WordPress MU

This thread is a follow-up to my earlier question about setting the e-mail address for the blog system.

On my system e-mails for activation are now sent out from the member's own blog name. That's already pretty good, but I would prefer all e-mail sent from the main blog name (= the "company" they signed up with!).

Is there a way to just set "Your Friendly Neighborhood Website" as default sender somewhere?

Also in the activation process, when you click the link in the first e-mail I get the confusing, unfriendly message 'Blog already exists' in my browser (instead of for example 'Congratulations! Your blog has now been activated. Happy blogging!').

I assume 'Blog already exists' is used in other situations, so I can't just change the text. Any other way to improve this?

Any way to add some style to that activation message in the browser? It now appears as text in the upper-left of my screen. I recognize the problem from Nucleus CMS that had a similar unappealing 'Success!' message.

try wpmu-functions.php and maybe even functions.php! Beware that one slip of any of your 10 fingers may kill ya site... COPY the files FIRST!!!

I wen't in and hacked new defaults for fist posts and first pages and first comments.... I used some funny characters (like ! and ') and boom... had to revert and try again!

I will make that kind of edits anyway, but 'Blog already exists' is probably used by other functions, so I can't just change the text...

The SMTP plugin I've written sends from a central address. Might be useful to you if you have an external SMTP server to use?

I'll be releasing this plugin for others to use soon.

The "Also in the activation process, when you click the link in the first e-mail I get the confusing, unfriendly message 'Blog already exists' in my browser (instead of for example 'Congratulations! Your blog has now been activated. Happy blogging!')." issue is a major usability blocker.

Is there a bug tracking system for wpmu?

Yes, in the trac. So start here:
http://trac.mu.wordpress.org/wiki/DebuggingWpmu
Which build are you using?

mickemus was incorect, you won't need to change any functions.php files. Those are used for themes.

I can't remember how I got it to send out those emails from my address. but the file that would have the code to all that is wpmu-options.php.

He found it in another thread and made a few posts complaining that it wasn't public. I guess he didn't read the readme.txt file that comes with the download.

*snort* Yeah, I saw them later. :)

It true that I complained that it wasn't public enough, it needs (IMO) to be prominently shown on the
http://mu.wordpress.org/ or http://mu.wordpress.org/about/ pages

Well, a link to the trac is on the download page. Although to be fair it says "repository".

It's in the readme.txt file twice. Of course most folks don't read it anyway seems like around here. *sigh*

Trust me. I wish Donncha had control over this website. We need the search bar fixed and we need stickies here in the forums. (Maybe we do need a moderator)

I wonder if it woudl help if we added stuff to the codex or to our user profile pages in the codex (like eargate did).

Naturally, that assumes people would read it... but it *would* show up in a wp.org search.

I have no idea what you're all talking about...

Maybe it's because it's 100 degrees in New York, but readme.txt? Codex? eargate? trac?

My original question was about what I think should be default behavior. I'm sure everything can be hacked into the code, but it's hard to figure out a) how to formulate the problem b) know in which of the several known and unknown support resources to look.

The other issue is seeing if others have the same problem you originally posted, and can reproduce it. AFAIK emails are supposed to get sent to users from the email address you provided when you installed MU.

Also, if you aren't familiar with the regular version of WP, then all of this is going to be confusing as hell from the get-go.

The readme.txt is in the download. Remember the zip? WIth the MU files? There's a readme.txt file in there. The Codex is the Holy Grail of Wordpress Documentation. Not a lot there yet about MU, but most of the rest is the same.

I really, really love to help, but I can't do your thinking for you. (even if it is unbearably hot)

Maybe it's because it's 100 degrees in New York, but readme.txt?

I think I'm going to cry. :(

There are readme.txt everywhere. There's no reason for me to assume that all solutions to my problems are found in the sacred readme.txt.

Or I guess I have to work my way methodically through the readme.txt to the codex to a search on the regular Wordpress forum (much of it possibly irrelevant for MU) to a manual search of the WPMU forum to the networks of personal blogs of the coders before I can post a pretty basic question here?

AFAIK emails are supposed to get sent to users from the email address you provided when you installed MU.

Well, they weren't and I was not the only one who reported that problem. My site is hosted at a very regular professional hosting company. So sorry, but something in WPMU's doesn't always work like it's supposed to - or like it does on your machine. I have already made changes in the code to get the email where it is now.

There's also the 'Blog already exists' issue. As mrjcleaver put it, that's a 'major usability blocker'. Or is there something about that in the sacred readme.txt as well?

Already crying. :-(

There's also the 'Blog already exists' issue. As mrjcleaver put it, that's a 'major usability blocker'. Or is there something about that in the sacred readme.txt as well?

Um, the bit in the readme.txt file pointing the user to the bug report that never gets filled out? Would love to help with the issue but I don't recall anyone giving us those answers. I believe you were one of those folks by the way.

If they don't want to give us the information that we need to help them, then there's little that we can do to help them.

We have folks here all the time who I can tell haven't read it.

Um, the bit in the readme.txt file pointing the user to the bug report that never gets filled out? Would love to help with the issue but I don't recall anyone giving us those answers. I believe you were one of those folks by the way.

Que?! I was one of what folks?!

You mean I should have filed a bug report about the 'Blog already exists' issue? How do I as a non-coder know if it's a real bug? Do you really want me to report anything that seems illogical or wrong as bug from now on?

We have folks here all the time who I can tell haven't read it.

Maybe it's better to have essential information at a searchable and to some degree self-organizing repository like a forum.

Now I know you haven't read it.

Please read http://trac.mu.wordpress.org/wiki/DebuggingWpmu before asking any questions. Without all the information required there we'll just ask for it anyway or worse, your request will be ignored.

The crap in that Debugging WPMU file has nothing to do with my original questions.

I'm not asking "my blog doesn't work! Please help!!!" I'm pointing out some usability weaknesses of Wordpress MU.

BTW, those issues are very similar to issues that made me give up on Nucleus CMS after ten wasted months.

And I have now read the readme.txt file!

Should I continue with "Matt's" riveting explanation of wildcard DNS and sub-domains or can I do that next week?

It's not a usability weakness if other people can't reproduce it.

What build are you using? And please, before you try mocking me for saying "well it works on my server" know that I've installed MU many times in many versions on three different servers. That being said, in RC4 (that's release candidate 4, available here, the error message a person is supposed to get if a blog doesn't exist is a redirect to the register page with an offer to register a blog with that name.

So clearly, at least to me, something is wrong with *your* setup. And maybe it's time you took a break from the computer and went to cool down somewhere.

I installed wordpressmu-1.0-rc4

It wasn't clear to me that 'Blog already exists' really was a problem in my setup. What are users supposed to see when they click the validation link in the email?

I tried to sign up a new test user. I now get this at the validation link:

The blog is already active. Please check your email inbox for your username, password, and login instructions.

That's already a lot better. I can't explain why I got the other message before.

I still would like to apply style to the line. Can I just add an id or class tag to it in the code?

A page that says "All set!" with the username and password, in the main blog's theme style. Pus a "view your site" and a login link.

Feel free to try a test blog at my site http://homeschooljournal.net. I'm RC4 myself and I verified that the emails come from my admin account's email.

Could I try reuploading certain files to make sure I have the latest and at the same time test if maybe I screwed anything up by editing files? Which files are involved in this process?

Sure, but if you're using Cpanel, it has trouble overwriting.

The first files to look at would be wp-newblog.php and wp-register.php. If you edited those, try using fresh ones.

Would it be too much trouble to scrap it all and do a clean install? (you could keep themes and plugins) As a last resort, that is. ;)

After a fresh reinstall with the latest nightly build, I still get this message at the validation link:

The blog is already active. Please check your email inbox for your username, password, and login instructions.

Is that what I'm supposed to get?

Nope. Did you also dump the database?

Yes, deleted old db. Made new. Total clean install.

:-(

I've followed gwagenknecht's code changes. That seems to have solved my email problem.

At the email activation link I still get this:

The blog is already active. Please check your email inbox for your username, password, and login instructions.

...which apparently is not what I'm supposed to get, although I can probably live with it for now. But it's weird, isn't it?

...now I get the unfriendly

Blog already exists.

...again :-(