (2).

If this feature is enabled, WordPress compresses your posts if a browser can handle it to drastically reduce a visitor’s bandwidth usage.

Hack File: This is a deprecated file so you can safely ignore this field.

Blog Charset: This field lists the type of character encoding that’s enabled. It’s the set of characters that are uploaded to your WordPress site.

Moderation Keys: An option to add a list of words – one word per line. If any of the words appear in a comment, it will be held for moderation.

Category Base: You can choose the slug to use for the base of your category names. The structure looks like this:

The category_base value is what this option changes.

Ping Sites: When you update your site, you can choose to notify sites so they have a chance to advertise your new updates. You can add the URLs of the sites you would like to notify in this field.

Advanced Edit: This is an option in reference to a deprecated editing screen so you can skip this setting.

Comment Max Links: By entering a number in this field, you can limit the amount of links allowed in a comment before it’s held for moderation.

GMT Offset: This option refers to the timezone your site is in, differing from the default zero value for GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). You can enter in a number in the negatives if you need to in order to adjust your timezone correctly.

For example, to set your timezone to the EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), you would type in -4 in this field.

Default Email Category: If you choose to publish posts via email, you can choose which default category your posts should be automatically sorted in. You can make this selection by entering the ID number of the category you want to make a default.[/pic_left]

Recently Edited: This option tracks the last five files you have edited, but this can’t be changed.

Template: This field reports the folder name of the currently activated theme.

Stylesheet: What’s displayed is the stylesheet of the currently activated theme.

Comment Whitelist: You can choose whether a comment author needs to have a previously approved comment to publish more comments automatically. The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

Blacklist Keys: An option to add a list of words – one word per line. If any of the words appear in a comment, it will be marked as spam.

Comment Registration: If user registration has been disabled in the network, then current users must be logged in to post a comment.

HTML Type: Sets the default MIME type for blog pages such as text/html or xml+html. The default setting for this option is text/html.

Use Trackback: You can enable or disable receiving trackbacks with this field. The editing options are the default false (0) and true (2).

Default Role: This field sets the default role for newly registered users. The possible values for this option are: subscriber (ddefault), admin, editor, author, and contributor.

Unless you have a specific reason to change the default role from subscriber, it’s best to leave this option alone since the other options give users more access to your site to edit settings you may not want changed.

It also gives hackers more access to your site if the account becomes compromised.

Db Version: Reports the version of your WordPress database. If you try to edit this option, it won’t have any effect.

Upload Path: This is the path of the folder where your site’s uploads are held, relative to the WordPress root.

Blog Public: This option dictates the visibility of your blog. The editing options are false (0) to discourage search engines from accessing your site, but human visitors still have full access. The value true (2) is the default and gives access to everyone.

Default Link Category: This field sets the default category for link posts. You can enter the ID of the category you would like these kinds of posts to be published under by default.

Show On Front: Reports the page that displays as the site’s homepage. Editing this field won’t change anything.

Tag Base: You can choose the slug to use for the base of your tag names. The structure looks like this:

The tag_base value is what this option changes. You can change this to whatever you would like, as long as it contains the characters permitted for URLs.

Show Avatars: This field controls avatars and if they are displayed. The editing options are not to display avatars (0) and to display them (2) which is the default.

Avatar Rating: This field displays and sets the maturity rating for avatars.

The possible values for this option are:

• G – The default and used for sites that are suitable for all audiences.
• PG – Used for sites that are possibly offensive and suitable for audiences aged 13 and above.
• R – For sites that are intended for an audience of people aged 17 and above.
• X – Sites that should be restricted for an even more mature audience than the R rating above.

Upload URL Path: The URL of the upload folder for the site. This field has the folder written as a direct URL.

Thumbnail Size W: Sets the width in pixels for thumbnail images. You can also find this option under Settings > Media > Thumbnail size.

Thumbnail Size H: Sets the height in pixels for thumbnail images.

Thumbnail Crop: With this field, you can choose to allow images to be cropped to the size you set for thumbnails when this size is selected for images that are being placed in posts or pages. The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

Medium Size W: The width in pixels for medium-sized images.

Medium Size H: The height in pixels for medium-sized images.

Avatar Default: This field displays the type of avatar to show on the site, but  it cannot be edited through the Edit Site page.

Large Size W: Sets the maximum width in pixels for large-sized images.

Large Size H: The maximum height in pixels for large-sized images.

Image Default Link Type

The possible values for this option are:

• file – Enter this value to link images to its media file.
• post – This value can be entered for the attachment page option.
• custom – This is the value for the custom URL option.
• none – Enter this value in order to not set a link for images.

Image Default Size: You can set the default size for images being inserted to a post or page. The possible values for this option are thumbnail, medium and large.

Image Default Align: This options sets your prefered image alignment as default. The possible values for this option are none (default), left, center and right.

Close Comments For Old Posts: With this field, you can choose to close comments on older posts or keep them open to receiving more comments. The editing options are the default false (0) and true (2).

Close Comments Days Old: To automatically close comments older than a certain number of days, type in your preferred number of days into this field. The default value is 14 for 14 days.

Thread Comments: With this option, you can enable or disable the WordPress native threaded (nested) comments system. The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

Thread Comments Depth: If threaded comments are enabled, you can choose how many levels deep comments can go. The default number of levels is five and you can choose up up tp 10.

Page Comments: You can choose to enable or disable breaking comments into pages with this field. The editing options are false (0) and true (2) which is the default.

Comments Per Page: If the Page comments option above this one is enabled, you can choose how many comments to list before they are paginated. By default, posts and pages can display 50 comments before they are separated into different pages.

Default Comments Page: Select whether the first or last page of comments should be displayed first. You can enter first or last (default).

Comment Order: Sets which comments should be listed at the top of that section on post or page.

You can enter the values older (default) or newer.

Timezone String: Displays the timezone selected in the dashboard unless a GMT offset timezone is selected.

Page For Posts: When you choose to display a static page for the homepage of your site, you need to choose a different page to display your posts. This field is where you would place the ID number of the page you would like to choose for the blog page.

Page On Front: If you selected a static page to display as the homepage, this field sets the page that should be displayed. Type in the ID number of the page you wish to turn into the homepage into this field.

Default Post Format

Normally, you can find this option in the back end for single installs of WordPress, but this isn’t the case for Multisite networks. This option sets the default for the post formats.

Since WordPress version 3.1, you can choose between different types of posts you can publish. You don’t have to blog only text anymore.

The values you can enter are 0 (for the default standard post), aside, chat, gallery, link, image, quote, status, video and audio.

Link Manager Enabled: This is a deprecated option so you can safely ignore this field.

Finish Splitting Shared Terms: This field lists the ID numbers of terms that were split after once sharing a term ID. The WordPress Plugin Handbook explains this confusing option best in their entry titled Working with “split terms” in WP 4.2+.

WPLANG: The language that’s set for the individual site whose settings you’re currently viewing.

Site Upload Space Quota: This field sets the maximum allowed storage space for an individual network site and is measured in megabytes.

If you set this number too high, you may risk over packing your server and running out of storage space. If this happens, your whole network will be booted offline and you would need to speak with your hosting provider to get your site back up and online again.

Conclusion

It’s a huge list, but we managed to go through all the site options almost secretly hidden away in a Multisite network. Some of the options may sound scary, but in reality, many of these options can make quick improvements to a site within the network and even the main site.

Which of these site options could you see yourself using in your network? Do you still prefer making changes through the back end of your site? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Image credits: epSos .de, leoplus.

It Will be Easier to Publish to WordPress Using a Bespoke Interface

One of the big battles in the time that WordPress has been in existence has been between publicly available CMSes like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and other commercial systems; and bespoke CMSes designed specifically for a given project.

The debate has been steadily moving away from bespoke CMSes and many of us who do client work will have experiences of helping clients migrate to WordPress from a bespoke CMS. This might be because it no longer meets their needs or is no longer supported because the agency that built it for them is has either ceased trading or the client doesn’t want to work with them anymore.

The beauty of WordPress is that it has a huge community of users, a vast library of online support and learning resources (including this blog), and that it ain’t going anywhere. Site owners choosing WordPress will be less isolated than those using a bespoke CMS and have less risk of problems further down the line.

But there are still plenty of organizations (including corporations and news agencies) that choose to have a custom CMS built for them that meets their needs exactly. It means they can develop an interface that fits with their workflow and makes them more efficient.

This could change in the future. The Calypso interface is just that: an interface that interacts with WordPress using the REST API. There’s nothing to stop anyone from building their own bespoke interface, which would look nothing like WordPress but would interact with data stored by WordPress.

This opens up opportunities not only for agencies building CMSes for clients but also for website builders such as our own edublogs and the happy tables restaurant website builder, which use a customized version of the WordPress admin. The happy tables team are involved in the REST project and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it switched to a standalone interface using the REST API during 2016.

PHP Developers Will Have to Get Familiar with JavaScript

In Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word address to WordCamp US on December 6 he made one thing very clear: the future is JavaScript:

“I believe quite strongly that JavaScript and API-driven interfaces are the future of not just WordPress but the web.”

As the possibilities offered by the REST API become more apparent, more WordPress developers will need to add JavaScript (specifically JSON) to their skill set.

This will enable them to create themes entirely built using front-end languages instead of PHP, with potentially significant performance gains.

To my mind, the REST API is a bit like quantum physics. As Richard Feynman famously said:

“If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.”

Similarly:

“If you think you understand what the REST API means for WordPress, you don’t understand the REST API.”

In my view, we haven’t yet done much more than scratch the surface of how this new way of interacting with WordPress could change WordPress and how it’s used. So far people have been using it to develop themes built with frontend languages instead of PHP (see A Day of REST for an example) and a few mobile apps (showcased at WordCamp US). But it has much more potential than that. It means that just about any application could interact with WordPress in the future. From smartphone apps and admin interfaces to stock management systems and smart fridges, the possibilities are almost endless. Who knows, maybe a WordPress-powered app will help get human beings to Mars one day??

This means that developers working at the cutting edge of WordPress development, the people pushing the limits of what can be done with the platform, will need to learn a whole new skill-set in order to do it.

A New Community of Developers Will Start Working with WordPress

I’ve already predicted (as has Matt, I don’t claim credit here) that WordPress developers will need to become familiar with JavaScript. But there’s more to it than that: JavaScript and other front-end developers will come into the WordPress fold and start building applications that interact with the WordPress APIs. It’s those people, not constrained by experience of being in the WordPress bubble, who I believe will come up with the most innovative ways of using the REST API.

There are plenty of agencies now with separate teams of front-end and backend developers, and it’s normally the backend devs who are doing the bespoke WordPress work. This will change. As well as many of these backend devs starting to work with front-end languages more, front-end devs will be brought in to create applications and interfaces that interact with WordPress.

It’ll be more than just adding interactions and effects on top of the underlying PHP of a WordPress site: it’ll be interacting with WordPress in much more fundamental ways to create completely new types of site and application.

But these developers will have to develop some familiarity with PHP: as Matt said in his State of the Word address, PHP isn’t going anywhere. It will still be the language on which WordPress’s foundations – its APIs – are built.

This will all have an impact on the WordPress community…

The WordPress Community Will Have to Adapt

This year hasn’t been an easy year for WordPress in some respects, or at least it hasn’t always been easy for the community.

The #wpdrama episode over the summer stirred strong emotions on both sides of a debate that was about copyright as well as the power held by Matt Mullenweg and Automattic over other parts of the WordPress community and individuals within it. At the time it felt like something could be starting that would seriously damage the community in the long run, but then it all blew over and we’ve gone back to being the same merry band we always were, happily sharing ideas, experiences and code with each other.

But the influx of all these non-WordPress people, people who are drawn in by the new possibilities and the ability to use their skills with WordPress, will change the community to some extent.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the community’s ethos or essential nature will change, but it does mean that it will be made up of different people, some of whom won’t have the longstanding loyalty to (or stubborn adherence to, depending on how you see it) the way WordPress has done things for so many years.

There will be people coming in from enterprise backgrounds who find it difficult to adjust to the way open source communities work, and there will be existing members of the community who find it hard to get used to having front-end coders and app developers in their midst.

But I believe that the community is resilient and will adapt and grow with the new skills and outlooks from which it will be able to benefit. WordPress has already evolved from a blogging platform into a CMS, which brought significantly more people into the community, especially people doing client work. We’ve all gained from this and we can all benefit from the changes in store.

But It’s Not All About the REST API

However, not everything in store for WordPress in 2016 is related to the WordPress API. There are other changes and improvements in store which will expand WordPress’s audience and make it more accessible to users in different parts of the world, users with disabilities and people using different devices.

1. Translation

The biggest of these is the ongoing drive for translation. The polyglots team has been working hard to ensure that WordPress is translated into as many languages as possible and with each release this grows. Over 2016 the team will continuing to translate the biggest themes and plugins, making it easier for WordPress’s global community to interact with them. That can only be a good thing.

2. Accessibility

The accessibility of the admin interface is also improving, with over 200 accessibility-related tickets addressed in version 4.4. JavaScript-driven interfaces like Calypso will give developers more scope to create interfaces that work for users with sensory impairments, with the option to turn specific accessibility features on and off using JavaScript.

3. Responsive Images

WordPress is also firmly embracing the shift towards mobile web use with the adoption of true responsive images in release 4.4. This means that on small screens, not only will images look smaller in your WordPress site, they’ll actually be smaller. All without you lifting a finger. This is a great example of WordPress developers working hand in hand with the web standards community (who, let’s face it, were a little sniffy about WordPress a few years back) to make WordPress a modern platform.

4. The Customizer

The Customizer also isn’t going anywhere. For users this means more as-live editing of your site’s settings, widgets, menus and more, with the possibility of admin pages being replaced by their sections in the Customizer.

For theme developers this means you need to start incorporating the Customizer in your themes and replace existing theme options screens with customizer sections. This will be challenging for developers of some of the more complex themes, but is clearly where WordPress is going. There may also be possibilities to create bespoke versions of the Customizer using JavaScript-driven interfaces, which is great news for drag-and-drop theme builders.

Wrapping Up

Every year we like to look back on the previous year for WordPress and anticipate what’c coming in the next 12 months, but it feels different this year. I believe that WordPress is on the cusp of some huge changes, which will affect its codebase, its user base, its interface and its community. Exciting times!

What are your predictions for WordPress in 2016? Let us know in the comments below.

Click on Databases near the top-left and you’ll be prompted to create a new database. I’ve called mine “WP.”

When you’ve entered a name, click Create and close the window.

Download and Install WordPress

Download the latest version of WordPress.

In order to get WordPress working with XAMPP we need to unzip WordPress in the right folder. Go to the XAMPP folder on your computer and open the htdocs folder – C:/Program Files/XAMPP/htdocs.

Unzip WordPress into its own folder and rename it whatever you like. For consistency, I’m going to call this installation of WordPress “WP” to match the name of the database I just created.

Open the WP folder where you saved WordPress, find the wp-config-sample.php file and rename it wp-config.php. Open the file and scroll down until you see the following lines:

These lines of code define the login details for your database:

• Replace“database_name_here” with the name of your database, which in my case is “WP”
• Replace “username_here” with “root” and leave “password_here” blank
• Save the file and close it

Now we can get on with actually installing WordPress.

Open your browser and go to http://localhost/wp/

You should see the translation screen that comes before the famous five minute WordPress installation process.

Once you’ve chosen your language, continue onto the next screen and enter you username and password details. Click Install WordPress.

Your WordPress installation is now complete!

Setting up WordPress Multisite

Having Multisite setup locally provides an efficient way to test themes and plugins in a Multisite environment, but also makes it a quick and easy to have multiple instances of Multisite set up.

Open your wp-config.php file again and add/edit the following lines to activate Multisite’s installation mode:

Open XAMPP and ensure Apache and MySQL are running.

Login to your localhost site in your browser and under Tools you will now have a new option, Network Setup.

Enter a name for your network and your email address, then click “Install.”

WordPress will prompt you to edit your wp-config.php and .htaccess files.

Following the onscreen instructions, open wp-config.php and add the following lines underneath your previous edit:

Next, open .htaccess. If you can’t find it, make sure hidden files are displaying on your computer. If you do not have a .htaccess file already, then create it in the same directory as your wp-config.php file. If you do have a .htaccess file, replace any existing lines with these new ones:

Multisite should now be installed.

You’ll need to log in again, and when you do you’ll see the WordPress dashboard from where you’ll be able to access individual sites in your network.

Wrapping Up

XAMPP provides an easy way to run a local server environment on your Windows machine, allowing you to test and develop locally, rather than installing WordPress on a live site. It will also save you a bunch of time since you won’t have to install and uninstall WordPress each time you test themes and plugins.

The great thing about XAMPP is it’s free and open source. You can set up as many installations of WordPress as you want and it’s just as easy to get Multisite up and running.

Do you use XAMPP? Have you had trouble setting it up or was it a breeze to install? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

We’d love to get your take on the latest options out there. Are there stunning lightweight themes we’ve missed? Get in touch via the comments and let us know!

On this page, click on Files > FTP Accounts and check to see if you already have a username listed under FTP Accounts.

If you do, you have everything you need to start transferring files. If not, you need to create a new account with the form at the top of the page.

Enter your desired username, password and be sure to select the correct directory. If your goal is to transfer files to install WordPress, for example, you need to choose the root of your site’s files in this section.

If you just want to add files to a specific folder, you can select it here, although, you can also select that specific folder once you have accessed your server through your FTP client so it’s not entirely necessary to be specific in this Directory field.

You can also select the Unlimited radio button under Quota to ensure you can transfer all the files you need without being interrupted, but keep in mind that the number of files you transfer is counted against your available bandwidth transfer limit that is a part of your hosting plan. If you reach this limit, your hosting provider could decide to shut your site down until you upgrade or until the next pay period begins.

You can check your limit in cPanel on the left-hand side on the homepage where you found your IP address. It’s listed under Monthly Bandwidth Transfer and you can see how much you have used of your limit there.

If you have a strict limit that you don’t want to surpass, you can choose to enter an amount in megabytes under Quota instead when filling out the form to create an FTP account.

Don’t forget to click the Create FTP Account button at the bottom of the form to ensure your account is created. Once that’s done, you’re ready to use your FTP client.

When you open FileZilla, for example, you can choose to quickly connect to your server without entering any custom settings.

Enter in the following information which you have just collected:

• Host – Your site’s IP address or dedicated IP address
• Username – This is the name you entered for your new FTP account. Be sure to enter the full username that’s listed in cPanel. For example, enter username@your-site.com if that’s what’s listed or else it could result in a login error.
• Password – This is the one you entered when you created your FTP account.
• Port – Typically, you can simply use the default which is 21. If you get an error, ask your hosting provider which port is best for you to use.

When these values are entered in, click the Quick Connect button and you’re on your way. If you are connected successfully, you should see a message appear in the area below the login form.

If you have an SSL certificate installed on your server, you may see a pop-up suddenly displayed asking you to accept the certificate.

Look over the information that’s listed. If your SSL certificate is listed, the information looks correct and you trust the certificate, go ahead and click OK to continue connecting.

If you run into errors, check out on of our other articles detailing fixes for common FTP problems.

You can also choose to add custom settings to your connection, especially if you see errors pop up while trying to establish a connection. To do this, go to File > Site Manager and click the New Site button toward the bottom of the pop-up that displays.

From this dialog box, you can choose to connect in different ways such as options if you don’t have an SSL certificate installed on your server. You can find this setting under the Encryption drop down box. There are also many other options here that may come in handy depending on your situation.

It may also be important to note that if you’re having difficulties connecting, it may be an issue with your SSL certificate. FileZilla has switched their default settings to FTPS instead of FTP. This means that FileZilla assumes you have an SSL certificate installed on your server and tries to establish a connection with it. If you don’t have an SSL certificate installed or it’s not configured properly, it results in an error.

To fix or test if this is the issue, try connecting using the option Site Manager > Encryption > Only use plain FTP (insecure). If you can successfully connect, then you likely have an issue with your SSL certificate being accepted or you don’t have one installed.

If you find that this is the case, contact your SSL certificate issuer since they are equipped to help you in these kinds of situations. Otherwise, install an SSL certificate or keep the plain FTP option intact.

Once you have entered all your desired settings, click the Connect button at the bottom of the pop-up to start establishing your new connection.

If you still run into problems and you see error codes even after trying the suggestions in one of our other posts 3 Common FTP Upload Errors and How to Fix Them, check with your FTP client’s documentation or ask them for support if you can’t find a resolution.

How to Transfer Files

Now that you’re connected, you’re ready to transfer your desired files. This is also step four in WordPress’ Famous Five-Minute Install.

You should see several different areas in FileZilla. On the left is the Local site section and on the right is your Remote Site.

The first box under the message area shows you all the folders currently on your computer. When you click on them, the box directly below it populates with all the files and folders currently inside the selection you made.

This same principle applies to the remote site box on the right, underneath the message area. It shows the current main folders on your server. When you click on them, the box directly below it should populate with its containing files and folders. If this doesn’t happen, you may not be properly connected.

At the bottom of the window is the transfer queue with the status of your pending transfers.

All you need to do to start transferring files and folders is to select (or bulk select) your desired files and folders from the left side of the client, then click, drag and drop them to the remote site section on the right.

You can click, drag and drop files and folders form either top or bottom box on the left or right to the other side. This means you can upload files to your server by dropping files to the remote site side on the right or download files to your computer from your server by dropping files to the left.

On the very bottom of the window, there are also a few tabs displayed: Queued files, Failed transfers and Successful transfers. The first tab is the default and shows all your current processes. The last tab displays all your files and folders that are completed and the Failed transfers tab shows you a list of – you guessed it – all your files and folders that weren’t transferred.

If you see a number displayed after the Failed transfers label, that means that there are that many of your files that have not been transferred. You can place them back in the queue by selecting that tab, right-clicking on a file name for Windows or click and pressing the command key for Mac OS X and selecting the option Reset and requeue all.

If all your files are successfully transferred, you’re done. Your selected files and folders are now on your server.

Bulk Uploading Media Files with FTP

Transferring your files and folders seems easy enough, but things get a little bit tricky if you try and transfer files to your wp-content/uploads/ folder. You may notice that any files you transfer there via FTP don’t show up in your media folder. What gives?

Unfortunately, when you transfer files this way, the media library doesn’t register your files. WordPress just doesn’t recognize files that aren’t uploaded from the dashboard through the media library or through the Add Media button when creating a post or page.

Fortunately, there is a quick and easy solution and that’s to use the Add from Server plugin. It’s updated regularly and works on both single and Multisite installations. For networks, this plugin can be network activated. In either case, this plugin can be accessed through Media > Add from Server in the dashboard.

Once you have added your files to the uploads folder, click on that directory from the list to access a list of the unregistered files you uploaded. This plugin also lets you register files that you have uploaded to any folder in your WordPress install which is a bonus.

You can also click one of the Quick Jump links toward the top of the page to access common folders a lot faster.

Once you find your files, check the boxes for all the ones you want to register or check the box next to File to select all of them, then click the Import button at the bottom of the list.

It may take a while for the images or files to be processed, especially if you selected many images so don’t be alarmed and grab a quick break. You should come back to being greeted with a success message.

Now you can check out your media library. Your images should be listed and ready for you to use.

Keeping Your Connection Safe

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how to keep your server and your site when using FTP because there are some risks that can, fortunately, be avoided.

If you don’t have an SSL certificate installed on your server which means you’re using FTP instead of FTPS, it’s much less secure to say the least and your connection could be hijacked by hackers. Your files and all the information stored on your site and server including usernames, passwords, email addresses and all other personal information is at risk and could be stolen.

If you’re using shared hosting, your site is most likely protected since your hosting provider is responsible for your server’s security, but if you have a VPS or dedicated server, you are solely responsible for your site and server’s security. If you have your own server and you haven’t installed an SSL certificate, your site and server is at risk every time you use FTP.

While having an SSL certificate isn’t the only security measure you should take, it definitely is an important step I recommend you take. If you would like to peruse some more details on SSL certificates and how to purchase and install one, check out one of or other posts called How to Use SSL and HTTPS with WordPress.

It’s also important to delete the FTP account you created when you’re done uploading or downloading files since this information can also be vulnerable. Hackers could potentially get a hold of this information and upload or download files at their leisure.

Some hosting companies automatically delete FTP accounts after a certain period of time, but if this isn’t a service available to you, then don’t forget to manually delete the account when you’re done.

To do this in cPanel, go to Files > FTP Accounts and click the Delete link next to your listed login information.

Next, select either the Delete Account button to delete your FTP account and keep the files in that directory or click the Delete Account and Files button to trash your account and files.

Keep in mind that if your FTP account is attached to a main folder such as the root of your site, all files in that directory are deleted if you choose to delete your account and files. In such as case, this means you could delete all your site’s files so when in doubt, just click the Delete Account button.

When you want to transfer some files again, just create a new account, then delete it again when you’re done.

Wrapping Up

Now you’re all set and ready to start using FTP and FTPS to make transferring files to your WordPress site a piece of cake. You can even register uploaded files that normally wouldn’t be included in the media library.

Transferring some files is one thing, but transferring an entire site can be a bit tricky so if you need to migrate your site check out a couple of our other posts: Migrating WordPress (And Multisite!) to a New Server and Moving Multisite to a New Domain (Without Errors!).

Do you often transfer files via FTP or FTPS? What method or client is your favorite? Do you use any other plugins or FTP client to assist you in transferring files? Share your experience in the comments below.

Snapshot Pro

BackWPup Pro

UpdraftPlus Premium

Conclusion

Choosing the right backup plugin for your site can be challenging on its own when there are so many options out there, but choosing a backup plugin that’s also compatible with Multisite can be even trickier. With the best options compared by feature-set, you should have enough information to pick what suits your network’s needs.

Which Multisite backup plugin is the best of the best? Well, that’s really a matter of opinion. Since each network has its own individual requirements, there isn’t one single plugin that offers a one-size-fits-all solution. One plugin may work great for you, but may not be as ideal for other site admins. That’s why it’s important to decide which features are most important to you, then pick a plugin that’s strong in those categories.

Have you tried any of these Multisite backup plugins? How did they fair? Which plugin do you want to try next? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

It’s also the plugin used on WPMU DEV to manage over 375,000 members. Even though Pro Sites can handle massive projects, you don’t need to have a huge blogging network planned to use Pro Sites. For example, you can integrate Events+ to create an events site where users need to upgrade their plan in order to post their concert, seminar or theater production.

You can also use our Jobs and Experts plugin with Pro Sites to create a membership site where businesses can upgrade their subscription to find and hire qualified professionals for their projects. Creating a classifieds site like Craigslist isn’t out of reach either. You can also install our Classifieds plugin to let members upgrade to post more ads.

If you want to create free and paid subscription plans for your network, then you’re only limited by your imagination and you can monetize your network with Pro Sites.

It also integrates well with BuddyPress so you create a blogging network or social community. It’s packed with professional features without being bloated.

You can create stunning pricing tables and includes four major payment methods including PayPal Express, PayPal Pro, manual payments and Stripe.

There are many core features available to help grow your business and site:

• Automates sign ups and subscriptions
• Handles refunds and cancelations
• Built-in advertising
• Automated Email Notifications
• Free Trials and Coupons
• One-time setup fees and recurring subscriptions
• Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking
• Front-end checkout
• Unlimited free and paid access levels
• Powerful statistics
• Track subscriptions
• Custom payment screens
• Complete custom branding
• Manual payments and subscription adjustments
• Individual site modifications
• Includes 24 currencies, EU VAT and Taxamo Integration
• and nearly too many more features to count

Enhanced integration with Domain Mapping, Pretty Plugins and Multisite Theme Manager are included so you can really bring your network to the next level. There are also so many options when it comes to creating subscription plans and you can limit just about anything in order to sell it as a premium upgrade.

There are so many readily available options for you to include in one of your subscriptions such as:

• Display ads or ad-free
• BuddyPress group creation and messaging
• Limit publishing and post types
• Pay to blog
• Post, page and upload quotas
• Premium plugins and themes
• Offer premium support
• Upgrade admin menu links
• Unfilter HTML
• Post Throttling
• Premium widgets
• Restrict XML-RPC
• Bulk upgrades
• and tons more

Even though there are certain plugins that you won’t be able to include as an upgrade right out of the box, there’s a way around that.

Getting Started

Install and network activate Multisite Plugin Manager, then install and activate the Pro Sites plugin. Also, install any plugins you want to include as a premium upgrade, but don’t activate them network-wide.

For a complete guide to installing and activating plugins in WordPress Multisite, check out Installing WordPress Plugins and Activating WordPress Plugins Network-Wide.

Set up Pro Sites, along with your premium upgrades and subscriptions. You can check out Adding Premium Upgrades to Your Multisite Network with Pro Sites and the Pro Sites Usage page for details on how to get this done.

Go to Pro Sites > Modules in the super admin dashboard and be sure that the Premium Plugins option is not checked, then click Save Changes if you made an adjustment. This module is incompatible with Multisite Plugin Manager since you get the same options, plus more in the plugin manager.

Mass Managing Your Network’s Plugins

Now go to Plugins > Plugin Management in your super admin dashboard. Under the User Control column, select an option from the drop down boxes for each plugin you want to manage.

When you’re done, click the Update Options button to save your changes.

Each option has a different use:

• None – No one can activate or deactivate the plugin but the super admin
• Pro Sites – The plugin is available for Pro Sites users only
• All Users – All users have the option to activate or deactivate the plugin
• Auto-Activate (All Users) – The plugin is automatically activated for all users for new sites

You can also activate or deactivate a plugin across all sites in the network at once. Click the Activate All link beside a listed plugin to activate the plugin on all sites and click the Deactivate All link to deactivate a listed plugin from all sites in the network.

Now you can manage the plugins that are available for your subscriptions on the Pro Sites > Premium Plugins page.

Conclusion

Managing the plugins across your entire network can be a hassle, especially when you decide you no longer want to support a plugin and include it in your network. Now you know how to mass activate and decativate plugins across all sites to make managing your network quicker and easier.

For more tips on managing your network, check out one of our other posts Managing Multiple WordPress Sites: The Ultimate Guide.

How do you manage plugins in your network? How do you use Pro Sites or how would you want to use it for your network? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.

The events pages can be created with all the necessary details, plus much more:

• Integrates with PayPal
• One-click RSVP
• Facebook and Twitter login
• Display event attendee avatars
• Compatible with any theme
• Create recurring events
• Auto-scheduling
• Front page event editing
• Countdown timer
• Easy cancellations
• Ability to set guest cap
• Export events to iCal
• Many WPMU DEV plugin integrations
• BuddyPress integration
• Social media sharing
• many more cool features

You can share events on your single or Multisite install and update your visitors on what’s happening. You can even earn extra income by selling tickets.

What is Membership 2 Pro?

With Membership 2 Pro you can build a scalable subscription-based membership site – and everything you need to run it is included.

You can create just about any kind of membership site you want with standard, free, guest, and drip content membership types.

You can limit the Read More section of posts, offer digital reading subscriptions just like the New York Times, or create a full-blown social media site.

There are tons of features that are included right out-of-the-box so you can build and manage your membership site with ease:

• Built-in invoices
• Automatic and manual page creation
• Free trials
• Coupon and invitation system
• Place content behind a paywall
• Taxamo for EU VAT regulations
• Protect just about anything
• Assign membership to user role
• Shortcodes to protect content selections
• Protect dashboard access
• Integrates with BuddyPress and bbPress
• Many WPMU DEV plugin integrations
• Protect custom post types
• Even protect shortcodes and URLs
• Pro-rate accounts upon upgrading
• More features than Batman’s utility belt

Membership 2 Pro is great on its own for limiting any content you want to certain members, but when you integrate Events+, you can create a complete solution for a premium events site.

Getting Started

First, install and activate the Events+ and Membership 2 Pro plugins. You can install them on a single site, network-wide or site-by-site in your network. It all depends on the setup you’re trying to achieve.

For more details on how to install and activate plugins in WordPress, check out our guides Installing WordPress Plugins and Activating WordPress Plugins Network Wide.

Configure your memberships and set up the ones you need for your site. For details on how to do this, check out Build an Online Community With WordPress and Membership 2 Pro.

You can create both free and premium memberships and limit creating events to premium members only while allowing both types of accounts to purchase tickets. You can also add other premium features as you see fit.

It all starts with setting up the Events+ plugin.

Setting Up Events+

Go to Events > Settings in your admin dashboard and enter the slug where you want events displayed. For example, if you enter concerts, new events will be displayed at www.your-site.com/concerts/new-concert and if you were to go to www.your-site.com/concerts, you would see an archived list of all the events that have been created to date.

Also, check the first box so you can accept payments and, depending on your needs, check the boxes to enable Facebook and Twitter logins as well as public RSVPs. If you enable this last option, members can click a button to let you or the event organizer know whether they are or aren’t able to attend the event.

When you’re happy with your selections, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page, then go to the next menu item to enter the appearance settings where you can choose an optional style template. If you chose to allow Facebook and Twitter logins, you can enter the API settings for those social media sites on the API Settings tab.

You can get more information on setting up this plugin by checking out the Events+ plugin’s usage guide.

Next, enter your PayPal email address on the Payment Settings page to be able to accept ticket payments. You can also integrate the MarketPress eCommerce plugin to be able to access many more payment gateways.

If you want your members to be able to get event tickets for free when they sign up for a free or premium account, you can skip the payment settings.

The Front-end editing add-on provides the option of creating and editing events on the front-end, rather than in the dashboard.

You can edit the user roles through the Capabilities add-on or through Membership 2 Pro so choosing which method you use to manage your membership features all depends on how you want your members to access the features you enable, how you want to organize the back-end, and where you are most comfortable managing these features in the future. No matter which option you choose, the end result should be similar.

You can also enable the Events Maps Options add-on to display maps for events if you also install and activate our Google Maps plugin. There are many more add-ons for you to choose from as well that majorly extend the functionality of Events+, so don’t be too quick to pass them over without taking a good look first.

Next, go to Events > Shortcodes to see the list of available shortcodes and options you can use on your posts or pages or anywhere else they can fit with your site’s design. For example, you could use the [eab_calendar] shortcode on a page you create to display a calendar of all the current events that are open to selling or reserving tickets.

When you’re happy with the settings you’ve entered, you can use the Membership 2 Pro settings to protect the event pages and anything else you would like by protecting the URL or by making use of the other protection settings. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can check out the Membership 2 Pro usage guide.

Adjusting Member Capabilities

When you’ve protected all the content you need for your specific situation, you can change the user roles for your memberships so that only premium users can create events. There are also three ways you can accomplish this so you can go ahead and choose the method that works best for your site.

1. Editing Capabilities in Events+

Enable the Capabilities add-on under Events > Settings > Add-ons if you haven’t already and click the new Event Capabilities tab that’s displayed. Choose the role you want to edit to reveal a list of options.

The subscriber role is the default role that’s given to members when they sign up so you could keep the settings as-is without adding additional capabilities. Instead, you could add features to the contributor role since the default settings aren’t set as high as editors or administrators. though, it’s up to you and what you need for your site.

There’s also a checkbox toward the bottom of the page to restrict the media files to the author only and you can check it if you want to let only the person who uploaded event media to be able to use and edit the content.

When you’re done making your selections, click the Save Changes button on the bottom right and go to Membership 2 > Add-ons. Find the Member Capabilities add-on and click the toggle button to enable it.

Then, go to Membership 2 > Protection Rules > User Roles and hover over the user role you edited in the Events+ settings. Click the Modify Access link that appears, then select the membership level you want to apply to the adjusted user role.

Your changes are saved automatically and once completed, all visitors who sign up for the membership you selected should be assigned the user role you picked. This means that these members have access to the events features you selected for the user role you edited.

If you prefer to keep all the user role settings in one place, you can adjust them all within the Membership 2 Pro plugin settings.

2. Adjusting Capabilities with Membership 2

Instead of activating the Capabilities add-on in the Events+ settings, go to Membership 2 > Add-ons and click the toggle button on the Admin Side Protection extension.

You can enable the Member Capabilities add-on and click the Details link to display an additional option. Enable the option for Advanced Capability Protection.

Go to Membership 2 > Protection Rules > Admin Side and scroll to the events links that are displayed in the dashboard.

Hover over the event pages you want to protect and click the Modify Access link, then choose the membership whose members you want to have access to this page.

You can also add other user role capabilities to your memberships by going to Membership 2 > Protection Rules > Capabilities. Hover over the capability you want to make available to users and click the Modify Access link, then choose the membership where you want to add the access.

It’s important to note that you need to be fully aware of what each of these advanced capabilities actually does to your site and network. It’s possible to give too much access or not enough to your members. You could end up giving access to features you don’t want users to be able to change, such as your site’s theme or page editing to name a few since all the capabilities to your site are listed on this settings page.

You may also accidentally give too few features to a membership which could severely cripple your users’ ability to get around and use your site so be sure the changes you choose are in fact the ones you need before applying them.

Once you’re done, your visitors who sign up for a membership on your site should have access to the features you selected.

3. Enabling Front-Page Editing

It’s possible to enable event editing and creation on the front-end so your users don’t need to have access to your site’s dashboard in order to take part in managing events on your site.

Go to Events > Add-ons and activate the Front-end editing option. You can also go to the Events > Shortcodes page to find the [eab_event_editor] shortcode and all the additional options that are available to add front-end event management to your site.

Create a new page and include the [eab_event_editor] shortcode in it with any options you would like to add. Publish the page, then protect it with the settings in the page editor or under Membership 2 > Protection Rules > Pages.

Your new fron-end event managing page should have all the features your members need to create events while being styled to fit your site’s design so it fits seamlessly with your business.

As long as you grant access to the event managing page to your premium membership type, your free members won’t be able to access this page, but your premium members will and they can easily create events on their own.

Wrapping Up

Integrating our Events+ and Membership 2 Pro plugins lets you create a scalable premium events site so you can give your members special access to event creation tools while earning extra income from enabling this exclusive feature.

You can even use these plugins to edit the default WordPress user roles and capabilities to further customize your memberships and give access to advanced features for your premium members.

For more information on user roles and capabilities and how to edit them with code, check out one of our other posts WordPress Roles and Capabilities Explained (Plus Code-Based Tweaks).

Now that you have everything you need to create your own events site, what features and capabilities do you want to add to your site or network? What are your plans for these plugins and your membership site? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

In fact, these numbers weren’t just pulled out of nowhere – it has been successfully used this way in the past.

Tsung is now an industrial-strength tool that has been used by many high profile companies and institutions including Oracle, for its Moodle software platform, and the French Finance Ministry (Direction Générale des Impôts or DGI).

You can run the tool through SSH on clients such as Terminal for Mac OS X or PuTTY for Windows. Fire up your favorite SSH client to get started right away.

Server Requirements

There are a few requirements needed in order to run Tsung so it’s important that they’re installed and taken care of first. Tsung can be installed on Linux, Solaris, BSD, Win32 and Mac OS X servers and you need to have root access to your server in order to install and run Tsung.

You can use sudo or yum to run commands as the root user and you can check out the official documentation for these options to reference their installation:

• Sudo – Sudo Main Page and Linux 101: Introduction to sudo
• Yum – Yum: Yellowdog Updater Modified, Trac Installation Guide and Upgrade Instructions

You also need to have the latest version of PHP installed on your server. You can check out the Getting Started and the Installation and Configuration guides for reference on how to install them.

After logging into the root via SSH, you can check which version of PHP you’re running by entering in php -v.

Installing Tsung and its Dependencies

Now you’re ready to start installing the programs that are necessary for Tsung to run. Many of them are already packaged into Tsung, but there are a few others you need to make sure you have installed as well.

While you can install Tsung and its dependencies in many ways depending on your server, the installation process is covered here using Wget. If you don’t already have Wget installed on your server, you can check out the Introduction to GNU Wget guide.

Start by installing Erlang, a programming language. You can grab a link to the latest version on Erlang’s official download page and you can install it with Wget:

Keep in mind that you should make sure you’re installing the latest version of Erlang. Replace the URL in this example with the URL of the most up to date version from Erlang’s download page.

Next, unpack the compressed file, but be sure you replace otp_src_18.2.1.tar.gz with the name of the file you called with wget. It may not be the same if there have been updates since the time this article was written.

Go to the directory you just created by entering this command, but don’t forget to replace otp_src_18.2.1 if needed:

Now it’s time to configure, build and install Erlang now that it’s uncompressed and on your server. You can use the following command and you don’t have to change anything:

This last step may take a few minutes so feel free to grab some water or a cup of coffee in the meantime. Once that’s complete, you can install Perl5 and Gnuplot in the same way if you don’t already have them installed. These are used to produce the text and image graphs and data after you run a stress test.

You can also find the download file of Gnuplot on Sourceforge, but I found the installation was a bit trickier, though, only because I wasn’t paying close enough attention.

When using wget to add the compressed file from SourceForge onto your server, I eventually noticed that I couldn’t uncompress the file using tar xvzf gnuplot-5.0.3 because that wasn’t what the compressed file was called. Instead, I needed to unpack it with this command:

I was only then able to go to the directory with the more obvious name:

Aftward, I could finish by configuring and installing Gnuplot as you normally would for most other programs.

It’s a good idea to do what I didn’t do at first, which is pay attention to details such as file names since it could be the reason why you get mysterious errors that, in truth, have easy fixes.

The last step is to install Tsung and you can get the URL of the latest version from Tsung’s download page. Once you have the link, you can use wget to unpack and install it on your server just as described above for Erlang.

Running a Stress Test

After you have successfully installed Tsung and its dependencies, you’re ready to start your first stress test. This usually requires creating an XML file with the specifics on the type of test you want to run, but Tsung does come pre-loaded with sample files that are great to use.

You can find these files by going into the secondary tsung directory, then to the examples folder by entering this command into your SSH client:

Now you should be in the /tsung/examples/ directory from the root of your server, but you won’t be able to see any files listed until you enter ls to list all the files in this directory. Once they’re all listed, you can decide which script you want to run.

Not all of the example files listed are going to be relevant to stress testing a WordPress site so be careful not to pick just any one of them.

If you’re not exactly sure which one to try out, you can start with the http_simple.xml file. This is a great basic test to run for your WordPress site.

Once you decided on an XML file, you can run your stress test. Just be sure your SSH client is pointed to the directory where your file is located before entering the command to start the test.

I decided to use the basic http_simple.xml so this is the command I would use to begin the test, though you could replace it with the file you want to use:

A message should display saying “Starting Tsung,” then another line should follow with a message that looks similar to this one:

Log directory is: /root/.tsung/log/20160311-1644

This is where that data for the results of your stress test are stored. Make a note of it since you need it to generate and view a report. The log file itself is written to show the date and time of the stress test so it’s easier to keep track of all of them. It starts with the numeric year, the month and the day, followed by a hyphen, then the time in the 24-hour format.

When your stress test is complete, you should know because you’re able to type in another command.

Generating a Report

Once your stress test has been completed, you can view a report of how it went, but first you need to generate one. You also can choose to generate one as the test is being completed so you can monitor the progress if you want.

First, go back to the root by typing in cd ~, then go to the directory with your log. In keeping with the example above, here’s the kind of command you would enter to get there:

If you’re not sure what the direct path is to your root, you can replace /root in the above example with a ~ punctuation to get the same result.

To generate the report, type in the following command:

Your reports should have been created and you can view them in the path you noted earlier. Once in that directory, you can enter the ls command to view the available report files.

You can view them using an SSH browser such as links or other server-based browsers with graphics enabled. Links works on most servers and you can learn how to download and install links by checking out the Twibright Lab’s Links Download guide.

Once it’s configured and installed and the graphics have been enabled, you can go to the directory where your logs are stored as shown above. Once you’re there, run the links command for the report page:

The page should display similar to a regular browser page and you should be able to view your report.

The report is divided into sections to show you information on the simulated traffic:

• request – Response time of each request
• page – A group of requests and the response time of each
• connect – Duration of the established connection
• reconnect – Number of times a reconnection occurred
• size_rcv – Size of responses in bytes
• size_sent – Size of requests in bytes
• session – Duration of a simulated user’s session
• users – Number of simultaneous simulated users that started a session, but didn’t finish
• connected – Number of users with an opened connection
• mean response time –Average response time that’s calculated every 10 seconds and then resets

It may be important to note that since the mean response time is reset every 10 seconds, there are likely to be different averages through different points during the test. This is why a lowest, highest and overall mean response time is calculated so you can see what your high and low points were along with how you did overall.

One of the most important sections to look at when running a stress test on your site is the HTTP Return Code section. This is only something you should watch out for if you’re running an HTTP test.

In such cases, if the code section shows anything higher than in the 200-300 range and reaches into the 400-500 range, your server needs some big changes or there are bugs.

You may have had too many simultaneous requests in the test, which means your server isn’t quite scaling or there are bugs on your site, server or in the XML file you used for the test. Overall, this is a great indicator of a successful – or not so successful – test of your site and server.

You could also create your own XML files to fully customize the test if you would like and the details on how to do this are in the Tsung official documentation.

Finishing the Stress Test

Stress testing your site and server is a great way to learn whether or not improvements can be made and if your site is set up well for scalability. With Tsung, you can not only run these kinds of tests for free, but detailed reports are also generated so you can see how your server handles a sudden traffic spike.

You can also run the tsung -h command to get a useful lists of options available to run a tsung stress test. If you need more help and need to ask a question, there are many companies pitching in to offer support and you can find a complete list on the support page on the Tsung website.

You can also check out the bug tracker on GitHub to submit an issue if you find one, although, it may be important to note that you may not get proper support if you have an issue with using Tsung, rather than if you were reporting a bug.

Have you every used Tsung or tried stress testing your server? Do you know of other tools for stress testing that you prefer over Tsung? Share your experiences in the comments below.

You can set up free memberships or set a price for each of them. You can even set the premium memberships to be set up indefinitely, let them expire after a certain point, or set up a recurring subscription for some extra regular income.

There are four different kinds of memberships so creating any site you can imagine isn’t out of reach:

• Standard – You can set free or premium subscriptions and hide selected content to visitors who aren’t logged in.
• Dripped Content – Content can be released a little at a time based on the dates you set and the membership can be free or premium.
• Guest – Only logged-out users can see the content you select for this membership so you could try to entice visitors to sign up without having existing members see it.
• Default – This is a free membership level that you can have users sign up for by default to allow them to comment only or to give them some free content, for example, then prompt them to upgrade for more.

There are also many popular payment gateways included out of the box including Stripe single and subscription, PayPal single and standard, Authorize.net, 2Checkout and manual payment gateways.

You can also protect just about any content on your site from parts of pages to media, specific URLs, categories, a single or all posts, shortcodes and so much more.

It’s also possible to offer free trials, coupons and invitation codes with the included add-ons to fully customize your memberships.

Speaking of add-ons, there are over 25 of them from enabling VAT tax and pro-rating capabilities to custom registration fields and MailChimp, bbPress and BuddyPress integrations. Enable one or enable them all. It’s all up to you.

Membership 2 Pro is flexible enough to use for so many different purposes:

• Build your own NY Times-style site
• Sell subscriptions to your plugins
• Set up a social media site
• Give staff custom access
• Post lecture notes to students
• Offline group membership dues
• Health coaches can drip-feed tips
• Create your own stock photo site
• Charge for technical support
• Offer sign ups for whole recipes
• Book appointments after sign up
• Anything else you can imagine

Membership 2 Pro also has enhanced integration with our Affiliates, Custom Sidebars Pro, Events+, PopUp Pro and Appointments+ plugins to give even more flexibility for the type of memberships you want to setup.

The Bottom line: Whether your site is big or small, Membership 2 Pro can handle it all. If you need to set up up memberships or restrict certain content to some visitors and not others, you can make it happen.

What are User Roles and Capabilities?

With Membership 2 Pro, you can also customize what members can see on your site right down to the user roles and capabilities that come with WordPress. WordPress lets you choose certain levels for different users so that they don’t have access to certain features such as deleting or editing other users’ posts.

There are six different types of user roles:

• Super admin (for Multisite)
• Administrator
• Editor
• Author
• Contributor
• Subscriber

Each user role has access to certain capabilities which means there are pre-set actions that can be completed while other actions are blocked. Super admins have access to everything in a network and administrators have full range of their site, while on the other end of the spectrum, subscribers can only comment and can’t add, edit or delete posts and pages.

User roles and their capabilities are an important part of WordPress because they can help prevent a user from accidentally completing an action that they shouldn’t do. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to let a visitor to your site sign up and be able to completely change your theme and plugins. WordPress’ user roles and capabilities help prevent that from happening.

Membership 2 Pro can also edit the capabilities members have or assign a user role for your different memberships, but as Spiderman’s uncle Ben told him in Spider-Man (2002):

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

It was true for Spiderman and it’s also true for Membership 2 Pro. Since you can customize what members can have access to right down to the default WordPress capabilities, it’s possible to accidentally give not enough or too much access to a member.

If you’re not sure of what any given capability actually does and you grant access to it, you could be allowing a basic member to edit pages or even memberships. On the flip side, if you’re too cautious, you could prevent members from accessing the content you want them to see or revoke access to commenting.

Since the Member Capabilities and Admin Side Protection add-ons let you completely change the default capabilities that would otherwise come with a membership, it also means that any users not inside those memberships would have these capabilities revoked from them, even if they would otherwise have access to it by default.

Even though you need to be cautious with these add-ons, the upside is you truly get to create any kind of membership site you want.

With the Member Capabilities and Admin Side Protection add-ons, there are so many membership possibilities:

• Setup company memberships and grant access based on job descriptions
• Hire freelancers to blog for you
• Developers can sign up to contribute to open source projects
• Members can create events when you integrate Events+
• You can give commissions on sales to members with Affiliates
• Let a support technician into your site with specific access
• Basically, any other scenario you can think up

You can also choose to make these kinds of memberships private and by invitation only.

For more details on user roles and capabilities you can check out one of our other posts: WordPress Roles and Capabilities Explained (Plus Code-Based Tweaks).

Getting Started Setting Up User Roles

When you’re ready to setup your memberships with custom user roles and capabilities, start by installing and activating our Membership 2 Pro plugin onto your single or Multisite installation of WordPress.

For full details on how to do this, check out our guides: Installing WordPress Plugins, Activating WordPress Plugins Network Wide and Activating and Deactivating Plugins on a Per Site Basis.

When that’s all done, create all the memberships you need for your particular setup. You can catch all the details in our Membership 2 Pro usage guide and in our post Build an Online Community With WordPress and Membership 2 Pro.

Customizing User Roles and Capabilities

Once you’re all set up, go to Membership 2 > Add-ons and find the Admin Side Protection and Member Capabilities add-ons in the list. Depending o your needs, you can activate one or both of them and you can do this by clicking on the toggle button on the top right of each add-on.

The Admin Side Protection option lets you control the pages, tabs and even meta boxes that a user has access to in the admin dashboard. You can choose to let users in a membership type to create a new blog post or view all of them, for example.

To choose the options for this add-on, go to Membership 2> Protection Rules and click on Admin Side in the menu on the left. Hover over one of the listed options to reveal the Modify Access link.

Click on it to choose a membership that should have access to this option in the admin dashboard. You can choose to assign a membership to as many of the dashboard pages as you need.

You can include as many memberships as you want – even choose all of them if you want. Even though all the regular user roles are affected, the admin roles aren’t for security reasons. You won’t have to worry about suddenly losing access to part of the dashboard when you’re signed in as an admin.

When you enable the Member Capabilities add-on, you can choose the user roles for each of your memberships. For example, if you were to set the Contributor role to a membership made for bloggers you hire, you could let freelancers sign up to your site and automatically have access to writing and editing their own posts for you or a user with the Editor role to review and publish.

In the advanced settings for this add-on, you can assign memberships access right down to the specific capability. If you wanted, you could set up a membership for your freelance bloggers and set up their capabilities to also let them publish their own posts which they normally wouldn’t be able to do by default.

Once you have enabled this add-on, go to Membership 2 > Protection Rules and click on the User Roles menu item on the left of the page.

You can hover over a user role and click the Modify Access link that appears to select a membership so visitors who sign up automatically are assigned that user role.

Just as with the Admin Side Protection add-on above, you can choose multiple or all memberships for a user role. You can even assign multiple user roles for a single membership if you want, but the admin user roles aren’t included on the list for security purposes.

To customize memberships right down to the individual WordPress capabilities, go to Membership 2 > Add-ons and click the Details link on the bottom-right corner of the Member Capabilities box to reveal an advanced option.

An inline pop-up should appear where you can click the toggle button to enable the Advanced Capability Protection option.

Next, go to Membership 2 > Protection Rules and you should see the User Role menu item has changed to Capabilities. Similar to the other add-ons above, hover over one of the capabilities on the list to display the Modify Access button. Click on it to choose the memberships where you want members to have the capability you selected. The capabilities aren’t written in plain English so be cautious when selecting memberships for them.

You can also search for specific capabilities using the Search Capability box or navigate to each page with the pagination buttons on the top-right. Pagination and the search box is also included for the Admin Side Protection add-on settings page as well in case you don’t see what you want listed on the first page.

Once your memberships are selected or unselected for any of the add-on options, all members will be automatically updated accordingly.

Wrapping Up

Customizing the user roles for the members of your site is easy with the Membership 2 Pro plugin. You can grant or revoke access in just one click as well.

When the add-ons included in this plugin are used responsibly, it can offer a huge range of possibilities for your site. Whether you’re running your own membership site or you just want more control over what your members can and can’t see, the Membership 2 Pro plugin can do it all.

There’s also the User Role Editor plugin that’s available in the WordPress Plugin Directory if you’re interested in actually editing the capabilities for a default WordPress user role.

For more ideas on what you could do with Membership 2 Pro, check out some of our other posts: Building Meetup.com with Events+ and Membership 2 Pro for WordPress, Spend Less Time Building, More Time Teaching With Membership 2 and CoursePress and Creating Automated Welcome Emails With Automessage and Membership 2.

What kind of memberships do you have or want for your site? How could you see yourself using these add-ons for your site or network? Share your experience in the comments below.

Introduction to WordPress Multisite

WordPress Multisite is a feature of WordPress core. It used to be a standalone system called WPMU but was merged into WordPress core in version 3.0.

This means that you can easily activate Multisite in any existing standalone installation, even one you’ve been running for months or years. There’s one key difference when you install Multisite on an existing WordPress installation as compared to a new one, though, and that relates to subdomains and subdirectories. I’ll cover this in more detail later in this post when I look at the structure of Multisite networks.

Multisite lets you run a network of sites, meaning that with one installation of WordPress, you can have as many sites as you like.

And yes, I really mean as many sites as you like. WordPress.com is a Multisite installation powering over 10% of all websites, and our own Edublogs is also a Multisite installation that runs over 3 million educational blogs. As you can imagine, there are some extra considerations when it comes to managing a vast network like this, such as distributing storage across multiple servers. But the basic setup is one WordPress installation with one Multisite network running on it.

In this course, you won’t learn how to create and manage an immense network like Edublogs – that takes years of experience, sometimes painful – but what you will learn is how to create your own network of sites that you can use for one or more of a variety of purposes, which may or may not earn you money.

Here’s the definition of Multisite from the WordPress Codex:

A Multisite network is a collection of sites that all share the same WordPress installation. They can also share plugins and themes. The individual sites in the network are virtual sites in the sense that they do not have their own directories on your server, although they do have separate directories for media uploads within the shared installation, and they do have separate tables in the database.

So, Multisite is a WordPress feature that lets you create your own network of sites. Each of those sites can be managed separately and have its own domain pointing to it, so that when people visit it, you’d never know it’s on a network. This can make life much easier for you if you manage lots of sites and don’t want the hassle of keeping a separate eye on them all – updating plugins, dealing with performance and security, adding users, etc. It’s also incredibly useful if you want to let your users communicate with each other via a community, which you can host on your network.

The Benefits of Multisite

WordPress Multisite has a few key benefits when compared to managing multiple sites each on their own WordPress installation. These are:

• Storage space. You only have one set of WordPress files and one copy of each theme and plugin to store on your server.
• Updates. When you update WordPress, themes and plugins, you only have to do it once instead of once for each site. (But test on a development site first!)
• Community. You can use a Multisite network to create a community of sites and users. Options including cross-posting content, letting users follow each other and more. I’ll cover this in detail later in this course.
• Site creation. Multisite lets you allow users to create their own sites on your network. This is great if you’re running a community network for a school or club, or if you want to charge people to create sites. There’s a part on site creation later in this course.

Multisite vs Standalone Sites: Key Differences

Before you start working with Multisite there are some key differences between it and a standard (what I’ll call standalone) WordPress installation. It helps to understand these first, as they’ll help you decide whether Multisite is the right tool for you and to be more effective when you start creating and managing your network. Let’s take a look at some of those differences.

Note on terminology: If you’re used to standard WordPress sites, you’ll probably think of your installation as your site. In this course the terminology I’ll use will be different. The network is the WordPress installation, which includes a number of sites. A site is one site on that network. In earlier versions of Multisite they were thought of as blogs, but that changed with WordPress version 3.5.

Network Administration

When you create a Multisite network, you’ll become the network administrator, or super admin. This means you have the ability to manage the network as well as individual sites within it.

When you activate Multisite, you’ll see some extra links in your admin screens, shown in the screenshot:

The additional menu items are:

• In the admin you’ll see a My Sites link
• In the admin bar at the top, a My Sites link will be added that takes you to the network management screens.

The network management screens are where you install and activate themes and plugins and create and manage sites and users:

The network admin menu includes six sections:

• Dashboard – Manage updates and network upgrades from here.
• Sites – Create sites in your network and manage users, themes and settings for each of them.
• Users – Add users to your network in the same way as you would for a standalone site.
• Themes – Install themes, which you can then network enable or just enable for one or more individual sites in your network.
• Plugins – Install plugins here and network activate them if relevant. Some plugins can only be activated for the entire network, such as backup plugins, while others can be activated for the whole network if you want them to run on all sites, or site administrators can choose to activate them on their site.
• Settings – Manage the settings for your network.

There are a few aspects of network management that can be confusing for beginners:

• Base site. When you create a network, there will be one site to start with – the base site. This is the site you started with in your original WordPress installation. This will have the base URL as its domain name. You as the network administrator will also be the site administrator for that site, and you can add other users just as you would for an individual site. You can’t remove this site from the network. If you want to activate themes or plugins on the base site, you do so in the same way as you would for any other site in your network.
• Theme and plugin activation. You might expect to activate themes and plugins in the same way but you don’t. You install both of them via the network admin screens, but that’s where the similarity ends. With plugins, you can network activate them or not activate them at all, in which case they have to be activated via the Plugins screen in each individual site where they will run. For themes, you can network enable them, which makes them available for individual site administrators to activate on their site. Or you can enable themes for individual sites via the Sites admin screens, which means only those sites can activate them and the other site admins can’t see them. This is useful if you’re running a network of client sites each of which has its own theme.
• User creation. Users can be added by the network administrator or by site administrators. If you add a user via the network admin screens, they have a user account on the network  but don’t have any privileges for other sites (including the base site). If a site administrator adds a user, they will just have user access to that site, but site administrators for other sites can also add them to their own site.
• Updates. When you update themes, plugins and WordPress itself, you do it from the network admin screens and it will apply to all of the sites in your network. This is why it’s very important to test any updates on a development site before applying them to your live network – if a plugin update breaks something, it could affect one site, or thousands! You can install a plugin that helps you to identify which sites are running which themes and plugins, which I’ll look at in detail in a later part of this course.

As a network administrator you have additional capabilities compared to a site administrator:

• Capabilities relating to the network held by the superadmin are manage_network, manage_sites, manage_network_users, manage_network_plugins, manage_network_themes and manage_network_options.
• Capabilities which a site admin would have in a standard installation but which are only held by the superadmin in a Multisite network are update_core, update_plugins, update_themes, install_plugins, install_themes, delete_themes, delete_plugins, edit_plugins, edit_themes, edit_files, edit_users, create_users, delete_users and unfiltered_html.
• Capabilities held by both site admins and network admins are activate_plugins, delete_others_pages, delete_others_posts, delete_pages, delete_posts, delete_private_pages, delete_private_posts, delete_published_pages, delete_published_posts, edit_dashboard, edit_others_pages, edit_others_posts, edit_pages, edit_posts, edit_private_pages, edit_private_posts, edit_published_pages, edit_published_posts, edit_theme_options, export, import, list_users, manage_categories, manage_links, manage_options, moderate_comments, promote_users, publish_pages, publish_posts, read_private_pages, read_private_posts, read, remove_users, switch_themes and upload_files.

This means that as network administrator you can also edit and manage the individual sites on your network.

Site Administration

Whenever a new site is created on your network, it will have a site administrator. If the site is created by the network administrator, then the site administrator will be the same person. If the site is created via the signup screens, then the person creating the site will be the site administrator. It’s possible to add additional administrators to each site just as it is for a standalone WordPress site.

For site administrators, the screens they will have access to and the capabilities they have will be different from a standalone installation. The key differences are:

• Installing plugins and themes. Site admins can’t install plugins or themes. If a theme has been network enabled or enabled for their site, they can activate it via the Themes screen. If the network administrator gives site administrators access to plugin management, they can activate plugins. They can’t see any plugins that have been network activated in the Plugins screen. Site administrators can’t update plugins or themes.
• Managing Settings. There are some site settings that only network administrators have access to. These include maximum file upload size, user registration and new site settings.

Site administrators have all the same capabilities and screens for creating and editing content as they would on a standalone site. They can also add users to their site, including users already registered on the network and new users.

If the network administrator has enabled it via the network settings, site administrators can also activate plugins that haven’t been network activated. This is useful if you’re letting people create and manage their own sites in a similar way to edublogs or WordPress.com.

File Structure

A Multisite network includes the same WordPress files as any other installation, so the files in the root folder, in wp-admin and wp-includes will be the same. The plugin and theme folders in wp-content will also be the same. This is a much more efficient way of storing all of these files if you’re managing multiple sites: instead of storing each theme or plugin many times on many sites, you just have one network with one copy of the theme or plugin and as many sites as you need.

The one difference is in the way the uploads folder is structured inside wp-content. In a standard installation, the uploads folder will contain one folder for each year since the site was created, with each of those having folders for the months in which media was uploaded. In a Multisite installation, the uploads for each of the sites are stored separately.

The uploads for the base site will be stored in exactly the same way as for a standalone site. It’s important that this works in the same way, as if you activate Multisite on a site that you’ve already added content and uploads to, you still want those uploads to work. But all of the other sites will have their own folder for uploads. In the wp-content/uploads folder, a new folder is created called sites. Within that there is a folder for each site created on your network, with its name being the ID of the site.  Each site has its own unique numerical ID, starting with 2. Then within that numbered folder the uploads will have the same structure as for a standalone site, with folders for each year and then month.

This means that if you upload a file called media.png to the site with the ID of 10 during March 2016, it will be stored as wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/media.png.

Database Structure

The database for a Multisite installation will also have a different structure from that of a standalone site. A standard WordPress site has eleven database tables:

• wp_posts
• wp_postmeta
• wp_comments
• wp_commentmeta
• wp_links
• wp_term_relationships
• wp_term_taxonomy
• wp_terms
• wp_options
• wp_users
• wp_usermeta

In a Multisite installation, the tables are separated out for each site. So there will still be a copy of each of these tables, plus extra tables for each site. Nine of the tables are duplicated for each site – everything except wp_users and wp_usermeta.

The two tables with user data are just held once, as any users are users across your entire network and not just for one site. Each of the other nine is duplicated for each site, with the site ID added to its prefix. So the site with ID 10 will have the following tables for its content:

• wp_10_posts
• wp_10_postmeta
• wp_10_comments
• wp_10_commentmeta
• wp_10_links
• wp_10_term_relationships
• wp_10_term_taxonomy
• wp_10_terms
• wp_10_options

In addition, WordPress creates some extra tables which store data relating to the network itself. These are:

• wp_blogs
• wp_blog_versions
• wp_registration_log
• wp_signups
• wp_site
• wp_sitemeta
• wp_sitecategories (optional)

These store data relating to network settings and sites created. For more details of the database tables and how they work with Multisite, read this guide.

Domains

Another difference with Multisite is the domains used for each site in the network. Each one has its own domain, which is created using either a subdomain or a subdirectory of the main site’s url. These work as follows:

• Using subdomains means that each site will have a url like http://site1.yournetwork.com. If you’re planning to let people create their own site, you’ll need to have wild card subdomains activated for your hosting.
• Using subdirectories means that each site will have a url like http://yournetwork.com/site1. You can’t choose this option on an established site that you’re converting to a network as it may cause clashes with urls already created in your site.

If you’re activating Multisite on a local site (i.e. one on your local machine using MAMP or similar to run WordPress), then you won’t be allowed to use subdomains when setting things up – you’ll have to use subdirectories. If you’re activating Multisite on a WordPress installation that’s over a month old, you won’t be given the option to use subfolders: you’ll have to use subdomains. This is because your site may already include posts or pages with slugs that would conflict with the subdirectory for a new site being set up on the network.

In order to avoid slug clashes, the blog in your base site will have its permlainks changed when you activate Multisite using subfolders, so if you have pretty permalionks enabled, a post at http://yoursite.com/name-of-my-post will move to http://yoursite.com/blog/name-of-my-post. Again this is to avoid conflicts between your post titles and any subfolders.

I’ll cover domains, wildcard domains and domain mapping in more detail in a later part of this course.

Uses for WordPress Multisite

Multisite has a variety of uses you can put it to. Some of these will support comities, others will be great for business. They include:

• Managing your own sites
• Hosting sites for clients
• Hosting multiple sites for one organization
• Charging people to create sites
• Supporting a community

Let’s take a look at each of these.

Managing Your Own Sites

I talk to a lot of WordPress users and developer who have lots and lots of their own sites. Maybe they support personal projects, perhaps they’re for different businesses or maybe (like me) they demonstrate different techniques.

I have a Multisite network at rachelmccollin.co.uk which includes dozens of sites I’ve created to demonstrate techniques that I’ve written about in tutorials, books and articles. Most of these sites are small, with one plugin or theme activated that uses the code in a tutorial. Others are bigger, and support an entire book.

Being able to keep all these in one place saves me lots of work when I need to update plugins, themes, or WordPress itself. Lots of the themes I use for tutorials are child themes of the Twenty Sixteen default WordPress themes, and so I only need to store and update one copy of Twenty Sixteen.

If you’re one of those people who likes to create personal sites, then Multisite is a great way to look after them. And with domain mapping, you can use a separate domain for each of them – no-one will ever know they’re running on a network.

Hosting Sites for Clients

Using Multisite to host client sites is another way to be more efficient and use less server space.

My agency, Compass Design, develops and hosts websites for small business clients. I don’t host all of my client sites in one network, as some are too bespoke, but a sizeable proportion of the sites I host are small sites with less than 20 pages. All of these are built using a child of the same framework theme, which I built myself. If I ever update the framework theme I only need to do it once on my network, and the same applies for plugins. This makes the process of updating much quicker and more efficient.  And domain mapping means that each site has its own unique domain, so my client’s customers never know that their site is hosted on my network.

By using plugins such as Support System and Snapshot, I can use my Multisite network to improve the service I offer clients. Snapshot is Multisite-compatible and lets me configure all my backup options from one place, and Support System lets me receive and respond to support requests from clients.

If you’re using Multisite like this, the same caveat applies when doing updates – test on a development site first! I have a local copy of my network, which I activate any updates on and test before doing so on the live sites. These are client sites, treat them with care!

Hosting Multiple Sites for One Organization

Imagine you’re the website manager for a large organization that works in many countries. You might have separate websites for each of those countries, with the headache of managing them all. Or you could have multiple sites in the same language, maybe for different departments.

Multisite makes it easy to have separate sites but manage them all from one place.

If all your sites are using one child theme, you only need to store and keep it updated once. If you’re using the same plugins across all your sites, there are more efficiencies. And even better, you can allow cross–posting of content between sites, create a community of users across your organization and set up a template site for use every time a new site is created for a new country or department.

Making Money with Multisite

Multisite is a tool you can use to support a business and make money. If you set up a network that allows people to create their own sites, then there are a variety of charging models you can use to make money from that network.

These include:

• Charging for site creation
• Charging for enhanced features
• Charging for specific plugins or themes
• Charging for support or extra services
• Charging people to use their own domain

We use some of these on Edublogs. Creating a site is free, but if you want advanced features and extra plugins, you need to pay. WordPress.com works in a similar way.

There will be a whole part of this course dedicated to the process of setting up site creation for users which will include content on charging for sites or features.

Supporting a Community

Multisite isn’t just about running a business and making money: it’s a great tool for supporting communities. It lets you create a network of sites run by users who are all part of a community. That could be a club or a loose grouping of people with similar interests.

Multisite lets your community members not only create sites but also communicate with each other, follow each other’s posts and share content. It can provide a useful resource for the members of your community and let them be better connected.

Multisite Has Many Uses and Benefits

Now that you’ve read this first part in our Multisite course, you’ll know how useful and versatile WordPress Multisite can be. In the later parts of this course we’ll go into the more practical aspects of creating and managing a WordPress network, including activating Multisite and configuring your network; enabling and enhancing site creation for users; domain mapping; creating a community; and managing your network.

I look forward to working through this series with you!

Missed a tutorial in our Multisite masterclass series? You can catch up on all six posts here:

• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Getting Started
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Activation and Configuration
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Site and User Creation
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Client Sites and Domain Mapping
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Creating a Community
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Managing Your Network

Did you find this tutorial helpful? Why do you want to learn about WordPress Multisite? What do you want to know more about? Let us know in the comments below.

Question #2: Can I activate Multisite without editing files? I’m not comfortable delving into the code.

Sorry, but no. Multisite is too fundamental a change to your WordPress installation to be able to do it just with a plugin. But you are given very clear instructions on editing those files when you go through the activation process.

Question #3: I don’t have access to my files. How do I set Multisite up?

Speak to your hosting provider and ask them to give you access. If they won’t, upgrade your plan or switch to a better provider. It’s your site, you should have access to your files.

Question #4: Will each site in my network have its own .htaccess file?

No. There’s just one for the whole network, which is in your root directory.

Hosting and Domains

Question #5: Do I need VPS (Virtual Private Server) if I’m running Multisite? My hosting provider has said I should get it.

VPS can help if you’re setting up a network but it’s not essential. For me it depends on the size of the network and what you’re using it for – for client sites you minimize the risk of downtime with VPS but with a small personal network you don’t really need it. Don’t let your hosting provider sell it to you if it’s not necessary – you can always upgrade at a later date.

Question #6: Could you give recommendations on hosting providers for Multisite and how this will differ from a single WordPress install?

I’m not a hosting expert and I’m always wary of recommending hosting providers. However if you look on our blog you’ll find that Daniel Pataki has written some great reviews of hosting providers, and it’s also worth looking at the WordPress Codex. My only recommendation would be to remember that you get what you pay for. Make sure your hosting provider gives you full access to DNS management, cPanel and doesn’t restrict you in any way. And that they have great support!

Question #7: Can I use SSL with Multisite? How do I do it?

There are two approaches to this: get an SSL certificate for your network’s domain, or get it for any domains you’re redirecting to your network using domain mapping.

If you get SSL for your network’s domain and you’re using subdomains, you’ll need wild card SSL which costs a little more – order that from your SSL provider instead of a standard SSL certificate. If you’re using subdirectories you won’t need wild card SSL. And if you’re using domain mapping you’ll need an SSL certificate for each domain you’re mapping (NOT the network’s domain as your visitors don’t see that).

Administering Your Network

Question #8: How do plugins work with Multisite? Do I have to install them more than once for multiple sites?

No you don’t. Install the plugin once on your network then activate it for the sites you want it to run on. Or network activate it if you want to run it on every site. Then when the plugin is updated you only need to do that once. It makes updates much quicker.

Question #9: My main concern is resources. Multisite “feels” like it may be more resource intensive than standalone. Is this a problem?

It depends how many sites you have on your network. If you’re running more than three or four, I’d say Multisite is definitely less resource-intensive than all the separate WordPress installs. Both in terms of servers and time. And don’t forget it’s possible to host millions of sites on a Multisite install, as with our Edublogs network.

Question #10: When I log in as network admin I don’t see the sites in my network in the “My Sites” list in the admin bar.

You need to check that you’re registered against each of those sites. Go to Sites in the network admin menu, then for each of them click the Edit link, then go to the Users tab. If you’re not shown as a user, add yourself as a user to each site, using the username you’re using for the network as a whole.

But remember you don’t always need to be able to access all of your sites in this way. If your network is large and the sites are run by other people, I’d advise against it. If you need to access their sites, you can always use the User Switching plugin to see the site as if you’re logged in as another user.

Question #11: Can I keep a local copy of my Multisite network for testing?

Yes you can. I keep a local development installation of my sites for testing/development plus a remote live one. They’re not exact mirrors as the database isn’t mirrored but the themes/plugins etc. are. If you want to copy your network to a development installation on a  local machine you’ll need to install WordPress locally first, and then copy your network. I use Github for version control with my local files, which means I can then use SSH to deploy changes to my live network.

Question #12: I’ve set up domain mapping but the domain isn’t redirecting to my network. Help!

The first thing to do is be patient. It takes time for DNS changes to propagate so it won’t work straight away. Keep checking your DNS to be sure. But if your domain still isn’t redirecting after a couple of days, there’s probably something wrong with your configuration. Try following the steps in our post on domain mapping again – they work every time for me so they should work for you. If all else fails, contact your domain registrar or hosting provider.

Creating Sites

Question #13: Can I provide a starting template for new sites in my network with specific pages etc. set up?

Yes, you can do this with our New Blog Templates plugin. For instructions on using the plugin see this guide.

Question #14: Can I use subdomains for some sites on my network and subdirectories for others?

No, sorry. You have to pick one when you set up your network, and then you’re stuck with it forever (yes, until the end of time….).

Question #15: Does every site in my network have to run a child theme? Or the same theme?

No, you can run whatever theme(s) you want on your sites. Some of them could be running the same theme, some could have their own unique theme, and others might have a child theme. For my client sites I use a parent theme for all of them and then each one has its own child theme. But for my personal network, it’s much more mixed: some have standalone themes I’ve built, some have themes from WPMU DEV or from the theme directory, while others have child themes of any of the above. It’s up to you!

Question #16: If someone does a search on a site in my network, will the results show content from the whole network?

No. A search will just apply to that site.

Question #17: When I register a new site and follow the activation link sent to my email, I get a 404 error. What’s gone wrong?

Check that your .htaccess rules are correct – you can find them in Network Setup in the network admin screens. And if you’re using subdomain installation make sure wildcards are set up.

Question #18: Can I import a standalone site into my Multisite network?

Yes, you can. You can either do this using a plugin or by copying the files and database tables. The first option is easier but less robust. For instructions follow this tutorial.

Question #19: Can I export one of the sites in my network to a standalone site?

You sure can. It’s like importing, but the other way round. Follow this tutorial for instructions.

Multisite for Communities

Question #20: I’m using Membership 2 Pro to restrict access to BuddyPress and bbPress community on my main site, and I’m wondering if that’s overkill. I want to offer a “private community” as an added value.

I think that may be overkill. Personally, I’d approach this by putting my BuddyPress community on a sub-site and restricting access to that. You can use redirects to make the whole thing feel seamless, along with the same theme for the main site and the BuddyPress site. But you may be able to use BuddyPress in a way that keeps all of your community content private to members anyway – I recommend experimenting with your BuddyPress settings.

Business and SEO

Question #21: Can I use Multisite with e-commerce sites?

There’s a quick answer to this: yes! I host clients’ stores on a Multisite network and it works smoothly. Bear in mind that you’ll need SSL for any e-commerce site, for security reasons. I’d recommend using domain mapping and getting an SSL certificate for the domain you’re mapping. Then you won’t need SSL for your network (unless you need/want it).

Question #22: How does using Multisite affect SEO?

This question gets asked a lot. The answer depends on how you’re using domains:

• If you’re using subdirectories, search engines will treat the entire network as if it’s one site.
• If you’re using subdomains, search engines will crawl each site separately, treating each subdomain as a separate site.
• If you’re using domain mapping, search engines won’t even know you’re using Multisite – they’ll treat each site as a separate site on its own domain. This is the same whether your network is set up using subdomains or subdirectories.

Question #23: Are SEO Plugins compatible with Multisite?

In my experience, the major SEO plugins play nicely with Multisite, although some commenters on the blog have said otherwise. If you use our SmartCrawl plugin you can be confident it’ll be Multisite compatible, as that’s what we specialize in.

Question #24: I want to use Multisite to create a platform for tech-savvy individuals to use for all their business/personal/family communications. Kind of like Facebook meets LinkedIn meets wordpress.com. How can I make this work?

Woah, hold your horses! It’s important to do your research and identify a niche market and a targeted product that meets their needs well. Talk to potential clients and find out what they want – don’t jump in before you know you’ve got a market. Release your product as soon as you can (it will never be perfect) and be prepared to adapt according to what clients need. James Farmer’s course on marketing will help you identify your niche. If you aim too wide and you don’t have a marketing budget of billions, you will fail. Tough but true.

Got Any More Questions?

Hopefully I’ve answered the burning question you had on your mind when you started reading this post. I haven’t covered everything as a lot is dealt with in my series on WordPress Multisite. So if you still want to know more, I recommend checking out the series:

• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Getting Started
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Activation and Configuration
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Site and User Creation
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Client Sites and Domain Mapping
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Creating a Community
• WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Managing Your Network

So let’s get started!

Before You Start – Backing Up

Before you do anything, make a backup of your Multisite network. Don’t skip this step – if anything goes wrong, you’ll need a backup to reinstate. I recommend using our Snapshot Pro plugin to do this.

Creating a New Site in Your Network

Create a new site in your Multisite network in the normal way. Once you’ve done this make a note of its ID: Multisite gives each site in a network a unique numerical ID. You can find this by going to the Sites screen in your network admin screens, finding the new site and clicking Edit.

This will open the editing screen for your new site:

In your browser check the URL for this screen. The site’s ID will be the final two digits at the end of the URL. Make a note of that.

Copying Your Themes and Plugins

The first step is to make a copy of your old site’s themes and plugins as well as the wp_options table from the database. Let’s start with the themes, plugins and uploads.

Here’s my starting site:

Downloading Themes and Plugins

Open your FTP program or code editor, and navigate to the wp-content directory in the site you want to move (which I’ll refer to as your old site). Download a copy of these folders:

• themes
• plugins

Save these to your local machine somewhere you can find them easily – I always set up a dedicated folder when I’m doing this.

Uploading Themes and Plugins to the Network

Now you need to upload the themes and plugins you copied from your old site to your network.

Find the wp-content directory in your network and open each of the themes and plugins folders in turn.

Upload the file or folder for each theme and plugin to the correct directory. If any of the plugins or theme from your old site are already installed in the network, you don’t need to upload them again.

Note: If you’d rather not do this manually, you can just install the relevant themes and plugins in your network. I prefer to do it manually as it’s quicker. If you do take this route, you don’t need to activate the themes and plugins – that will happen automatically once you’ve imported the database table.

Copying and Editing the wp_options Table

My preferred way to export the database table is by using phpMyAdmin. You’ll need to use this for importing the table to the new site anyway so you may as well start now.

Exporting the Table

In your hosting provider’s admin screens for your old site, go to phpMyAdmin and find the database that’s running your old site.

Note: If you’ve got more than one database running, you can find out which one is behind the site you want to migrate by checking that site’s wp-config.php file.

Find the wp_options table and select it:

Now scroll down and find the With selected: drop-down list. Select Export. When prompted click the Go button.

This will download an SQL file to your local machine. Copy that to the folder you’ve created to keep your files.

Editing the SQL File

Open the SQL file that you’ve downloaded. Using your FTP editor, select the Find & Replace option (in many editors it’s Ctrl-F or Cmd-F).

In the Find field type wp_, and in the replace field type wp_XX_, where XX is the two digit ID of your new site in the network. (in my case it’s wp_71_, I’ve got a lot of sites in my network!)

Click the All button if your code editor has one, or Replace all if that’s what your program gives you. Wait for the program to run the replace.

Now repeat this step for your site’s URL. In the Find field, type the URL for your old site and in the Replace field type the URL for your new site. Make sure that any backslashes are consistent. I prefer to miss out any http:// or www and just use the root URL, e.g rachelmccollin.com.

Note: If you’ll be redirecting your old domain name to your new site using domain mapping, don’t worry about this yet. You’ll set up domain mapping once you’ve migrated your site. For now use the URL generated by your network.

Save the file and close it.

Exporting and Importing Content

The next step is to use the WordPress importer tool to export the content from your old site and import it to your new one.

Exporting Content from the Old Site

In the admin screens for your old site, go to Tools > Export:

Unless you just want to export certain post types, keep the All content option selected and click the Download Export File button. WordPress will create an XML file and download it to your computer. Save it in the folder you’ve created for your working files.

Importing Content to the New Site

Before you import the content from your old site, delete any dummy content that’s been created for you when you created the site.

Before you can import the content from your old site, you’ll need to install the WordPress Importer plugin. Go to your Plugins screen in the network admin and install that (you’ll need to search for WordPress Importer).

Now in your new site’s admin screens, go to Tools > Import and scroll down to WordPress at the bottom of the list. Click the Run Importer link.

WordPress will ask you to select a file to upload:

Click the Choose File button and then select the file from your machine (it will be in your downloads folder unless you’ve moved it). Remember you’re looking for an XML file. Once you’ve done that, click the Upload file and import button.

Next, you’ll be prompted to assign content to existing authors on your network, or import authors. Select whichever option applies to you. I’m assigning my posts to my existing username, but you may need to import authors.

Finally, select the Download and import file attachments option to copy media files from your old site and insert them in the correct place in your new one.

Click Submit and the importer will import the content, after which you’ll see the All done! message.

Note: this only imports those users who have content assigned to them. If you have other users on your site, such as subscribers, you’ll need to import them separately. You can use the Cimy User Manager plugin to do this.

Importing the Table to your Network’s Database

Now you need to import the wp_options table for your site into the database for your network. It’s important that you do this after uploading themes and plugins as many of these settings will relate to those themes and plugins.

Open phpMyAdmin for your network. Find the wp_options table for your new site (in my case it’s wp_71_options) and select it:

Scroll down and select Drop in the With selected drop-down list. When prompted, click the Yes button.

Now click the Import tab at the top of the phpMyAdmin screen to view the import screen:

Click the Choose file button and select the SQL file that you’ve edited. Then click the Go button.

The import will run and you’ll see a screen telling you it’s been successful:

Importing Widget Settings

The last thing to import from your old site is your widget settings.

Exporting Widgets from Your Old Site

Go to the admin screens for your old site and install and activate the widget settings plugin there too. Go to Tools > Widget Settings Export to see the exporter screen:

Unless you just want to select some of the widgets from your old site (and not all of them), select the Select All Active Widgets checkbox. Click the Export Widget Settings button to download the export file. This will be called widget_data.json.

Importing Widgets into Your New Site

Now switch to your new site, and go to Tools > Widget Settings Import:

Click the Select a file button and find the file where you downloaded it. Note that you’re looking for a son file this time, not an XML file. Then click the Show widget settings button to see the widgets in the file:

Select the widgets you want to import, or just click on the Select All Active Widgets button, and make sure the Clear Current Widgets Before Import button is selected. Then click the Import Widget Settings button.

That’s it! Your content, authors, and widgets are all imported, as well as your settings.

Moving Your Site In This Way Takes Longer but is More Thorough

You’ve now moved everything across. You’ve followed a fair few steps and used a mix of plugins and manual imports and uploads, but you’ll now find that you don’t need to make any tweaks to your site’s settings. Here’s my new site:

If your site has lots of installed plugins, customizations and settings configured, you’ll find this method is more reliable and in the long run saves you time. Just make sure you take that backup at the beginning (just in case) and that you follow each step in the correct order.

CampusPress… But For Everyone!

The very genesis of our parent company, Incsub, is rooted in WordPress Multisite. From the inception of Edublogs to the development of CampusPress (formerly Edublogs Campus) and WPMU DEV itself, we’ve solved problems and provided opportunities for WordPress Multisite users.

And along the way we’ve developed an infrastructure capable of deploying, managing, customizing and supporting Multisite like no other, so it really is an absolute no-brainer to bring it to you today and invite you to join our beta program.

We’re looking to roll out the service in full in early 2017, but in the interim we’d like to give WPMU DEV members the opportunity to find out more, take a free trial of the environment, and inform our final feature set.

Addressing Challenges of WordPress Multisite

Odds are, if you’re reading this you’ll be very aware of the challenges you face when setting up and managing a Multisite environment, but as a reminder here’s a brief introduction.

Scalability, Load, Traffic and Capacity

It’s incredibly hard to scale Multisite beyond a few hundred sites due to the demands placed on your hosting infrastructure and consequent limitations placed on the software by pretty much every WordPress host.

From the small matter of limited storage, bandwidth and inadequate (or non-existent) backups to simply coping with the demands of traffic, to the implications of replicated high load plugins and themes and the sheer amount of resources consumed by the platform… attempting to manage an even moderately successful Multisite environment can be an absolute nightmare.

Which is something we’ve completely resolved with over 3 million sites hosted on just Edublogs and over 1000 institutions managed by CampusPress, and which, along with unlimited bandwidth, storage and multilayered backups is one of the core aspects of this new service.

Complexity, Technical Expertise & Developers

If you’re not already a skilled WordPress developer and sysadmin, you’re going to struggle to do much with a Multisite setup on your own.

From scaling plugins to the challenges of compatibility, security, stability and customization, even a talented developer can struggle with not only deploying but then maintaining, upgrading and adding to a Multisite environment.

Essentially, to run your own successful Multisite network you need a team of developers and sysadmins.

Which stops being a problem when you have access to the entire WPMU DEV expert support, development and sysadmin team as literally no other company has longer or more combined experience in dealing with Multisite that we do.

Limitations, Support & Training

Due largely to what I outlined above, you’ll often find Multisite environments and hosts to be a highly locked-down experience with any number of plugins or themes excluded either by force or through the challenges inherent in running them at a Multisite level.

Along with not only the support required for your end users (be they clients, staff or users) but the complexity and challenges of running a site as a super admin.

Which, you guessed it, we’ve also managed to overcome through offering curated third party plugins and themes (like Divi and Woocommerce) along with providing custom git management so your technical team can commit and have reviewed any custom code.

Along with providing your own account manager, customized training program, 24/7 expert support and even – should you want it – support for all of your users.

Everything You Ever Wanted From a Multisite Host

So, having addressed the core challenges, now’s the time for the fun stuff that really sets us apart.

AWS, Geo-Located Infrastructure

Built on the back of Amazon Web Services, we have fine-tuned enterprise grade hosting for WordPress.

Additionally, we have infrastructure in the United States (Virginia), Australia (Sydney), Canada (Toronto) and the United Kingdom (Portsmouth), so you can select where you would like to be hosted.

Security Monitoring

The biggest security challenges are usually caused by outdated and unpatched plugins and themes, along with the WordPress core software itself. Not anymore if you host with us. We’ll take care of every security update and patch as soon as they become available (if not before… We’ve reported a bunch of security issues in core and products in the past!)

Alongside optional CloudFlare protection for DDOS mitigation and increased site performance, and together with WP Defender-based automated logging, manual code inspections, and routine audits around our security practices.

Full 99.9% Service Level Agreement

Nobody likes downtime, but we’re especially fanatical about it and most months you won’t see a minute of it as we aim to hit 100% uptime.

However, we will guarantee you a 99.9% uptime and availability Service Level Agreement, which you will be able to monitor through third party platforms or via our own internal tools.

Your Very Own Dedicated Account Manager

Full WPMU DEV Product Suite (Plus Third Party Products!)

As well as all WPMU DEV products, we will also install, configure and provide training in third party plugins like Divi, WooCommerce or Gravity Forms.

In fact, we’re pretty much plugin and theme agnostic when it comes to hosting – our main requirement is that it passes our security, reliability and stability testing (we manually review any and all custom code) – and are happy to investigate any and all submissions through our customized git system.

Custom Design and Development

Questions? Requests? Feedback?

Well, first up please feel free to head over to the WPMU DEV Hosting page where we have an FAQ section which will hopefully take care of a most of your queries.

And, if your question isn’t answered there and you’d like to speak to one of our sales specialists, then please feel free to use the form on the site.

You can also request a demo or a free trial on the site, too :)

But, as ever, we’re more than happy to answer all and any questions you might have in the comments below, so fire away!

Editing the Email Content

The second function will amend the contents of the email.

In your plugin file, add a second empty function hooked to the correct filter hook:

Now populate that function with the following:

Again that’s using a placeholder: this time it’s n%s, which displays the link to the new site and is provided by the $activate_url variable in the original function in the core file.

Here’s the full content of your plugin:

Activating and Testing the Plugin

Now save your file and go to the Plugins screen in your network admin screens. Network activate the new plugin.

Sign out of your site and go to http://mydomain.com/wp-signup.php, where mydomain is your own network’s domain name.

Work through the site creation process and wait for the system to send you the activation email. You should find it’s changed.

Here’s mine:

Customizing the Activation Email Improves the Experience for Your Users

So you now have a plugin that customizes the site activation email and makes it more appropriate to your network and more user-friendly. I think a friendly email like this improves the user experience and should reduce the number of people who don’t get past this part of the site creation process.

You can edit the text in my plugin so that it’s better for your network and your users, and you might want to try testing it on some users too before you go live. You should also take the time to edit the welcome email that users will receive once they’ve gone through the activation process – you can do that via the Network Settings screen.

Note: If you’d like to copy the original code fom my plugin or use it for your own site, you can find it on Github.