WordPress MU

Hello,
I'm new to WordPress MU but not WordPress. I'm developing a site, and I'd like to be able to limit the themes available to members and the plugins available.

Ideally we would have two or three levels of membership. I'd like to be able to let the basic level have only one template option and as the levels increase, increase the number of templates available. Similar thing with plugins.

I've seen a plugin named Plugin Commander. Will this do what I'm talking about?

Would a membership plugin be either a good idea or necessary to separate people into different service levels like I'm wanting to do?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I've done some reading and searching here and haven't quite found the answer to my situation.

Thank you! :)

Hey,

The first thing you should check is http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/upgrades

Another interesting thing is http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/user-level-themes/ but I haven't yet tried it.

Thank you VentureMaker. I will check those out.

Surely what I want to do is possible (hopefully!) :)

Plug in commander will allow you to mass activate/ Deactivate plugin's on a piecemeal basis so in the users admin they will have the usual plugin area of which they can also activate and deactivate not really what you want but still a must have in your WPMU Site very handy

Themes can be activated for users on a piece meal Basis so you can go in activate certain themes for certain users (the paying ones) you could also offer extra widgets in these themes it also require manual intervention

One Other way to look at this is to go by Upload Quota as in give them very little upload space, I give 10 megs (default amount)its enough for them to get hooked into it and feel like its worth keeping on going and paying for that

so when upload space has been meet or exceeded they buy more Upload space

There is such a plugin it has pay pal integration, but you will need to join and pay but as a member I can say its worth it http://premium.wpmudev.org/

the Plugin is called Upgrades

and another to consider is Pay To Blog this is a plain out pay before you start blogging Plugin
Struggle to see this one being effective with so many freeblog Platforms out there

I personally think what you are wanting is along way off
better to go for Money based on a quota of uploaded content at this stage

http://freeblog.co.nz

Just so you know, there isn't anything currently available that does this out of the box. Gonna be some work & setup or some custom coding.

The plugins mentioned above will get you started though.

Wow Bill008...thank you so much!

I'm still a little unclear. Will Plugin Commander let me activate plugins on a per blog basis?

I agree with your limit on upload space. I intend to structure the levels based on this, but also feature access. I originally thought of having three levels, but it seems much easier to just have a free account level and a paid one and leave it at that.

Good to know that the Upgrades plugin is worth the membership cost. :)

Thank you for the info. I will have to play with Upgrades, Plugin Commander and such and make sure it will behave the way I want.

What about membership plugins? Would they be another option? I haven't messed with them as never had a need to. But I think aMember is the most popular.

andrea r...I think what you're saying is that there isn't any plugin available that is going to let me manage themes and plugins on a per blog basis...that I'm going to have to make those adjustments myself. Is that correct? That's how I'm understanding things.

Yep, at least not within a user level way or without some manual adjustment.

I'm not contradicting what's above - I'm saying they'll get you started but they won't do everything you want.

Right. I understood you weren't contradicting anything already said. Just want to make sure I understood everything.

I just activated Plugin Commander but I don't really see that it adds much. You can bulk activate plugins so they automatically activate for new blogs, but I thought that's what the mu plugins folder was for. I can see where this plugin might save a little time, but I must be missing the real functionality that it adds. :)

I can see that I'm going to have to activate additional themes on a per blog basis, but I think that will be okay to manage.

"but I thought that's what the mu plugins folder was for."

The mu-plugins folder *auto-exectutes* plugins. There's quite a few out there that need activation to set up tables etc.. that just plain don't work from the mu-plugins folder.

Yep, it's all-on or all-off for each plugin with the plugin commander.

I'm not sure why it was suggested, honestly.

Thanks for that clarification andrea_r. It really helps.

So I guess plugin commander isn't going to do much for me. :)

Hey just throwing Ideas around here the plugin comander has its advantages and I was mentioning it becouse it was in the

very Initial thread started by Rainfrog

I've seen a plugin named Plugin Commander. Will this do what I'm talking about?

so maybe read threads from start to finish to get full context andrea_r

Quoted by Bill008

I personally think what you are wanting is along way off
better to go for Money based on a quota of uploaded content at this stage

I understand Billoo8. No worries here. :) I can see how plugin commander has advantages, but I was hoping it might do what I wanted.

This was just released yesterday, might get you closer:

http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/supporter

@andrea_r:

they still haven't answered my questions regarding this new plugin, so maybe you know: does it fully replace the upgrades plugin?

I guess it does

The Supporter plugin is an absolutely mercurial development - extending and simplifying the functionality of our Upgrades functionality it allows your users to simply upgrade to more features, on a blog by blog basis.

I took it as two choices: Simple Upgrades and Better Upgrades By Telling Users they're Supporters.

:D

I just saw that supporter plugin yesterday. I was reading an article that one of the people who started Edublogs wrote about their experiences and development and he mentioned it.

http://wpmu.org/making-money-with-wordpress-mu-the-edublogs-story-so-far/

I will have to check it out.

But I think I'm confusing myself about the plugins...

I don't understand how to manage the plugins that users see and have access to. If they're in the plugins folder, they show in the subblogs installation. Obviously there are plugins that as site admin I want to use but don't want them to have access to. I'm not seeing how to control that.

BUT...I will go search and read ;)

And this might be a dumb question, but in the plugins section on the individual blogs, it tells them they can add plugins by uploading new ones to the plugin folder, but since they don't have access to the server to do this, this message is kinda moot, isn't it?

Off to read.......

A tip: read about Plugin Commander to know 'how to manage the plugins that users see and have access to'.

Eureka! I figured it out from reading the blurb about Plugin Commander here:

http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic.php?id=6631

I needed to turn OFF the plugin menu under SiteAdmin --> Options

Now when I look at a subblog, since I don't have any plugins enabled for users, the plugin menu disappears. Bingo! That's what I was trying to figure out, because I was envisioning enabling options like WP.com does, where you have to pay for upgrades to be able to have addl plugins.

Ahhhh....I think things are becoming cleared. I had originally thought that the Plugin Commander wouldn't do what I was hoping it would, but I think now it might make things easier.

I want to have some plugins installed from the get go, then offer others as upgrades.

Thanks VentureMaker....somehow that clued me in :)

Sorry duplicate post by accident ;)