WordPress MU

I am not really sure on the correct terminology, but hopefully this makes sense. I teach high school and I have set up an Apple Xserve as a Web server. It has been a trial and error, learn by fire situation. Anyhow, this summer I spent a lot of time getting the server set up to run WordpressMU properly. Then I came across Buddypress and thought that would be perfect for my classes (I teach graphic design, a bit of Web, a bit of Flash, and starting Final Cut). I am thinking high school students would really like the social aspects of BP.

The problem is that I host other sites (school newspaper, other teachers, etc.) and I want my class site separate for purposes of BP. Can I have two separate domains/URLs for this one server both running WPMU sites? That way I can have BuddyPress for my class without stuff from the other sites showing up. So, one server, but two WPMU sites like: http://maclab.xxx.com and http://chargertech.xxx.com?

Not possible or was my explanation bad?

It's possible. Just two separate installs on the same server, no biggie.

You'll need separate IP's for them (since they're subdomains), that's all. Just normal installs for both.

You don't need separate IPs at all, just different vhost config files for apache, one for each domain name.

I assume you're going to run your WPMU sites in subdirectory mode?

Our school Web site is http://edisonchargers.com it is run on a server at the district office. After I setup my Web server in my class room, IT in the district office told me to use http://chargertech.edisonchargers.com as the domain. So, I setup WordpressMU with that being the root blog, but the main blog is my class site: http://chargertech.edisonchargers.com/maclab.

I want to run BuddyPress for my class, but I don't want site wide activity to show up, so somebody on the BuddyPress forums said I needed a separate WPMU install. I was thinking maybe the district could let me use tow domains: http://chargertech.edisonchargers.com and http://maclab.edisonchargers.com. If they did that I'd like to run WPMU + BP on http://maclab.edisonchargers.com for my classes and another instance (if that is the proper term) for http://chargertech..edisonchargers.com.

I am not really a Net tech, I am trying to figure this stuff out as a design teacher, so sometimes I don't know the properly terminology. Thanks for the patience.

You should be able to do that with it running in subdirectory mode with two different vhosts set up in apache (one set up for chargertech.edisonchargers.com and the other for maclab.edisonchargers.com). They can share the same DB if you use different table prefixes.

The other thing to consider is, I believe, that the recent release candidate of BuddyPress allows it to be activated per blog in WPMU, rather than activated all the time for all blogs.

This is definitely possible, and rather easy! Much as SteveAtty mentioned, all you need to do is create a new site. What version of OSX are you running on the server? If assuming 10.4, or 10.5, you'll just fire up Server Admin and add a new site (maclab.edisonchargers.com), and point it to the directory you would like to use for your new site. Default web root on OSX Server 10.5 is /Library/WebServer/Documents i believe, so I would assume something similar to /Library/WebServer/Documents/maclab.chargertech.com/ would be used for the sites directory. Next setup a new DB in MySQL. Then uncompress the WPMU files ino the new sites directory. Run the WPMU install and you should be good. If you run into any problems feel free to contact me directly.
-Joe

Thanks jmsearcy, I'll check it out. I am running 10.5. I changed the default location to Server HD/Sites and that is where WPMU is installed. So, the second domain would I make the folder inside of /Sites? Or a separate folder?

Yes, it bools down to personal preference on how you manage the directories within your web root, but I set mine up like this:

/webroot/site-1.com
/webroot/site-2.com

This helps me to stay organized, and know exactly what site is where.

Do I install separate MySQL in each site folder or do I just use the one and have different tables? So, MySQL and PMA in Web root with each site in their own folder or each site in their own folder along with a separate MySQL and PMA in each site folder?

You can use the same MySQL install for both, just use different DB's.

-Joe

You can use the same MySQL DB - as long as you use different installation prefixes for each of the wpmu installs.