WordPress "Must-Use" Tutorials» New Features

Multiple BuddyPress Social Networks

Ron — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:56:06 +0000

Since the merge of WordPress and WordPress MU, WordPress has supported running multiple WP networks in the same WP install. This site has been part of a multi-network install for more than two years. In WordPress, the networks are almost completely separated. The only thing that is shared between networks is the user infomation. Since BuddyPress is primarily focused around the users, when it is active in multiple networks in the same WP install, the BP social network is common across networks.

Over the last year plus, I’ve been collaborating with the BP core development team to add the ability to have multiple separate BuddyPress social networks in the same WordPress install. Over the last week a number of changes have been rolled into BP trunk to support separate networks. However, by default, BP will continue to function as a single network across WP networks consistent with the current behavior. A plugin is required to enable multiple distinct BP networks.

You also need to have a plugin to create multiple WP networks in your install. For that you can use either WP Multi Network or Networks+.

You can download an alpha version of my BP multi-network plugin below. This is currently only for testing and should be used on a test site. Once BP 1.3 is released I’ll be adding this to the plugin repository at wordpress.org. Instructions for using this are:

install the latest version of BuddyPress trunk http://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk. You need at least revision #4392.
install bp-multi-network.php in the mu-plugins folder (must be installed there to work correctly)
create your second WP network with one of the plugins above
activate BP on the sub network and go through the installation wizard
for forums you need to tweak your bb-config.php a bit – see below

Download the plugin here.

bb-config.php changes

Your bb-config.php has a line similar to

$bb_table_prefix = 'wp_bb_';

Change that line to

if( function_exists( 'bp_core_get_table_prefix' ) )
	$bb_table_prefix = bp_core_get_table_prefix() . 'bb_';
else
	$bb_table_prefix = 'wp_bb_';

A few lines below that you’ll see a line similar to

$bb->uri = "http://domain.com/wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-forums/bbpress/";

change that line to

if( function_exists( 'get_current_site' ) ) {
	$current_site = get_current_site();
	$bb->wordpress_mu_primary_blog_id = $current_site->blog_id;
	$bb->uri = BP_PLUGIN_URL . '/buddypress/bp-forums/bbpress/';
} else
	$bb->uri = "http://domain.com/wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-forums/bbpress/";

© Ron for WordPress "Must-Use" Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink | 39 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: buddypress, mu-plugin, multiple

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Admin bar

andrea — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Coming up in 3.1 is the additional of the admin bar, similar to the one that runs on WordPress.com. Actually, it’s more than similar, they really did just pull it from wp.com and clean it up a bit.

While I think it would drive me nuts on a single install, when you are running a network of sites, there’s a couple handy things that will make your job as a Super Admin that much more super. Kinda like added enhanced super powers.

Now you, as Super Admin can easily access the site’s Dashboard, the site’s options if you need to edit something, or even mark the site as mature (keep out of public listings) or spam it.

There is also a Snack Menu which is a flyout of all the regular menu items in the backend of the site you are on. Old timers: note the choice of icon.

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Network Admin

andrea — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:00:14 +0000

Ryan had the idea, I mused aloud it seemed like it made sense to me, and coming up in the next version of WordPress, everyone who has set up multisite will have the Super admin menu shuffled off into its own area called Network Admin.

Network Admin link in the upper right area of the WordPress dashboard

In terms of usability, this makes more sense than just an extra box on the left side wherever you are. As a separate admin area, it forces home the idea that the network itself is global and special. When you are in the Network Admin area, the link changes wording to say Site Admin to get back to the site you were on.

If you have a lot of plugins that add menu items to the Super Admin menu, they will now be their own top-level menu item in Network Admin.

The new Network Admin area menus

Actually, I think this is rather cool, as now you could have whole sections of things pertaining to the entire network in their own handy menu area. Right now things are a little spotty for installed plugins and where the menu items show up. On my test install, some sub menu items that were under Super Admin show up under Settings or even Posts.

Plugin authors may want to do some testing here, especially if your plugin added submenus to the Super Admin menu.

Edit: and since I was looking at trunk, this has already changed.

© andrea for WordPress "Must-Use" Tutorials, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: changes, multisite, network admin, networks, who moved my cheese

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2.7.1 released, and an overview

andrea — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:29:14 +0000

WordPressMU 2.7.1 has just been released, and with it a few interesting new features.

First off, in the Site Admin -> Options menu, you can now choose to have new subscribers with no blog, get attached to a specific blog. They have been attached to the main blog, but some people have found that unwieldy. Originally, they weren’t attached *anywhere* so they couldn’t do things like reset their own password because they had no backend to log in to. Go ahead and blame me for that tract ticket.

Anyway, now you can make your own dashboard blog. Just fill in the name you want, and if it doesn’t already exist, it will be created. If you have subscribers on the main blog, they’ll be moved.

Under Plugins, the plugin install has been tweaked a little and works pretty smoothly. Viewable only by Site Admins, you can install plugins form the official repository or from a zip. You’ll need to enter your ftp credentials. This places plugins in the /plugins/ folder. If some files need to be moved elsewhere, you’ll still have to go in via ftp, ssh or your web control panel.

Also new here is an “activate sitewide” link. Any sitewide plugins will show up on a separate “active” list in a light blue. Regular plugins, as you may have seen, show up on an active list in green. Nice touch.

There’s a new menu item under Users called My Blog. This is a management page for all the blogs a users owns. And in this latest round, Viperbond’s Admin Bar has been removed, since I think it was really only there to give users a way to access other blogs they own. If you just upgrade & overwrite, it may still stick around. (I’m seeing one report of this on twitter as I write this…. oo like a breaking news tweet…)

I noticed when running an earlier beta that the footer link updated to tell me there was a more recent version in trac. This is not the same as the Upgrade menu item in the sidebar. WPMU (and WP) has a “phone home” kind of deal where it reports back to check for new versions. I updated my beta install to another beta, but it hasn’t noticed the new release yet. I expect it will whenever the cron is run, so within 24 hours.

Auto update gives you the choice of updating to the latest release, or the latest from the trunk in trac. For reference, it’s the branches tag where all the real fun stuff has been going on, not trunk.

This release has taken a long time, mostly to fully straighten out issues with the plugin installer and to squash remaining bugs. Some people have worked really hard on this, so kudos to Donncha, Andy and anyone who helped out with trac tickets.

© andrea for WordPress "Must-Use" Tutorials, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: wordpress mu, wordpressmu, wpmu

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Small Optimization

Ron — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:59:53 +0000

If you have been running WorPress MU for a while, you may not have seen some of the recent additions to values defined in wp-config.php. For single site WPMU installs, as of 2.6.1, you can save a couple of database and/or internal cache lookups by adding 3 defines to your wp-config.php:
define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'domain.tld' ); define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/' ); define('BLOGID_CURRENT_SITE', '1' );

Substitute your WPMU install’s domain and path for domain.tld and /. It is a small optimization, but every little bit helps.

© Ron for WordPress "Must-Use" Tutorials, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: config, optimization

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WPMU Version 2.7 is released – an overview & upgrade tips

andrea — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:09:43 +0000

Earlier this week, WordPressMU 2.7 was officially released, and the crowds rejoiced and broke out into song. There’s a whole pile of new things, and if you can’t remember what was new for regular WordPress 2.7, here’s a brief list:

brand new admin area redesign with menu down the left side
sticky posts!
new dashboard features
modular write post area
quick edit for mass edits on bulk posts
reply to comments from admin
threaded & paginated comments (if supported in theme)
add new media without adding a post

Well, that’s all fair and good, but what about the MU side of things? Anything new there, Andrea, you wonder? Oh plenty of goodies, I say.

ViperBond’s admin bar is now included. Personally, I think it’s pretty redundant on the backend, but you can make it show on the front when users are logged in. This makes the mu-admin bar plugin obsolete.
Users can add new users directly to their blog. Note the * next to “Add User” on the menu. This will lead you straight to the Site Admin menu where you can turn this option on. Otherwise, users won’t see it.
you can add new plugins formt he backend. This is *only* viewable by site admins, and requires ftp details to be typed in. Also, it just searches the official plugin repositpory, and handles regular plugins, not those in the mu-plugins folder.
There’s a spot to add an Admin Notice Feed in the dashboard. This came in an earlier version, but I’m noting it now.
In the new config file, there’s a few choice things you can now define. Give it a read, see what you can see. Looking at trac, some have been there since August, but not many people have noticed.
While it doesn’t work from the beta version, the auto-upgrade is *supposed* to work from 2.7 on, so you can upgrade MU automatically from the backend.

So, what’s the catch, then? Well none, really, but from poking around, here’s some issues you may encounter when you upgrade.

if using bbpress or buddypress, you’ll have to upgrade those too
multi-db from WPMUdev premium hasn’t been updated yet, so wait for that
there’s a few new trac tickets in case you want to wait
the upper left admin link on ViperBond’s menu bar doesn’t switch between blogs well enough

How to upgrade to 2.7 – easy enough, just keep your .htaccess & wp-config.php file, as well as the entire wp-content directory and sub-directories. Blow away all the rest. Upload the new fresh files. Compare the wp-config-sample.php with your own config file and add any new lines.

Yes, you can just overwrite the old files, but some ftp program and/or servers are a bit sketchy about it and it may not fully take. Trying to troubleshoot an error that was ultimately caused by one small file not getting updated is not my idea of a good time and I’m suggesting you may not like it either.

If you are upgrading from a version previous to 1.5, I suggest you upgrade to that version *first*, then work out any kinks and continue on. Version 1.5 has the “old” new redesign (light blue with orange), and if you can spare your users having to see two admin area iterations, it helps. One big thing to note if upgrading from that far back, is the versioning jumps from 1.5 to 2.6 to line up version numbers and have less confusion. For more details, check the Codex on Upgrading WPMU. (Find any issues with that? Let me know, I’ll fix it.)

© andrea for WordPress "Must-Use" Tutorials, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2.7, admin bar, bbpress, buddypress, releases, upgrading

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Users adding users in WPMU 2.7

andrea — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:01:29 +0000

WordPressMU 2.7 isn’t out yet*, but Ron & I have been running the trunk both locally and on a small site in development. A handy new feature is built right in.

Before, if a user wanted to add another user to their blog, they had to be directed to the signup page, go through the motions there, and then wait for the blog owner to “Add user from Community”. What a process! It confuses a lot of newbies.

In 2.7, by default this is turned off. If you do select “Add New User” under the User menu, it has a * next to it and will redirect the site Admin to the Site Admin Options menu where they can enable this. “Allow blog administrators to add new users to their blog via the Users->Add New page.” is what it says.

So if you’ve been struggling with this, or have been waiting for better versions of any of the “add user to blog” widgets out there, it will definitely be easier come release day.

* Note: I know many people are waiting impatiently for the official WPMU 2.7 version. Want it out faster? Grab a copy out of trac and test it locally or on a development site. File bug tickets if you find any. Keep in mind there’s only ONE developer working on it.

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WPMU + Buddypress + BBPress = hat trick of awesome

andrea — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:21:41 +0000

Whoa, I can’t believe I overlooked this news. (Actually, yes I can – Ron was sick, my “baby” turned eight years old, and now I’m sick).

BuddyPress officially released a public beta. You can hear everyone’s buddy Andy discuss the project on WordPress Weekly.

And then BBPress reached a milestone.

WPMU 2.7 still hasn’t been released, but the trunk is not as buggy as you might expect.

And, reported by a few people you can run them all *together*.

I think I need to go lie down.

Update: The Revered Jim (who I’m sure never sleeps) has edupunked this all into submission and whipped up a *tutorial* for it.

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Database structure – updated for 1.3

andrea — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:38:12 +0000

As an addendum to this post, there’s a few extra tables in WPMU 1.3, which should officially be released any day now.

wp_1_terms
wp_1_term_relationships
wp_1_term_taxonomy

There are all related to the internal tag system now available in WordPress 2.3. You may also have noted that MU is now following a similar version number. No official word on how this can be used for sitewide tags, but I know some smart people are in the middle of figuring this out.

I am also working on a database diagram for the next post in this series. My skills are a bit rusty, but the good thing about database theory is that not much changes in twenty years. Just the programs involved.

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