WordPress MU

I'm thinking of using WPMU, but before I get completely into it, I just want to check to make sure I'm not missing any alternatives? I am going to be running multiple blogs of my own, perhaps dozens, but don't want multiple installs and upkeep. Each blog needs to be able to have it's on domain mapped to it.

Thanks!

If you want complete honesty, while MU can handle this it really would be overkill for only a handful of blogs.

If you're not proficient with MySQL, PHP, Apache, and running a complex environment, MU may be more effort than it's worth for your situation.

While it is wrapped around WP at its core, it's a much stronger beast to keep together. Also, as a note, it isn't really a good thing to run on shared hosting. Although folks try it, with any decent amount of blogs and traffic MU will eat enough resources to get you kicked off most shared services.

There is a multiple domain plugin for standard WP out there somewhere that may be of interest to you as well.

Thank you for the info. I've installed, run and maintained many blogs before so I understand the techncial issues. Plus, I'm going to give it to a techie to administer it for me. Although a couple dozen blogs is "just a handful", it is still a large number (to me at least) for me to update every upgrade time. I'd prefer to spend more money in server/techie help costs to use WPMU.

That being said, I am very interested in the multiple domain plugin you spoke of. I'll go search for it, but if you or anyone knows more about it please let me know.

From what I'm reading b2evolution looks like it will handle it. What od you guys think about this product?

"Multiple blogs.
Install b2evolution once and use it for 2, 3, 10, 100 or even 1000 blogs at the same time. Each blog can live on a different page, in a different folder, or on a different domain... or you could also chose to display several blogs on the same page. Photoblogs, moblogs, linkblogs ,blogrolls can be added in a snap."

It would probably be easier for you than MU, honestly.

Why would b2evolution be easier? I keep reading how WPMU is pretty simple, and works. Plus, I mentioned that a developer will setup and manage iut for me. What's difficult after that point?

The domain mapping isn't integrated in the backend of MU.

In b2evolution, it's probably set up easier to manage.

And honestly, if a developer is doing all the work anyway, b2e is still easier as there's less chance of them screwing it up.

Can MU do what you want? Sure it can. Not fresh from the download though. It may say on the front page it's easy, but that's assuming you know exactly what you're doing and how to do it. There's no step-by-step. Your dev would be putting a lot of hours into MU to get it to do what you want, which would cost you more.

here's my take as a guy who started with only extensive joomla experience. if i could start over, i'd prolly switch and use a different software. there's a lot of functionality out there that Mu just doesn't have yet - and might never get. Mu is capable of amazing things - they use a lot of them at WP.com. with mu, like Luna stated earlier, the responsibility falls on you as the developer to create and innovate. simple things like sitewide avatars, which should be a no-brainer for any community based software has posts dated back 2 years. the first decent plugin released came 8 months ago (thanks suleiman). i'm sure other more proficient coders have their own personal solutions. but that leads to the next issue with Mu, this isn't a community that promotes itself very well. There are, maybe, 10 guys (and Andrea, too!) in these forums with a solid grasp on their systems. The rest of us are part time geeks, midnight warriors. There's no centralized source for information. many of your questions will either be answered by guys like me (and i have some pretty ugly hacks on my sites (no really, i'd never let a real programmer see my code)), completely ignored, or someone will drop in just to make a nasty comment. if youre looking for a system with support and encouragement, youre in the wrong place.

I'm working on a large sports site to for a customer that should be see release in second quarter 08. i'm not entirely comfortable using this software for the project because of these support issues. I love Mu. I think it'd be cool to have a Mu powered site up there banging heads with the really big sports outlets. but i really dont feel like the headache. i also know that if i'm ever caught with a problem i can't handle, i'm very unlikely to find these answer here.

To be fair, these guys (the 10 or so guys i mentioned before) are professionals at this. They don't develop functionalities simply hand it out to the masses. You must understand that if you need real help, it'll prolly cost you.

there. thats everything I wish someone had told me a year ago.

Andrea (or anyone else), what do you know about b2evolution then? If you know it will be easier, I assume you know something about it. It obviously has less themes and plugins, just due to its lesser popularity, but what about the product itself? Any good?

That sums it up well, Demonicume. Nice post. ;)

Not that it's really a horrible thing, but it's kind of a cutthroat community of sorts (for lack of a better term).

Mainly, IMHO, those who are really proficient at programming and working with their sites really don't want 1000 clones out there.

For some things, it isn't really an issue. Like common errors, etc. But when it comes to bread and butter features, that's a whole different ball of wax.

As for b2e, I have not a clue. Never played with it.

And I've played with it just enough to know it will be easier for you. install it on a test server somewhere and give it a whirl.

Well said, demonicume. Really, when the regular WP came online, the community there was pretty much the same. Kinda still is. There's the underlying assumption that if you know how to read the code, you'll know how to get it to do what you want.

Thanks very much everybody.

Hi,

I have similar issues to slobizman, although slightly more ambitious.
We would like to host initally about 150 different blogs,
and eventually maybe thousands. These are all for different customers. Initially
they may be as subdomains under a single domain, but we want to easily be able
to have a customer point their private domain over to a blog, and have it work.

lunabyte described a "multiple domain hack":
here

This seemed very straightforward, and I got it to work. I haven't tested it
extensively, but, at least logically, it seems it should work.

I am just wondering what folks think about this solution to having hundreds
of blogs, which are all separate and not part of a "community". The community
aspect is what it seems wpmu is for (but I am not sure). We just want
*easy administration*, and an easy way to upgrade everyone.

Other nice things about using the hack:

1. uses standard wp 2.3.1 (along with the hack)

2. normal plugins, themes should work (if they only put things in the database)

3. ALL the features of wp should generally remain as normal.

MU does it. 98% anyway. Might have some issues with some plugins because the database is sligtly different.

I will note:

My hack was not intended for use in a multi-user environment. It is for personal use, where you are the one controlling all the sites.

For what you want, use MU.

To lunabyte -

Why only for "personal use"? Why wouldn't this work in a multi-user environment? It seems to me, the sysadmin sets up the available plugins and themes, and since all configuration information is in the database, and each user has a different set of tables, everything should work fine. Your hack is very simple - it just looks at which domain the request comes from, and then sets the table prefix accordingly.

I must be missing something here (I am sure I am!), but it seems to me that a multiuser system could easily be set up using this technique - why use mu at all if this would work?

Because in the instance noted above, each user has a full install of WP and thus access to the db, because they can insert code. A smart one could hack the site and bring 'er down.

MU has some things in there to help prevent that.

Also, in regualr WP, there's a few menus where it mentions uploading thi ngs to the server. Are you really giving those people that kind of access?

In MU, they usually won't see those parts - no theme editor, no plugin editor. It's a more controlled environment.

Why not just install MU somewhere and play with it?

I absolutely will install mu, and try it out (doing that today, I hope)

I am just trying to understand what it's pluses/minuses are - since I just think, via a simple change to the dispatcher, if one could use a "standard" wp, things could be kept up to date easier, support would be easier (more people understand standard wp), and it would be simpler.

Indeed, in the environment I envision, I would *not* allow any uploading by users (unless carefully controlled), and all php code and directories would be write-protected. Yes, users can access the database, but only through the php-controlled interfaces. Is this a problem? The users wouldn't be able to to upload any plugins or themes - only enable/disable the ones I have provided.

Indeed, administration would require visiting each separate domain. So if I wanted to make systemwide changes involving the database, I would have to write some code to propagate the changes to each table.

You know what might be helpful: a chart showing where standard wp and mu are the same, and where they differ. Since without actually creating an install, I still don't really know how mu is different, and what exactly it does. Or why the "hack" just isn't performed to get a single block of php code to render hundreds/thousands of blogs, but with simplified administration.

I really thank you for the input - this is very interesting.

http://wpmututorials.com/basics/wordpress-and-wordpressmu-differences/
http://wpmututorials.com/basics/admin-panel-screenshots/

The big differenc ebtween MU and mulitple instances of WP running in one db like you said, in one central point of administration.

THe sticking point is each blog having a seperate doamin. Yes, it's been done and discussed and there are manual tutorials and a plugin.

i'm finding out today that if you have literally hundreds of domains to handle, this is where there's a problem.

"Why only for "personal use"? Why wouldn't this work in a multi-user environment? It seems to me, the sysadmin sets up the available plugins and themes, and since all configuration information is in the database, and each user has a different set of tables, everything should work fine. Your hack is very simple - it just looks at which domain the request comes from, and then sets the table prefix accordingly."

Which is true, and what it's intended for.

But, it doesn't take into account different people as the site administrator.
At the VERY least, you would have to separate out their uploads folder, turn off the theme/plugin/any-type-of-file editor(s), as well as strip out a bunch of code tags with kses.

Which, MU already handles, etc.

"I must be missing something here (I am sure I am!), but it seems to me that a multiuser system could easily be set up using this technique - why use mu at all if this would work?"

It could, but it needs refined a bit. Each blog could be in it's own db, and all kinds of things, but you're getting into different users, who you may or may not trust. In terms of web security, the default should always be to not trust an end user. Period.

So, while the hack I illustrated will in fact let multiple domains be served from a single core of WP, it's intension is for those sites to all be controlled by the same physical person.

For example, all themes are available to anyone. A single person running multiple domains knows which theme is for which site. Where individual users would just activate whatever they wanted.

Now if you added each user to the site as an Author and not an admin, that may work a little better, but then they don't have the control the WP allows for with plugins, etc.

So, bottom line, when there are multiple sites with each having it's own admin, MU is absolutely the way to go vice that hack.

In my environment, *each* blog would have a separate domain. Is this what you mean - that having hundreds/thousands of blogs, each with a separate domain, is a problem in mu?

No, it's not. If you set up your network correctly, and understand PHP and MU.

It's not something available out of the box, though. You'll have to code it, or have it coded.

Yeah, scratch what I said about that. I concur with Lunabyte, although he forgot to mention this plugin.
http://wpmudevorg.wordpress.com/project/Multi-Site-Manager

Which isn't part of the core, is it? :P

Plus that doesn't begin to touch network issues. ;)

Well, that's a whole new thread.... (or two)

I know this is a whole new thread - but what about the Multi-Site-Manager. Is is the thing to use? I read a whole bunch of stuff on setting up mu to handle multiple domains, and I have to admit, my head was whirling. Is there a single, straightforward way of doing it? (yes, I know this question has been asked countless times - but the answer is still murky!).

I don't want subdomains, or anything fancy - just things like

http://www.mydomain.com to point to a blog
http://www.mydomain2.com to point to another blog, etc.

But all the blogs magically being as either subdomains or directories under one master domain running mu.

That's what the multi-site-manager does.

yeah, and when i figure it out myself, i'll let ya know.