WordPress 3.0 Multisite Settings

Exclusively 2 Screenshots of the new WordPress 3.0 Multisite Settings. You can find them under Options->Network:
WordPress 3.0 Network settings step 1
After you set the settings, you receive in a second step the content for wp-config.php and .htaccess. Additionally you have to create the subfolder blogs.dir in wp-content , where you put the media-files for each blog.

WordPress 3.0 Network settings step 2

Since WordPress 3.0 is still in development, there might be many changes until the final release.

58 Comments
  1. Alex Denning says:

    That looks pretty sweet! Can't wait for 3.0 :)

  2. So each blog on a given WordPress Multisite install is being called a "site," even though they are actually all on the same site?

  3. ines says:

    Yay, multi sites. Too good to be true!

  4. Michael says:

    @Andrew Yes. Same as WordPress Mu before. You have the option between subdomains like myblog.mydomain.com or subfolders like mydomain.com/myblog/ for each blog.

  5. Xavi Ivars says:

    So WordPress Mu is merged again with wordpress?

  6. How to create multiple wordpress blogs with same installation and different databases:

    Step 1 - Create a subdomain that points with wordpress installation. In this example I will use the "newblog" subdomain (newblog.mysite.com).

    Step 2 - Create a new database. In this this tutorial, let's call it "newblog";

    Step 3 - Edit the "wp-config.php" file and replace

    define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database

    with:
    if($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == "mysite.com" or $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == "www.mysite.com"){
    define('DB_NAME', 'mysitedatabase');}
    elseif ($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == "newblog.mysite.com"){
    define('DB_NAME', 'newblog');
    }

    It verifies if the website domains is the default "www.mysite.com", case is, the wordpress use the "mysitedatabase" database. If the domain is our "newblog.mysite.com" the wordpress uses the "newblog" database. This $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] is a PHP predefined variable to get website domain.

    Step 4 - Access the "newblog.wordpress.com" and continues normally with the wordpress installation.

    Now, you can run your new worpdress blog!

    My english is so poor!

  7. ifoundbacon says:

    Xavi, it's the other way around. WordPress is being merged in to WordPress MU.

  8. What if you want to run different domain names for the sites in your MU?

  9. jan says:

    Darn... I just started the process of moving my sites into a WP-Mu setup. Maybe I should wait a little.
    Good development though!

  10. Ryan says:

    So Buddy Press is going to work with WP now? That is a huge game changer IMO. Puts WP right up there with Drupal and Joomla in terms of feature set and WP still blows both out of the water with functionality.

  11. Michael says:

    @Artem: We will see ;) Maybe with Donncha's Domain mapping plugin, maybe with a later development in WordPress.

  12. mike says:

    this is awesome! thanks :)

  13. Flavio Paiva says:

    This new release will help me when the clients decide to have mor blogs in the same domain. Good Job.
    I can't wait for the new WP 3.0

  14. RandyMac says:

    I just installed WordPress Mu, and found this discussion. Good news that WordPress 3 will allow for Multiple Blogs.

    Questions:

    Upgrading path from WordPress MU to this new version. I'm sure there will be an upgrade method, as many major sites use WP MU, but if it is a whole new install of version 3, I think I might hold off before putting too much effort of adding content articles and marketing my new site.

    Any thoughts on this and ideas of planned release or beta of 3.0?

    RandyMac

  15. Mosey says:

    I really love the idea of BuddyPress working with WP. Although I would love to try out BuddyPress in real time, I don't actually have my own server (and very unlikely to) so the potential for it to work with plain ol' WordPress (albeit 3.0) is brilliant!

  16. shizuyue says:

    @Mosey, you can try out BuddyPress at http://testbp.org/ first. I'm trying it out now too.

  17. Viper007Bond says:

    @ifoundbacon: Sorry, but you are incorrect. This is entirely WordPress with a lot of MU's code being merged in as a basis for this feature.

    Check the commit logs if you don't believe me. ;)

  18. Artem Russakovskii,

    Currently in WordPress MU multiple domains on a single WordPress installation is accomplished by using a plugin such as YAMM (Yet Another Multi-site Manager). This will allow you to maintain a single database but have multiple domains such a xxx.com, yyy.net, zzz.org, zzz.com with a single WordPress MU installation. Since this is possible in WordPress-MU it would follow that it would probably work for WordPress 3.0. It would be nice if they could build this functionality into WordPress 3.0 rather than require a plugins to make this work. It would also be nice if they could allow such multiple domains to use names such as xxx.com, yyy.net, zzz.org, or zzz.com for SEO optimization.

    Currently you need to modify a couple of lines in the wpmu-settings.php file in the blog root directory to accomplish this. Unfortunately, each time you upgrade you need to re-modify the wpmu-settings.php file to restore the fix.

  19. shawn says:

    What is the difference between multisites and what mu does already?

    I keep coming across people talking about multisites even on mu installs, but have never been able to grasp the difference. Is not mu basically multisites already?

  20. @shawn: the terminology is confusing and will be more confusing soon, after the merge as some meanings will be switched :)

    Bus basicall current MU offers multi blogs (off one site). With mult site, you can offer multiblogs off different domains, but based on only one MU install (with shared plugins etc). the advantage is that you have to maintain only one install, plugin set etc. disadvantage is that if it breaks, all breaks :)

    What I do not understand is that in 3.0 as per above, you do not need to adapt the httpd.conf file? How does the server handle virtual subdomains, wildcards?

    Cheers, Harry

  21. Andrea_r says:

    harry - if you want subdomains, you'll still have to add those wildcards. WP still can't edit the server for you, yes this will be explained.

    As for terminology:

    MU has blogs and sites.
    WP 3.0 will have sites and networks.

  22. Robert says:

    @andrea_r

    but WP 3.0 sites is really equivalent to WPMu Blogs, right?

  23. Devin says:

    I just made a video screencast of this in action and the steps to configure the multisite function.

    http://wordpresstheming.com/2010/03/wordpress-3-0-enable-network/

  24. Ken says:

    Will it be possible for visitors to use the WordPress search function to search across multiple blogs with WP 3.0?

  25. Michael says:

    @ken: Good question, but no idea.

  26. JhezeR says:

    Im not success to create new network (new site) on my hosting... :(

  27. Andrea_r says:

    @Robert - yes

    @Ken - no

  28. So how can we get a network-wide search?

  29. BAC says:

    I've just had a play with 3.0 multisite and I'm using the Thematic framework.

    I am wondering, do I need a *grandchild* theme, ie thematic as the main theme, which can be updated, a childtheme which contains custom functions and templates then new blogs with thier own functions? I tried setting up a grandchild theme with the child theme as a template but this didn't wash...

    Not sure of the best architecture here.

    Also Is there anyway to have new sites use default plugin settings rather than having to configure each new sites plugin settings over and over again?

    Cheers

    BAC

  30. Shawn says:

    As of about a month or so ago, BuddyPress no longer required WordPressMU..

    The merge of functionality looks promising. I'm just wondering how many hosting companies will disable the MU type support in their WordPress installs. I know a few of them already don't allow MU installs.

  31. Xavi Esteve says:

    Wow love it!
    I downloaded it yesterday late but found it was quite similar to 2.9 (I'm using 3.0 beta1). Guess I'll need to have a better look at it.
    Does the multiblog only work with subdomains?
    Can I have example.com/blog1, example.com/blog2?
    Thanks Michael!

  32. Michael says:

    Xavi, it works with subdirectories too.

  33. Kristoffer says:

    @Andrew Have you looked into google cse? You can set it to look at all subdomain/subdirectories of your site.

    Really easy to set up and use, the only thing is that you lose the ability to search for private/hidden content.

  34. Xavi Esteve says:

    Thanks Michael, this is a great step for WP developers!

  35. Thanks, Kristoffer, I'll check into it!

    And may I just say, that photo site of yours is very cool, in a disturbing sort of way... ;-)

  36. Now it'll be much easier to manage a multilingual site built with WP. Also, this is great news for premium theme developers, as you can easily demo your themes :)

  37. jive says:

    MovableType gets another nail in its coffin

  38. Michael, how well do you know nginx? A post on setting up multisite with nginx instead of Apache would be great!

  39. Michael says:

    Sorry Brent. No clue about nginx.

  40. No problems Michael. For anyone looking for Nginx rewrite rules, the WPMU rules work for 3.0.

    You can find these rewrite rules here:
    http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic/3410/page/2

    And Andrea has created a handy codex page that I'm sure will get better Nginx content over time:
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network

  41. Bennett says:

    @Vinícius I've created a tool that formalizes this approach. You can find it at WPMultiSite.com

  42. Sam says:

    Will the new feature all each user to have their own wordpress admin page?

    If you have a site with multiple users can you setup MU in 3.0 so each user can have their own blog that they maintain?

  43. Michael says:

    @Sam: Yes. Every user can have his own blog.

  44. Figuring out that you had to actually change wp-config.php with the following line:


    define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

    is crucial to get this working... :)

  45. Cavamondo says:

    In WP3 Multisite - Is there a way admin initially can pre-define the blog settings for all new user created blogs. For example the sizes of pictures (media) user uploads.

  46. arutperungo says:

    Hi Michael,

    Thanks for the info.
    I already have two wordpress blogs in 2.9.2(blog.arutperungo.com and eblog.arutperungo.com ).

    Now, to use the new WP 3.0 Multisite capability how should i achieve that?

    upgrading both of them to WP 3.0 and adding the network details of one to the other is enough?

    or should i install WP 3.0 in the root domain (arutperungo.com) and add the network details of both of them their?

    Appreciate your guidance.

    Thanks.

  47. Stef says:

    I'm currently running a wpmu site - so I'm wondering how the existing site will merge with new wp3.0. Or will wpmu still run separately with their own upgrades?

  48. Devin says:

    When the new version of WordPress comes out you should be able to your WPMU site directly to 3.0 through an automatic upgrade. I've upgraded a few basic WPMU sites to 3.0 beta and didn't have any problems.

  49. diondeville says:

    This is great information, especially in the comments. I've just installed WP 3 RC1 for one of my domains and the Multi Site setup instructions are still as you have described. Cant' wait to see the final release and I hope that WP 2.9 will be easy to upgrade to 3.0

  50. When trying to update to Word Press 3.0, when clicking on Update Now, I get this message "You are not allowed to call this page directly." Why is that?

  51. Ben, turn of Next-Gen ImageFlow plugin and try again

  52. Thank you, Stephan - your commented help me upgrade to 3.0!

    Appreciate it!

  53. Louis says:

    Hello, I currently work for Wikio. We manage different 5 different tld with five different WP installs. Would WP3 allow me to merge all installs into one and publish contents to e-blogs.wikio.fr, e-blogs.wikio.es, e-blogs.wikio.de and e-blogs.wikio.co.uk?

  54. Werner says:

    Will you be able to publish a post to multiple blogs?

  55. ccy says:

    This page is titled "nginx", has no actual content on nginx other than some outbound links in comments, but returns #1 when I google for "nginx wordpress multisite subdomains".

    Pure SEO bullshit.

  56. catchnames says:

    WordPress multisite provides functionality for multiple subdomains or multiple directories.Is there anyway to use it for multiple top level domains?like
    example.com
    anotherexample.com
    etc
    Can someone guide me in this regard?

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