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Published Thursday December 13, 2007 at 1:33 pm
By Thord Daniel Hedengren
Using WordPress MU to Power Multiple Blogs
WordPress MU, short for Multi-User, is a WordPress version that you probably have used without really knowing it. Automattic’s hosted blog service, WordPress.com, uses WordPress MU, although what you get when signing up with WordPress.com is pretty far from your basic WordPress MU install.
In other words, like most blog installs before plugins and nifty theming’s been added.
Choosing MU
I choose to build this on WordPress MU for one simple reason: I wanted to be able to create a beta blog in a few seconds, and MU let’s me do that.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of WordPress MU work for a national blog network that I’ve founded. All is not done, but it’s launched over at pakten.se, if anyone’s up for some Swedish. The front page is one of the things on my todo-list by the way, so don’t judge me too hard now, eh? Links to the seven (as I’m writing this) blogs within the network is available in the top right, in the bar, if you want to click around.
I choose to build this on WordPress MU for one simple reason: I wanted to be able to create a beta blog in a few seconds, and MU let’s me do that.
A Whole New WordPress World?
Nope, it’s not. More or less every theme will work, and most of the plugins available. If you’re running a hosted WordPress installation, you can probably just move every extra little feature you’ve incorporated there, into a WordPress MU blog.
However, MU doesn’t have the ease that WordPress offers. Installation is still simple, permalinks a breeze, but there are a few things to consider. One being the fact that the MU community is small (or very silent), and documentation is poor at best. If you run into problems you’ll soon find yourself in the MU forums, and that’s far from the best way to find information.
Maybe I’m spoiled with the WordPress Codex wiki, a place that’s still valid since MU is basically WordPress for more users, but I thought twice before going with MU at all. Yes, I know, it’s opensource and everyone’s participating for free, yadayada – I can relate to that, and understand it. However, you won’t be having any users unless you offer decent documentation. I most certainly know my way around WordPress, but if I hadn’t I’d never dared to give MU a shot on a public project.
Pros and Cons with Using MU
Remember, this is assuming we’re using WordPress MU to power multiple blogs. If you want to offer your visitors a free blog, then MU really is your only WordPress option, since installing a WordPress blog for each person that wants to blog is tedious and slow.
WordPress MU supports most themes and plugins, as I stated above. It gets better, however. You can put plugins in a mu-plugin directory (much like you do with regular WordPress plugins in wp-content/plugins), and that means that they are automatically available and activated for all blogs.
Time saved for the multiple blogger. Nice.
That’s the good part. The bad part is that it doesn’t work with a lot of plugins, since no admin interface will show up, and if the plugin is manipulating the database, then forget about it. You can still put plugins in wp-content/plugins, however, and activate them manually for each blog. Just like you would if it was traditional stand-alone WordPress installs.
Themes are the same as with original WordPress, with the lone exception that you’ll have to activate them for usage in MU Admin, a new tab for administrators in WordPress MU’s admin interface.
So far so good, right? Sure, not every plugin can be activated in one place, but that’s a small price to pay for just having to update the blogging software on one place, and the same goes for plugins and themes of course.
Time saved for the multiple blogger. Nice.
Problems with MU
Yes, time saved indeed. There are, however, quite a few problems that you’ll have to overcome. Like editing core files for allowing certain tags to be used in the Post and Page writing fields in admin. Per default, you can’t even publish a YouTube video, since some of the tags the embed code uses get stripped away. I found quite a few things that I wanted to allow, since I’m in control of my own blogs – which was the whole purpose here.
Naturally, the not allowed tags are meant to protect the MU administrators when offering blogs for free, to anyone who wants ‘em. Still, editing wp-includes/kses.php (where you’ll set allowed tags and so on) isn’t a small thing for someone not used to hacking som PHP. Not very user friendly.
Another problem I’ve had with MU is pinging, still unresolved. Per default, MU pings pingomatic.com, which is fine. I’d like to add more services though, which isn’t possible in admin – I can just add that one. As you might know, you can add just about how many you want in regular WordPress.
I have yet to find out how to add more ping services. Unfortunately, the small MU community haven’t been very helpful yet – and this is a problem I’d reckon could arise to quite a lot of people. What little documentation there is doesn’t help either. In fact, with all the “MU is just like WordPress so read the Codex” references that are out there, I could see users get pretty confused about these things, since pinging several services is a standard feature in WordPress.
(Do you know where I should look or what I should do to ping multiple services in WordPress MU? Get in touch, please!)
Final Verdict for Using MU to Power Multiple Blogs
I almost regret going with MU. It lacks the polish of regular WordPress, and the community is a lot smaller. I feel a lot more left out on my own here, than I did when I first ventured into WordPress.
However, the ease of which I can create blogs – allowing public creation or not – makes up for it. Just having to update on blog system, on set of plugins, that also saves me time.
While I wouldn’t pick MovableType over original WordPress, the lack of support and help for MU makes me wonder if there’s something better out there.
If you know your way around WordPress, and know a little about PHP, then WordPress MU is a good choice for powering multiple blogs. Otherwise you’ll have a hard time, or harder at least – MU isn’t as user friendly as original WordPress.
And by all means don’t expect your fresh WordPress MU install to look and feel like sleek WordPress.com. Then you’ll cry…
Finally, they say MovableType OpenSource will support multiple blogs in one install. It’s just available as a nightly build still, and I haven’t had the time to check it out, but if that’s true then WordPress MU is in for some serious competition. While I wouldn’t pick MovableType over original WordPress, the lack of support and help for MU makes me wonder if there’s something better out there.
Competition is good. Users will be the great gainers here.
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[Sorry if this is a dupe, but your db connection died just now.]
“they say MovableType OpenSource will support multiple blogs in one install.”
Movable Type has always supported multiple blogs[1]. The open source version isn’t a factor unless you’re assuming people will only consider free options, and even that isn’t necessarily valid depending upon why the user wants multiples(eg. multiple sites/personal use still falls under a free license.)
[1] At least as far back as is relevant here. I suppose it’s possible 1.0 didn’t, but I can’t recall.
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Our company tried a few projects with MU, but the system is not mature enough; nor do we think it ever will be. We switched to django. Although there is a bit of a learning curve, the amount of overall work “x” months/years down the road are nothing compared to MU. With a bit of time creating an MU out of django is well worth the effort. For anyone switching to MU, take heed to the following things:
- It is slow, like WP
- You will need to hack much of the core code to get your desired results; unless you keep good track, updates are nightmare’ish
- Still a slew of bugs
Out of the box, django can perform like MU, that of course if you build/svn the correct apps.
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Great article. I really like the objective writeup. In answer to your question though – For each blog there is an option “ping_sites” that determines which services are pinged for activity within the blog. The wpmu code allows for multiple entries within this option, expecting them to be newline \n delimited.
So, for example if you wanted to set up multiple services for a single blog you’d enter SQL of the following form:
update wp_2_options set option_value = ‘http://rpc.pingomatic.com/\nhttp://topicexchange.com/RPC2′ where option_name = ‘ping_sites’
There is a function named populate_options that youll find somewhere in your install – its shifted around within different WPMU versions – that installs the default options for each new blog. If you look for the line that populates ping_sites then you can edit it so that new blogs automatically get the new ping server set.
So, for example if you want to set it up so that all future blogs use a new set of ping servers, youd simply change the line that reads:
add_option(‘ping_sites’, ‘http://rpc.pingomatic.com/‘);
to:
add_option(‘ping_sites’, “http://rpc.pingomatic.com/\nhttp://topicexchange.com/RPC2″);
nb. the double quotes are required for the escaping of the newline character
Hope that helps.
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Great and thank for the review. I don’t have time testing myself but I whish to offer free blog with MU.
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Su
I believe that for MovableType to really reach the masses, it needs to be open source. You’re correct however, support for multiple blogs on one install’s been around for quite some time.
Father Dom
Well, obviously you’ve found a solution. It would be interesting to follow up on your decisions, perhaps in a future blog post? Drop me a line if you will.
Richard
Thanks for the tips, I’ll be sure to try this one out! Really appreciate it.
n-blue
Thanks. Just setting up MU to offer free blogs isn’t very hard, so when you have an extra hour, just give it a go, that’s my advice.
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I have an existing site – a photo upload website. I have installed wordpress MU so the users can post their photos in a blog. However, to make the user comfortable in using my website, i would like the wordpress MU to use the signup and login information from my photo upload website. The question is “how can i by-pass the sign-up and log-in procedures of wordpress MU and go directly to their blog or admin panel of the blog?” Is there anyone who can help me with these issues?
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I did not even know of WP MU…
My hosting plan lets me install WP for free in the domain name, think thats always the best option.
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Richard
There doesn’t seem to be a wp_2_options table in the most recent release of WordPress MU. Any suggestions?
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The ’2′ in wp_2_options stands for the blog_id of the blog in question for your mu install. You should actually be able to edit that field at Dashboard -> Site Options -> Blog -> Edit the blog you want to change. If you want to edit the field directly using phpmyadmin, the blogis is listed on the Blogs page within Site Admin.
Movable Type Open Source has been available as a versioned download for quite some time. A quick check of their website shows their first release about 5 months ago. Not sure why you’re looking at the Open Source page for download links when the main download link is at the upper right of the page you’re on. You can still get nightly builds if you want but it’s been versioned for quite some time now.
But Movable Type is different from WordPress Mu is how it creates those multiple blogs. WPMU is designed to be used as a blogging host like wordpress.com, blogger, or livejournal. When a visitor creates an account on your install, they also get a blog for them to use. With MT, the admin has to create a new blog for them. It’s a bit different.
As to the embed issue, there’s a fairly detailed thread in the forums on getting around this. Do note though that this isn’t recommended for most wpmu installs as it’s a security risk and it puts the rest of the bloggers and their blogs at risk. If you’re the only one usign the site, then it’s fine.
As per the admin interface for plugins, they do show up if one is created by the plugins. Not sure why you;re not seeing them as they usually show up under the Options page like regular wordpress plugins do. And if you want to assign plugins to specific blogs, there’s a plugin that will allow you to do that as well.
As to the note being willing to hack php and it’s not for everybody, I’ll grant you that. WordPress multiuser is not for everybody. We have folks coming by where we know they’ve never installed even regular wordpress who are totally lost with wpmu. (Heck, we can’t even get folks to read the readme file included with the download.) It’s the same with webhosting. Folks think they can throw up a server and make tons of money. WPMu requires some background in server management and work with php and mysql. Most of us have our files hacked a great deal to better serve our clients. That’s one of the pluses of open source software.
Gotta admit though from reading your post, it really sounds like wpmu is overkill for you and is not needed though. What would have probably worked better for you is the multiple installs of regular wordpress as noted in the comments above (most hosters have autoinstallers and updaters) or using one of a number of multiple blog hacks that have been created. Again, wpmu is more for a host who is providing blogs for their visitors or clients. From what you write, that’s not what you’re doing here.
Regards
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drmike
Movable Type’s Personal version’s been available for quite some time, that’s true. The open source version, however, was made available in RC etc. recently, unless I’m totally mistaken. Their Personal license isn’t an option, and that’s where they’ve their downloads.
I’m not sure if going WPMU was right for this particular project or not. The ease of setting things up, and so on, sure is nice of course, but the problems I’m having are really annoying.
Anyway, thanks for your comment. Nice to get your input.
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I hope WordPress developers replace kses with htmLawed (which is actually developed off kses) and put in place a control panel for setting htmLawed options (tags to filter, etc.). htmLawed seems to be much. much better than kses.
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WordPress Mu multiple ping services are easy to set. Go to your admin interface. Click the ‘Site Admin’ menu. Click the ‘Blogs’ submenu. Then click the ‘Edit’ link next to 1 of your blogs. You will now see the ‘Edit Blog’ page. Scroll down a bit and you will see the WordPress Mu ‘Ping Sites’ edit box (textarea). Add your ping services list there and hit the ‘Update Options’ button. All finished. Now you have your WordPress Mu blog setup to use multiple ping services.
I hope this helps.
Looks like Richard Pendergast took the long way but at least he made an awesome attempt to help out. Bump to Richard P.
CJ
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I checked out several different approaches to multi-blog WordPress, and the nice thing about your approach is that it is a very elegant concept that will easily adapt to later version of WordPress (assuming it continues to use a specific config-only file). I’m guessing that it won’t actually need any change at all. (Did you originally write this for 1.2 or something? Just proves my point, I suppose!)
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CJ , when entering extra pings sites into that field how do you delimit them? space, coma semi-colons?
Thanks for the clue so far by the way.
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Movable Type’s Personal version’s been available for quite some time, that’s true. The open source version, however, was made available in RC etc. recently, unless I’m totally mistaken. Their Personal license isn’t an option, and that’s where they’ve their downloads.
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i feel the same way too about the community.. there’s a gap between the pro’s and newbie. No wonder so much Desperados..
The pro seems want to take advantage about their knowledge about WPMU and keep it alone,unless you pay for their consultion or plugin development etc.
So why bother going opensource then? there will be no successor in WPMU nor people willing to develop MU to make it bigger except for those pro’s.
What about Drupal?
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Or wait for Buddy Press to wipe those pro’s.. I hope
see this too from Matt
I really like this guy..
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Hi guys, I recently installed WP MU, I have found plenty of themes that are fine for the general blogs, but there doesnt seem to be many themes for the main admin blog!
The way I understand it, its different from the standard wp and therefore need a different theme, is this correct?
If so, can anyone recommend some themes.
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I have also used WPMU to setup multiple sites with open registrations, I’ve even helped develop multiple plugins for WP and WPMU, and even my own plugin which works on both.
drmike was right when he said that WPMU requires “some background in server management and work with php and mysql.” By the same token, so does becoming a web services reseller, and you see those programs all over the web as well, the main difference being that you don’t see ‘Get Rich Quick overnight’ websites popping up selling the ‘Simple php script’ for $299 (reduced to $47 if you act before midnight tonight.)
As I write this, WPMU v1.3.3 (Based on WP 2.3.3) is the current download from WordPress, with version 1.5RC1 (Based on WP 2.5) available in the svn trac.
That being said, I find very few of the problems and issues, discussed in your article and in the comments here, pertinent to the current release.
The community of MU admins has steadily gotten larger, and there is quite a bit of community support both inside and outside of the ‘Official’ wordpress circles.
I know the article was written some time ago, but perhaps now, it’s time to have another look.
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I am trying to get a blog list via the xmlrpc function. I have wordpress MU 1.5.1 installed and can’t get that to work. I get a blog server error 32601, requested method wp.getUsersBlogs does not exist. I am using subdirectories in wordpress MU 1.5.1. Anyone know how to get this to work?
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hi,
thanks for sharing your thoughts. was wondering if b2evolution is an option?
thanks
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i just want to say my gratitude for what you have been writing. personally, i also bump into the same situation where i couldn’t find any related thread in wordpress mu forum.
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You should do a run-up article on MU and how you are faring with it. I think the MU forums are getting better, and there is starting to be a decent movement on documentation.
I think for the CMS being this powerful, there should be more of an effort for documentation and understanding of plugins etc. and authorship of blogs, but some sites have done really well, and others dish out a little bit of money to customize the CMS.
Great article. I would like to hear if you have anything new to say on the subject.
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Thank you for this great review of WP MU.
I’m in the process of setting up MU for our site network. Like you, I was hesitant and looked all over the web for other users’ experiences with the software and found only little material.
So far I’m not looking back, though. There’s just so much power under the hood of this software package, it’s almost unbelievable. I like interfaces, but like the power of the software more. I’m loving it.
I’m sure (and I hope) the MU community will slowly grow and be able to provide as fine a support community as regular WP does today.
That said, I’ll second your advice that one should use it only with a thorough understanding or esperience with regular WordPress, PHP and CSS for customizations.
Your favourite FTP utility will come in handy, as well as something like Notepad++ for editing files. If you’re not uneasy about this you should plunge ahead and check it out.
If in doubt – read this article : http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic.php?id=4624&page
Although you shouldn’t be scared off – it’s a good checklist to see if you really need MU.
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I’m not sure if going WPMU was right for this particular project or not. The ease of setting things up, and so on, sure is nice of course, but the problems I’m having are really annoying.
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I did not even know of WP MU…
My hosting plan lets me install WP for free in the domain name, think thats always the best option.
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What about tag pages? I’m finding that alot of my traffic is coming from tag pages. I didn’t see any settings for true/false with regard to tag pages. Thx.
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I’m trying to discover what folks see as a general amount of disk space I should consider for an individual blog. I recognize that each one will be different, but I need to be sure I have a base amount of space to begin with and I don’t know what that should be. If I’m looking in the wrong spot, please let me know what the correct spot is. Thanks.
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Hi Thanks for the post and all comments contributed. It was a great help!
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Install WPMU with Controlpanel 11 is easy. Try this …
If your hosting work with subdomain unlimited and Control Panel 11 your hosting is ready and no need anything again to install WPMU.
Try this:
from Controlpanel 11 create subdomain * (This is asterix, your subdomain like *.yourdomain.com)
Install WPMU and create database.
Chmod public_html and wpcontent and .htaccess to 777
continue install WPMU.
Finish.
WPMU work 100%. Try my test page (only for test) at http://iklani.co.cc
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’m trying to discover what folks see as a general amount of disk space I should consider for an individual blog. I recognize that each one will be different, but I need to be sure I have a base amount of space to begin with and I don’t know what that should be. If I’m looking in the wrong spot, please let me know what the correct spot is. Thanks.
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I recognize that each one will be different, but I need to be sure I have a base amount of space to begin with and I don’t know what that should be. If I’m looking in the wrong spot, please let me know what the correct spot is. Thanks.
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wordpress mu is the great software ,i like wpmu
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Thanks buddy, i owe u one, i was going to set up a community using wpmu, u saved me.
thanks alot
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I would scroll up and read when this post was made.. 2 years ago.. MU has come a long way now!
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Nick is right, MU has come a long, long way since this post was made!
We’re running MU and BuddyPress – it’s pretty amazing!
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Thanks for this information I am still of two minds about using it, however running 5 blogs from the same domain is getting tedious to manage.
N.
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What about tag pages? I’m finding that alot of my traffic is coming from tag pages. I didn’t see any settings for true/false with regard to tag pages. Thx
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I have a client who wants to be able to set up and manage many blogs at once. Sounds like an ideal prospect for WordPress MU.
What I’m not clear on is whether MU allows a single administrator to work on several blogs at once. My client wants to be able to post on various blogs without having to log into each one separately (in other words, to have one admin panel, and be able to select which blog to post to from the single panel). Can MU do this?
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thanks for contribution. very nice and useful article..
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As a user of WordPress I learned to be scared of MU, but time has moved on.
Thanks for your articles honesty. It has definately helped me make a decision to dive in.
The time is now!
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wordpress mu is the great software ,thanks for contribution. very nice and useful article.it’s pretty amazing!
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thank you,it’s work perfect for my site.
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Considering that codebase of single WordPress and WPMU will be merging sometime in the future (no exact timeline yet) this popular software will outshine them all – of course I am biased
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Hello,
I am have my own blog but it is just a Microblog.
But i think it based on WordPress Mu too.
See http://microbloghost.com
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Thank you so much.
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Hi . Thanks for a good article.
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Thanks for a your sharing. I love this article. thank
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Thank you so much.
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thanks a lot ..
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Real good article was considering using wordpress mu as I have been using wordpress a couple of years however as I plan to be hosting client blogs. I have decided against it as I feel putting all you eggs in one basket could be a risky situation as if something goes wrong with the core mu install you put all your sites at risk. Therefore all your revenue stream is at risk!! And that requires extra management to avoid and time
Plus we are not talking 100′s of sites so the extra ease is not worth the risk
However it looks promising and would re look at it in the future.
Alex
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Veri Nice….. ( kulak estetiği ) Thanks for Doc….
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I was just wonder in here what that link to my comments means.lol anyway great info!
Thanks!
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I don’t know If I said it already but …Hey good stuff…keep up the good work!
I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,)
A definite great read….
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Great post! I’m considering WordPress MU for an upcoming blog project. I found this info helpful.
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WordPress MU is a boon for the bloggers. it has allowed me to get to the world which would not have been possible without WP MU.
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This is the great knowledage for me. I was going to set up a community using wpmu. Thank
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Great resource. Excellent post. I’m going to spare some hours to go through each of these.
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Very nice thanks.
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CJ the Digital Pimp – thanks for the tip about updating the pinging options by going to Blogs > Options > and removing the rpc.pingomatic.com – HOWEVER – when I removed it the options did not update. I have to therefore manually update the database. Any ideas?
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Considering that codebase of single WordPress and WPMU will be merging sometime in the future (no exact timeline yet) this popular software will outshine them all – of course I am biased
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WordPress MU is a boon for the bloggers. it has allowed me to get to the world which would not have been possible without WP MU.
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Hi–
Is it possible in WPMU for different blogs to feed one well? In other words, can entries from different contributors flow into the same column?
If so, how hard is this to set up? Are special plugins required?
This feature is part of Drupal, I believe.
Thanks very much for any suggestions.