WordPress MU

I've installed MU, what now? Is there any guide for creating a custom front page? Is there an admin section, where you can see all blogs? I uploaded new themes, they don't show up... How do you set a custom default theme?

Is there absolutely no documentation or guides on where to start...?

http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/search.php

http://codex.wordpress.org/

http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/search.php
Can you be more specific?

http://codex.wordpress.org/
There's nothing about MU there, only WP.

I think you're probably in over your head on this.

ghaib: until you have a firm (and I mean rock solid) idea of how wordpress single blog version works (including database editing, file editing and how php/mysql interoperate) trying t owrap your head around wpmu is going to be something that starts out fun and quickly slips into being a nightmare for you.

Running a wordpress install is fun and fairly easy, want a new theme just plunk it in the themes folder and switch to it. Same with plugins.

With WPMU it's a lot harder. Want to add a new theme? Go in and edit the functions.php so it doesn't have any bugs, editing it to work with multiple blogs, editing the core file system and on top of that rewriting virtually every plugin to work correctly.

You're trying to figure out how to run a marathon without first learning to walk.

I have a great understanding of single-user WP, as I have setup countless blogs and made custom themes. But none of that seems to apply to WP MU.

Is there any guide for creating a custom front page?

How do you set a custom default theme?

I have a great understanding of single-user WP...

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but truly having a great understanding of WP wouldn't lead to these questions.

Obviously there's no help to get here...

Not the right approach to ask for help ... ghaib.

ghaib - there is a themes section of this forum that may be of more use in regards to theme customization, but I'll take a stab at your questions above:

Is there any guide for creating a custom front page?

The "front page" (main site theme) uses the one in the "home" directory by default. I'd suggest copying that and tweaking it rather than trying to do a theme from scratch, at least until you're more familiar with things.

Is there an admin section, where you can see all blogs?

It should have given you your admin login when you first got it up and running. If you login with that you will see a "Site Admin" section. I'm guessing this is what you were asking, but I'm not sure how you could have gotten it installed without seeing that.

I uploaded new themes, they don't show up... How do you set a custom default theme?

Themes are in the theme directory. In the admin pages you will see options for managing them, although these can sometimes be a little quirky. New blogs will use the theme in the "default" directory by default, so for a quick and dirty "default custom theme" you can just edit that one.

jaredbangs: Thank you. That's the sort of answer and help I was looking for, someone who actually read the question.

funny

I had similar questions and I've hacked the $&#* out of WP. Hell, I even created my own multi-user WP hosting site a year ago (because I couldn't wait for this one to be ready).

Now that this one is ready, I thought I would see if any of my hacks would be helpful to the community here. Of course, my question right now is, "Where do I start"? Which is how I ended up here.

So go ghaib! You're not the only one with those questions! (and a ton of others too!)

"There's nothing about MU there, only WP."

There was a link right on the main page there, in big bold letters with a "NEW!" attached to it.
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPressMU#Support_Articles_for_WordPressMU_Users

You didn't even appear to look in the codex (there IS Mu-related stuff in there, as shown above) and you didn't even search to see if your questions had been answered (in some cases, multiple times). No, there is not a whole heck of a lot of documention, tutorials or guidines out there for MU, but you didn't even appear to try and help yourself. Maybe then you can see why we get a little snippy around here. There's no hand-holding in these here parts.

"There's no hand-holding in these here parts."

There is now. :)

Here is a good place to start

http://www.wpmuwiki.org/WordPressMU_FAQ

I also find some basic elements not to be documented properly. Not even in readme provided in the package. Where do I start is very a valid question.

For instance - and for me personally - I installed WPMU and got no problems. From SiteAdmin/Blogs I have created many subdomain blogs without error messages. But, what I don't know is:

-should i create those subdomains or are they merely virtual subdomains done via htaccess
-if i should create them, what files should i copy there from the installation folder; not everything, i hope

I've done both and got slightly different errors trying to actually read those blogs. But I'd liked to know which is totally wrong, so I don't try to fix it. This multiple blog thing is the very core thing why I chose WPMU. I'd expect others had similar reasons, otherwise they'd chosen plain WP. So why not document such a key element better.

(There's a user-friendliness-bugish there on installation. It asks for the admin username and an email address. I didn't give an address and learnt I'm supposed to get my password into that address I didn't give. No warnings or error messages. Bad planning.)

High-5 to Andrea.

I agree, there are alot of un-answered questions about this mu. I am not a pro at the wordpress script, but I know alot about servers etc. I cant even get passed the validate my account through email, My wordpress loads fine, but when trying to activate an account,just goes to a page not found.

you'll note that for WP and MU the dev release it with litle documentation and leave that part up to the community with little guidance or input. No wonder it's a mess.

Not being funny, but MU hasn't had a full release yet. Anyone expecting hand-holding or copious documentation should look at other packages.

While there are plenty of MU-powered sites out there, they all have required a lot of work and research by their owners. Documentation and support will improve but part of the problem is there just isn't enough time in the day for everything to be ready now and obviously the priority is going to be development rather than documentation.

With MU we have a solid base with the core Wordpress and the community is growing and everyone is feeding back into it. The best thing you can do is read the codex and if you still have questions then post your specific problems here and those with the right knowledge will try to help.

I've had loads of help here and while I'm no expert, I'm beginning to find I'm able to start contributing things and will be in the coming weeks.

Oops - just realised we're past the RC's now and there is a full release! My bad :D

Don't get me wrong, it is a wonderful script... I can get it to work 1 way, just not the other, and I am in contact with my Tech Staff to try and figure out on my own why its not working the other way.

But, part of a dev release is to have people themselves try and figure out the (odds and ends) to a release. If users are slammed or made fun of when posting on some of their issues, then it surely will take much longer for the community to do our part. The comment (holding someones hand) is a putdown to ANYBODY that has ANY questions pertaining to experience with this software..

Just my 2 cents...

Have a great day!