Some Notes About Enabling Multi-Site option in WordPress 3.0

After upgrading my blog using WordPress 3.0, I was thinking of taking the opportunity to have the multi-site option. Previously, I played with WordPress Multi User. So, I think it would something I’m familiar with. If you’re not familiar with WordPress 3.0 features, you can check WordPress Codex first. You can find lots of useful information there. It’s a good place to start.
Currently, this blog is already using Multi-Site feature. The setup was easy, but I want to share few things I had during the ‘migration’. By default, this feature is disabled. So, you will see no settings/option under your WordPress Dashboard menus. If you’re ready to enable this feature, the first thing you need to do is to modify WordPress configuration file (wp-config.php). Add this line of code into wp-config.php:

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);


Before you continue to the next step, here are few things/extra steps you might find/do:

  • You need to disable all active plugins. Just make sure that your theme are compatible with no plugins-installed scenario. After you enable the Multi-Site feature, you will find extra plugin activation schema: “local plugin” or “global plugin”. You can have certain plugins only in specific blog or for all blogs in your ‘network’.
  • Your WordPress URL and blog URL should be using a same address. Previously,  I have a little bit different settings. My WordPress URL (WordPress files) under a different folder, not in root folder. (Reference: Giving WordPress Its Own Directory)

After that, you should see an additional menu under “Tools” menu called “Network”. Yes, the Multi-Site feature is also called “Network”. So, here… you will create a network site under your WordPress installation. Just follow the instruction there. If everything works, you will find an additional menu box in your dashboard called “Super Admin”.

Additional actions

Since I modified my WordPress URL, all uploaded media files will have new URL paths. This is not good! You can leave a copy of your uploaded media files by having the folder unchanged, or you can replace all media paths in your entries. I chose the second options. To do it, you can use Search and Replace plugin. I replaced http://mydomain.com/old-dashboard/wp-content/uploads/ with http://mydomain.com/wp-content/uploads/. It took less than a minute, anyway.
Now, what’s next?
I haven’t used the Multi-Site feature right now. But, at least I already have it. Later, I will split my entries into one or two additional sites. For example, my podcast entries will be under “Podcast site”, and my photoblog can have it’s own installation. By this, I hope I can have my entries more organized. We’ll see.