WordPress MU

There's a very useful plugin that got my attention. Recomended by (who else than) dsader.
http://www.ringofblogs.com/2008/07/31/wpmu-new-blog-settings-plugin-updated/

So, I would like to see if any of you guys could come up with some interesting new-user-blogs-solutions that community could benefit from. Please post the code that could be added between these two lines of the plugin:

//set your options here:
// stop editing here

This is my try for new default widgets... which, btw, doesn't work:

update_option("sidebars_widgets",
		array("sidebar-1" => array("widget_pages", "widget_categories")));

This is chopped from the code by MrBrian who posted it few weeks/months ago.

you know there's a WPMU plugin competition here right?
http://wpmu.org

Dsader's been releasing some pretty sweet ones.

How are you storing the default options for each widget? Activation without options means there is no widget.

Here's my entire plugin i use for changing my WPMU's defaults. It has examples for changing default blogroll, permalinks, email settings, menus, and widgets.

http://pastebin.com/f21c328aa

Thanks to all especially to MrBrian. Andrea, yes I saw all of dsader's plugins there. For my needs, those are the most useful MU plugins (especially those who work in combination with donncha's SWT&P functions) + Plugin Commander (what a useful plugin!!!). I think that ability to set default new blog functions is one of the most important features in WPMU. That's why I've opened this topic.

@MrBrian

Those are some cool default settings. What's the latest MU version that you tested them with?

Tested on 2.6 and SVN trunk. Many of them work for older versions too, just check that the hooks exist :) and youre probably good.

DEFAULT WIDGETS - working with WPMU 2.6
So this is the solution for default widgets for new user blog:

<?php

 function new_blogs_setting( $blog_id )  {

    	add_option( 'widget_categories',
		array( 'title' => 'My Categories' ));

   	add_option("sidebars_widgets",
		array("sidebar-1" => array("tag_cloud"),
			 "sidebar-2" => array("pages", "categories", "links")));

}
add_action('populate_options', 'new_blogs_setting');  

?>

If you don't want to display 'Categories' widget than you don't need this part of the code so feel free to remove it:

add_option( 'widget_categories',
	array( 'title' => 'My Categories' ));

Solution provided by dsader:
http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic.php?id=8041#post-55601

#MrBrian I tried your excellent looking plugin, but It did not seem to do anything, it did not delete the two blogroll items. also there is an error in the code when you first copy it in on line 76, but maybe that is intentional.

i'm confused between the difference between using the populate_options hook or the wpmu_new_blog hook to add new categories. I'm guessing that I need to use the later, but I have not got it to work. any suggestions?

That code had a couple typos. You can get the latest version here:
WPMU Blog Defaults

The difference between the populate_options and wpmu_new_blog hook is simply where it's called. populate_options is called before a blog gets populated with it's options, and wpmu_new_blog is called after a blog is done being created. Some defaults can be done before, others have to be done after.

maybe this plugin and this one which has a gui could be combined? there are still some differences as to which settings they offer... http://wpmu.org/blog-defaults/

Yeah, would love to see both combined :)

I was thinking the exact same thing. :)

This is very closely related to what I'm trying to figure out, which is how to configure the default settings for a plugin... it'd be really cool if these two were combined and a type of hook was added so plugins could add themselves to the list of configurable options. That'd be cool.

Since wpmu 1.0 (maybe even earlier) I've wanted this ability, I wish I had the ability to do it myself. I have started playing around with buddypress and it's good. The way the members pages are now placed, the blog defaults works (I prefer the gui too).

Playing with Buddypress has got me thinking again about another idea I had related to blog defaults. Another cool thing would be to be able to create groups of users or blogs and apply different defaults to each group.

I use the blogs with elementary school students and the simpler the better, but simple is a relative term and the older students quickly want more power. If I could automatically set up different groups of blogs to different settings, it would be heaven.

how can we set the browser uploader as default? I am having probs with the flash uploader and wpmu 2.6.2

And I wanted flash uploader in NextGen gallery by default :)
Since I fixed 500 errors in NextGen - http uploader doesn't work properly.

Which plugin/solution is the best method to set default settings now?

Hey all,
I'm updating my new blog defaults plugin for 2.7 (adding the additional settings for default avatar, all the new comments settings, and the new large image default sizes). Are there other defaults that people would really love love love to see in the plugin? I can't guarantee anything. But, while I'm fiddling in there, if it's not a ridiculous request, I might be able to add it.

can't think of anything right now, but PLEASE post here with the updated link :-) I find it really hard to track uodated plugins for my wpmu installation :-(

default dashboard feeds :)

@DeannaS

my idea to add

- "the name of the first / default category", in the german version it is "Allgemein" and on every new blog i rename it

In the other blog defaults plugin (mrbrian's I think - it has no admin menu) there's a few in there that you missed.

Default name of person leaving first comment...ie. Not "Mr. Wordpress"

Changing default 'from' email address :)

1. From email address will be added.

2. Default dashboard feeds I take care of in a different plugin, which also needs to be updated for 2.7.

3. I can look into comment name and default category. I briefly looked at default category before and didn't see an easy way to do it. But, I'll look again in 2.7.

Ah, I was wrong. Overwriting "uncategorized" for the default category is in, as is overwriting "blogroll" for the default links category.

Anyone want to do some testing?

I'll test, let me know where to download.

Bschwarting - send me an email deanna dot schneider at gmail dot com.