WordPress MU

I have been reading about Wordpress MU and not sure if this is my solution or not.

Here is what I'm trying to do.
I have a website project for a church. What we're thinking of doing is providing each ministry for the church their own blog page. I want the ministry leader to be able to administer their own respective blogs.
This is how I envisioned the website folder setup.

The main Ministry page would be:
http://www.yourdomain.com/ministries/

Each ministry would have their own blog in their respective ministry folders as follows:

Ministry 1
http://www.yourdomain.com/ministries/ministry_01

Ministry 2
http://www.yourdomain.com/ministries/ministry_02

Ministry 3
http://www.yourdomain.com/ministries/ministry_03

Ministry 4
http://www.yourdomain.com/ministries/ministry_04

Of course, Ministry names would be specific to their Ministry
and not using the example numbers shown above.

I'm pretty sure WordPress MU is the correct solution but wondering
if there are any specifics as to how to set it up and things I need to take note of.

Now comes the big part of my question. I have other projects I'm working on not related to the Church website that I would like to use
Multiple blogs for and on several of my hosted domains. Can I use the same Wordpress MU installation for this or should it be it's own MU installation?

Also, since they will be on multiple domains hosted on the same shared hosting server, would I use domain mapping? I tried installing like this but when I installed the Domain Mapping Plugin, I got the following error: Sorry, domain mapping only works on virtual host installs. Not exactly sure where I went wrong with my installation.

Is it possible to make each of these MU blogs independent of the others or will they all tie in to the main Installation of MU? I know I can set individual themes for each but seems like they all reference back to the main Install blog.

I'm a bit overwhelmed with trying to figure this all out and any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

~Jim Zak~

"I'm pretty sure WordPress MU is the correct solution but wondering
if there are any specifics as to how to set it up and things I need to take note of."

Install it at http://www.yourdomain.com/ministries/ and use the subdiretory option.

"Also, since they will be on multiple domains hosted on the same shared hosting server, would I use domain mapping? I tried installing like this but when I installed the Domain Mapping Plugin, I got the following error: Sorry, domain mapping only works on virtual host installs. Not exactly sure where I went wrong with my installation."

Donncha's only works on subdomains, but there are other ones that work on subfolder installs. (like here)

"Is it possible to make each of these MU blogs independent of the others or will they all tie in to the main Installation of MU?"

They pretty much are independent. they may share themes & plugins, but the *act* independently. the only thing you manage from the main install is access and main blog options. If someone owns a sub-blogs, they can't do anything on the main blog.

"I know I can set individual themes for each but seems like they all reference back to the main Install blog."

If you keep seeing the main blog on sub-blogs, then your install isn't working right.

hi Andrea, (sorry for the intrusion) but I have a quick question about your comment:
"If you keep seeing the main blog on sub-blogs, then your install isn't working right."

I have 2 domains on the same server. I set up MU on A.com (subdomains), and used domain mapping for B.com. Is it normal to see A.com when I'm on the backend of B.com when I select MyBlogs option from the Dashboard tab?

". Is it normal to see A.com when I'm on the backend of B.com when I select MyBlogs option from the Dashboard tab? "

You see the dashboard of A, or you just see A listed?

See A listed is normal, since you are the admin of both A & B. Even mapped.

Thanks Andrea,

Sorry about the delayed reply.

I see the A listed in the backend of B.

Another roadblock I ran into is how to create blogs in subdomains. On the same shared server I parked 3 other domains. Using the same domain name examples, above, A.com is the main domain with B.com, C.com and D.com as subdomain. I use Domain Mapping to map the other 3 on the same wpmu install (root). How do I create blogs in the other 3 domains like for example blog.B.com?

Andrea ... Just to explain a little better what my problem is...

My scenario is I'm using a single install of WPMU on a shared hosting server that allows me to host other Domains (Add-On's). I was advised to Park them instead of it being an Add-on for the sake of WPMU and Domain Mapping (Donncha's, installed in root directory).

They are basically independent domains but with this set-up, I have the parked domain B.com as a blog in the A.com, thus B.A.com. Is this normal? Because now, what I want to do is have several blogs in B.com like blogs.B.com, but I can't seem to be able to create any blogs in B.com's backend admin panel.

I hope you find the time to help, I'm sure you've been asked the same questions several times over.

If you want member blogs off your mapped domain, you need a multi-site plugin, not just a domain mapping plugin.

Domain mapping = member blog with its own domain name.

multi-site = member blog with its own domain name AND the ability to create new blog under that domain

thanks again Andrea, it makes sense, I wasn't sure if I could use the combination of the two.

I also noticed something that made me unsure if I installed my mu properly. As u know the mu is installed (subdomain) in host for A.com where I parked B.com which I mapped. Domain mapping is activated in both A and B. Is it normal that in my A.com - domain mapping panel - I have no domains active and in B.com, I have B.com active? And the other thing I noticed is that I have a Site Admin Panel in the backend of A.com and not on B.com.

And last questionssss, should i activate both plugins (domain mapping and multi-site) site-wide or individually?

You should have placed both plugins in the mu-plugins folder, thus they don't need to be activated.

"Is it normal that in my A.com - domain mapping panel - I have no domains active and in B.com, I have B.com active?"

Not sure what you mean, I'd almost have to go check. :D

"the other thing I noticed is that I have a Site Admin Panel in the backend of A.com and not on B.com."

If you are logged in as the site admin, then you should most definitely see it still, mapped domain or not.

"Is it normal that in my A.com - domain mapping panel - I have no domains active and in B.com, I have B.com active?"

Not sure what you mean, I'd almost have to go check. :D

shouldn't B.com be active in the domain mapping panel of A.com?

You're using Donncha's, right?

In his, the menu referr to the domain mapped to the blog that you are currently on.

So - if you were on blog A, the main site, then no you should not see anything under Tools- Domain mapping.

That's one of the big differences between his and ours.

yep, using Donncha's.

That's one of the big differences between his and ours.

You have a different version?

Yep.

Andrea, I appreciate your help and respect your knowledge. I guess you recommend your version over Donccha's. Can you please point me to where I can find documentation.

Well, to be clear - I don't recommend mine over his. They do the same thing, they just manage the menus different in the backend. It depends on how you want to manage the domains themselves.

http://wpmututorials.com/simple-multi-site-plugin-e-book/

(it includes two different plugins.)

Seeing as we're tossing around links to paid plugins I guess I feel entitled to recommend our domain mapping plugin too... we believe it's the best available.

I have a question along the same line. I currently have 3 main blogs for 3 very different purposes. Each have their own domain, but are on the same hosting account. I have installed WPMU on one of the domains as a test. My question is:

What is better: 3 separate installs of WPMU or 1 install running all three domains?

I would prefer to have them all on one install since I typically use the same plugins for them all. However, I am not sure if that is the best way...nor am I sure on how to get it to work. I am more of a code junkie than a server-type. Please...any advise would be greatly appreciated!!

@theKruser

after all the research I did and following the more popular advice, I decided to install 1 WPMU running all my separate Domains. A good enough reason is when WPMU has an update. I only need to update 1 install.

Like u I installed it on 1 of my Domains, then parked the others. Then I mapped it (Point the domains to the installed WPMU) using Donncha's Domain Mapping Plugin.

My advice:
If you want to save time and maybe some frustration my advice is use the angel (Andrea) at http://www.wpmututorials.com. She offers a tutoring service. I confess that I haven't used the service for lack of even the little amount of money she's charging, but I know you will not regret it.

@Andrea
I figured out why I don't see the Admin panel in the backend of my mapped domains. I'm using the Flutter Plugin and whenever I activate it, the Admin Panel disappears and that's where I can set up with the Multi-Site Plugin (option Sites). Grrrr! I'm gonna have to try it, but do you think i can deactivate Multi-Site after I create the blogs?

"I'm gonna have to try it, but do you think i can deactivate Multi-Site after I create the blogs? "

Yep. That's the freaky part. :D

ok, neat, so I can activate multi-site to add blogs then deactivate to activate flutter.

I think everything's at the right place, but now I can't create 'child' blogs like blog1.B.com, blog2.B.com, etc.

a dum question or a desperate wonderment: does blog1 and blog2 have to be registered domains?

Once the site is set up, you don't need the multi-site plugin to keep the site 'active'. Multi-site support is built into WordPress MU. The part that doesn't come with it is a tool to create and delete sites.

"a dum question or a desperate wonderment: does blog1 and blog2 have to be registered domains?"

They can be subdomains if you want.