WordPress MU

Not sure if this is the correct forum for these questions, but I've been looking everywhere without success so far ...

I have this:

http://www.company.com (company main site, static pages, WP 2.8.4)
http://www.companyblog.com (company blog with chrono posts, WP 2.8.4)

Right now these domains reside on separate servers.

I want to implement a single membership umbrella over both domains. Do I use WPMU for that? Or should I be looking for a way to combine these installs into one single WP installation? If so, how is that done? Or, where do I look?

If WPMU is the best solution, then will WP membership plugins like WishList work with WPMU?

Thank you very very much!

You could combine these both in one install by using one of the domain mapping plugins. That will get you the same user base for both (though not really single sign on).

Many of the WP plugins work on wpmu. I've not used wishlist, so I can't speak to that one in particular, though.

Hi DeannaS,

Thank you very much!

Just to confirm, are you suggesting that I try WPMU with a domain mapping plugin? Or leave both WP installations as-is but overlay a domain mapping plugin on one or the other?

Well, I guess if you are talking about the WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin by Donncha then you are most likely suggesting that I move into the WPMU environment, right?

By the way, here is WishList's response to my query:

At this time we do not support WordPress MU because we haven't done sufficient testing or made the appropriate modifications in order to make it work.

So it's very much "go at your own risk." :)

We will be looking to do more developments around WordPress MU in the future but it probably won't be until the winter.

I take this to mean, "it might not hurt to try!" So, I guess I will try. Will be sure to report results back here.

Thank you!

Right, I'm suggesting you give WPMU a try. Is this the wishlist plugin?
http://member.wishlistproducts.com/

The go-to standard membership plugin for WPMU is buddy press. You may want to look into that to see if it meets your needs, as it is specifically designed to work with WPMU.

Thank you very much for the heads-up about BuddyPress. I'd never heard of them before!

And yes, that's the same WishList.

I'm on the BuddyPress forum now checking it out. The nuance for my situation is that I want to create a paid membership solution, but there are indications from the BP forum that it's possible to combine all of the above: WPMU, WishList, and BP.

Hi DeannaS,

Apologies in advance for these couple of additional rookie questions.

After looking extensively through the forum, the WPMU install instructions, and tutorials including Andrea's e-book, I still can't figure out where exactly to install WPMU.

If I already have a WP installation in my "public_html" folder, then where should the contents of my "wordpress-mu" folder go? Surely I wouldn't over-write what's already there, right? So it seems to me that I would need to create a new folder for WPMU inside of my existing "public_html" folder, correct?

Is this new folder inside of my existing "public_html" folder what is being referred to as a "sub-directory" or "sub-folder?"

Is this advisable? Or should I rather create a brand new domain account with a completely empty root directory (that is to say, not even a "public_html" folder) and then place the contents of the "wordpress-mu" folder inside of that root directory by itself?

Thank you very much for any insight you might be able to share!

Claude

"Or should I rather create a brand new domain account with a completely empty root directory (that is to say, not even a "public_html" folder) and then place the contents of the "wordpress-mu" folder inside of that root directory by itself?"

That woudl be better, if you can. While MU does work fine in the subfolder off of public_html, you'll be stuck with it in the URL (for one) and depending on the server, it can be a little trickier to setup (slightly different steps).

Dear andrea_r,

Thank you for your quick reply, and for your dedication to helping people with your expertise through this forum.

So, it now seems clear that any domain name (for installation of WPMU) would do, because since I am not bound to that name or URL for any reason then its name is irrelevant -- that domain is only a placeholder for the WPMU installation that manages any/all other WP installations within its umbrella, regardless of where they are located, correct?

As easy and cheap as it is to reserve and set up "anyurl.com," why don't more people just do that right away? Seems less confusing.

Well, I'll try it and see!

Thanks again!!!!

Claude

Hi andrea_r,

OK, I followed your suggestion that it's better to start with a new clean "empty" domain. So I created company.net for that purpose. I installed WPMU, no problem.

Now, please recall I have this:

company.com
companyblog.com

So I went to Admin>Blogs>Add Blog and "added" company.com. This created a new blog with the familiar "Hello world!" message, with the url of company.net/company. But this has nothing whatsoever to do with the real company.com site that actually exists on another server. I don't want users to manage their own blogs inside of company.net. I only want to connect to WP installs together under one roof.

So, at this point I don't get it.

In any case, shouldn't there now be a folder called "company" inside public_html? If there were, then would I need to migrate my entire actual company.com site into such a folder in order to make this work?

Meanwhile, I keep reading that domain mapping is the way to go, but when I try to use various plugins I find conflicting instructions/results. For example, the Yet Another Multi-Site Manager plugin gives back the error message "Sorry, domain mapping only works on virtual host installs." I found your reply to someone else who encountered this error, namely:

Right, this plugin only works if your blogs are in the format of subdomain.yoursite.com. If you have yoursite.com/blogname, then Donncha’s won’t work. Which is why you get that message.

you’ll need one specifically to work with subfolder/subdirectory setups, like the one we have here:
http://wpmututorials.com/simple-multi-site-plugin-e-book/

But yet you just suggested above that it's better to begin with a new fresh empty clean domain, which I did. Your error reply suggests it's better to use subdomains. Now I really don't get it.

My understanding was that WPMU using company.net as an umbrella would/could somehow "find" my company.com WP install and include it as one of its blogs, along with my other WP install, companyblog.com, all under one roof, for purposes of managing a membership that covers both sites (possibly using WishList, maybe along with BuddyPress).

Am I just not understanding something basic here? What? Please help. Thank you.

Yep. You need the domain mapping plugin to make the sub-blogs in MU turn into your existing blogs.

Subdomains are easier to use any domain mapping plugin with. You will be Exporting your current blog's content into the new MU install. Then you domain map them.

make sense?

I think I get it. Thank you.

"You will be Exporting your current blog's content into the new MU install." With that you just made it much more clear! Why don't they just say that?! :-)

So just to confirm, does domain mapping only enable users see the http://www.company.com url instead of http://www.company.net/company?

Do I have to worry about redirection of http://www.company.com? My sense is that all of this happens automatically once the server host points that url to its corresponding subfolder on the server, correct?

Again, apologies for my rookie-ness.

Thanks.

"does domain mapping only enable users see the http://www.company.com url instead of http://www.company.net/company?"

Yes. And you;re gonna have issues with the www. (thought i'd mention that, what with MU stripping it out. I've domain-mapped www domains before. The server has to be set up right.)

You won't have to worry about the redirection - once it's mapped, it will be similar to moving servers. As soon as the DNS changes kick in for people, they see the new site.

And don't apologize for the rookie-ness. Asking questions is how you learn. :)

andrea_r,

"... you're gonna have issues with the www ..."

Does this mean that users will only be able to use the url http://company.com rather than the url http://www.company.com? If so then that's OK as long as they arrive at the site, regardless of which url they use.

Or are you saying that they will only be able to see the url http://company.com (and not http://www.company.com) in the url address field at the top of the home page? If that's the case then I don't see that as a problem at all.

Thank you!

"Does this mean that users will only be able to use the url http://company.com rather than the url http://www.company.com? If so then that's OK as long as they arrive at the site, regardless of which url they use."

Yep. MU strips it out internally on the main blog.

Another option is to use the wp-hive plugin.

I have been using this on a couple of sites and it kind of does a faux MU thing...you can find the plugin at http://wp-hive.com/

Let me know how it goes - I've installed both WP-Hive and WPMU. Would help if needed.

Later,
tom