WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial
The other day, Klint Finley wrote a very good walkthrough of using the new Multisite functionality of WordPress 3.0. In the comments, a lot of people wanted to know how to use your own domain names. Since I’m doing that now, here’s a quick walkthrough/how-to guide.
Step 1: Manual Plugin Installation
The Domain Mapping plugin is not your regular kind of plugin. You cannot install it through the normal Plugins->Add New menu. Well, actually, you can, it just won’t work.
So first, download the plugin manually.
Note: For this tutorial, I will be using the WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin. However, I am using the trunk version of the plugin. It has fixes in it that you will need for proper 3.0 support. Don’t try it with the regular version. (Note: The regular version works fine. This was originally written before the latest version, or 3.0, was released.)
The plugin has two main files you need to put in the proper places.
Domain mapping php file location
The first file is the domain_mapping.php file. This needs to go into the mu-plugins folder. The mu-plugins folder is a special folder, which you may not even have yet. Just create it underneath the wp-content folder and put that file into it.
Sunrise php file location
The second file is the sunrise.php file. This is a special filename for WordPress. Don’t worry about it, just put it in the wp-content folder.
Step 2: Activate Sunrise
Now you need to edit your wp-config.php file. Add this line of code to it:
define( 'SUNRISE', 'on' );
Simple, really. This will cause WordPress to go load that sunrise.php file and use it.
Step 3: Server info
Now you have to configure the domain mapping plugin so that it knows what it’s doing properly. This is easy to do, really. Go to your main domain’s admin page and log in as a super admin. Then go to the new Super Admin->Domain Mapping menu.
Domain mapping setup screen
Here you have a few different options, but two main ones that count. You can either put in the IP address of your server (as defined in your domain’s main A record) or you can put in a CNAME that points to your server. The IP address is what most people will want to use. If your server uses more than one, you can enter them all here, separated by commas.
Other options on this page:
- Remote Login – This will make your login pages for all sites redirect to your main site to do the actual login. The benefit of this is that when you log in to one, you log into all of them. The downside is that the URL changes to another domain in order to log in.
- Permanent redirect (better for your blogger’s pagerank) – This makes your subdomain or subdirectory sites redirect to their domains. You should leave this on.
- User domain mapping page – Turn this on if you want users to be able to put in their own domains for mapping.
- Redirect administration pages to blog’s original domain (remote login disabled if redirect disabled) – This makes all admin pages show up on the original domain instead of on the new domains. You need this enabled for remote login to work.
Generally I leave only the middle two on. Remote-login is iffy at best, and I want my new domain name to show up everywhere.
Step 4: Mapping the Domain
There’s a bit of a prerequisite here before you do this. When you buy a new domain, you will need to edit its DNS settings to actually point to your server IP or CNAME or whatever you do to make the domain connect to your server. For me, I just give it a new A record with my server IP in it. Easy.
Update: Okay, so there may be more to it than just that, depending on your host. Every host is different, and you’ll have to talk to your host to make them able to point the domain name at your existing site. How to do this varies from host to host, but the important thing is that when you visit your new domain (before you do this!) then you want it to go to your main site, as is.
There’s two ways you can actually map a domain to one of your sites. The user screen is the simplest way, if you left that option on before. Log into the site you actually want to map to a new domain, then go to Tools->Domain Mapping.
User Domain Mapping Screen
All you really do is put in a new domain and set it as the primary. Simple.
Note that if you didn’t get the domain pointed at your server before doing this, then your site will instantly vanish from the realm of mortal man. Setting the primary domain takes effect instantly. You won’t be able to access the site through the old domain any more.
The other way to set domain mapping is through the Super Admin->Domains menu. Here you’ll find a list of sites and their ID numbers. You can map an id number directly to a domain name here. The Tools approach is a bit easier to use, but this will allow you to map domains without visiting them, as you can access this list from your main domain. You can also correct broken domain mappings from here.
Step 5: Seeing the Mapped Domains
If you go to Super Admin->Sites, you’ll find this type of a listing:
Sites listing
You’ll note that on the right hand side you can see the column showing the mapped domains.
Special Note: See in the picture how I’m using a subdirectory install? That’s relatively new. In older versions of the domain mapping system, you had to use a subdomain installation and wildcard DNS for domain mapping to work. This is no longer the case, domain mapping works just fine with subdirectories.
Conclusion
And that’s how it’s done. It’s not super complex, but it does require some knowledge of DNS and how servers work. If you can successfully set up a multi-site install to begin with, you can probably do this as well. Just be aware that it is slightly finicky, and know that you will break your site if you put in the wrong settings somewhere. However, your main domain will always be accessible as long as you don’t try to map it, so you’ll be able to go in from there to correct your mistakes.
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Wow, YOU are awesome!
Thanks a lot for this!
You second last sentence is not very encouraging though 🙂
And I even found out where I can find the A name or record or whatever.
Yes, well… when I was doing it for the first time, I broke my second site more or less instantly. Again, it’s fine if you put in the right settings and have your DNS sorted out for your new TLDs before you start. And you can always correct the broken mapping through Super Admin->Domains.
Seems to be a great option ! But hmmm, is it save to install a beta of wordpress 3 ?
My site is working well now with 2.9.2 and it looks like that domain mapping will be tested enough the next time and one day there is the final wordpress 3.0 — stable.
But Otto, again, I like to read your articles, they always gives the special answer 🙂
thank you…
Hi Otto – an EXCELLENT post for using the wordpress domain mapping plugin with WP 3.0
I have completed steps 1-3, however I am not getting the “Tools > Domain Mapping” menu option.
what gives?
I am using:
– WP 3.0 RC2
– trunk version of the domain mapping plugin
– WP 3.0 multisite activated
any ideas?
Did you leave “User Domain Mapping Page” turned on?
Hi Otto – thanks for the response!
Yes, under “Super Admin > Domain Mapping”, I have selected the 2nd and 3rd options for “Permanent redirect (better for your blogger’s pagerank)” and “User domain mapping page”, but have left the 1st and 4th options for “Remote Login” and “Redirect administration pages to blog’s original domain (remote login disabled if redirect disabled)” unchecked.
domain-mapping.php is in /wp-content/mu-plugins/, and sunrise.php is in /wp-content/
file permissions on the mu-plugins folder are drwxr-xr-x, and permissions on sunrise.php and domain-mapping.php are -rw-r–r–
define( ‘SUNRISE’, ‘on’ );
is listed immediately after the multisite code in wp-config.php
any ideas?
Are you actually on the site you want to remap to a new domain? You can’t actually remap the main root site, but any subsites will have that new option.
Go to the site you want to map, and its admin page should have the new menu item.
eureka! thanks, Otto! I logged into the wp-admin.php of the blog I wanted to map, and then the “Tools > Domain Mapping” menu option was available to me. it wasn’t intuitive to me that I needed to log out of the main site admin, and then log into the mapped blog admin.
Okay, to recap: within the wp-admin page of the main blog, go to “Super Admin > Sites” and add a site. For example, if you want to add a mapped domain called “domain123.com”, enter “domain123” under “Add Site > Site Address” (it will say “domain123.mainblog123.com”)
Then, log out of the main site admin, and log into domain123.mainblog123.com/wp-admin.php Once inside of the admin for the new blog, then go to “Tools > Domain Mapping” and set domain123.com as primary domain. That should do it!
did I miss anything? check out the thread I started earlier on wordpress.org;
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/407121
It seems to be working, except that the Sociable plugin is puking some errors on the mapped domain blog… will try to pin that problem down next.
thanks again!
[…] Once I had the data imported, I modified my Apache2 vhosts to point to the new install and followed Otto’s domain mapping tutorial and I’m good to go.There is some learning for me to do. Not all plugins work in the multisite […]
great tutorial!
i went through all the steps precisely…i am not unfamiliar with DNS/servers so my A names are pointing to the multisite server ip. all of my screenshots look identical to yours (replacing your domains w/ mine naturally.)
as soon as i add a mapped domain though, it immediately redirects the mapped domain to the main multisite url while the subfolder still works except for the admin section which also redirects to the main multisite url admin after adding the mapped domain name.
i am using the trunk version of the mapping plugin and i also opted to use subfolders instead of subdomains.
i also tested adding the mapped domain as a virtual server to my httpd.conf file…and i still see the same behavior.
another test i did was adding the mapped domain as a super-admin…and as a separate admin user for that specific subfolder.
do you happen to have any thoughts or suggestions?
thanks!!
ps – please excuse my capitalization laziness. 😛
Very nice tutorial!
I’ve gone through the guide but whenever I try to map a domain to a blog, it won’t work. Every time I’m just redirected to the default apache2 site on my server. The dns is configured correct. What could be the problem?
Thanks
Lars
Hello,
i am to stupid for this tuto 😉
Domain A is my “Superblog”.
How can i redirect my Domain B to the right content?
I make on Domain A a new site, go in this backend, tools/domain mapping, give it as Primary, all ok.
If i look on Super Admin, Sites, the site with the path is correct, on the end is the correct url.
On my provider i have mapped the Domain to the domainb path, if i now look into the path, the path via ftp is empty (sure, no WP installed on domain B).
Domain is pointed on the same provider but i didn’t know, how i can pointed them correctly to the content (and i don’t like to redirect it the the path, because if i do that i have
domaina.com/domainbpath/about.html
Don’t map the domain to the path, map it to the same as the first domain.
In other words, your domains pointing on the provider should both point to the exact same place. The Domain Mapping plugin takes care of directing the right site to the right domain, after the fact.
Creating a new subdirectory site doesn’t actually create that directory. It’s not “real”, it’s just a name.
I think this is where I’m having difficulty.
I’m using LunarPages and if I want to have an add-on domain it requires a sub-directory.
I’m trying to figure out how to get around this and I’m not sure where to start: sub-domains, CNAME, htaccess rewriting…
heeeeelp meeee…
Figured it out. You need to use PARKED domains rather than add-on domains to be able to point to your website root.
[…] Follow http://ottopress.com/2010/wordpress-3-0-multisite-domain-mapping-tutorial/ to enable domain mapping […]
OK, I think, based on your tutorial and also Klint’s walkthrough / comments, that, in order to run my blogging empire on different domains I will require a unique IP address? AND Wildcard DNS? I hit a wall with MU on Dreamhost shared hosting and am trying to determine if anything is different. Ideally I would become familiar with 3.0 multi-site multi-domains on the shared server and roll into a VPS when/if traffic warranted. If I may suggest the 3rd in a series of tutorials: a list of requirements and hosting compatibility comparison chart would be awesome.
Thanks Otto!
No. You will need to know the IP address of your server, but it doesn’t have to be unique. And shared hosting will work AND you don’t need wildcard DNS.
The “subdirectory” install works just fine with Domain Mapping now. I’m using it in exactly that way.
If you use the “subdomain” installation method, then you will need wildcard DNS and a unique IP. But you don’t have to use that method, domain mapping doesn’t care either way.
Thank You Otto!
[…] podéis consultar un completo tutorial en inglés de como mapear dominios para multi-sitio. programación, […]
good tutorial I followed it to the tee, but I see one thing that is missing, once you map a domain to a site, and load that domain, the sub domain is used in the code.
example domain1.com mapped to site domain1.mainsite.com
when you visit domain1.com the code in the source is domain1.mainsite.com still.
I found that if you goto options for domain1.mainsite.com and update the siteurl to the full domain domain1.com it saves it.
wish it was automated so you dont have to do this everytime.
I don’t know what you’re talking about with this. I don’t have any option to adjust the site URL on my sites. But then I am using a subdirectory install, not a subdomain one. I recommend the subdirectory install anyway, as it’s simpler. You can even use the domain mapping tool to map subdomains to the sites this way.
my bad, i didnt goto the dashboard of the subdomain or subdirectory domain and map the domain, i was doing it from the main without visiting the newly added site, works now.
Hi, thanks so much for this tutorial!! However, I am getting an error saying that WP3 has to be in the root folder of the server in order for domain-mapping to work… Is this for real? That would really be a bummer because I have a lot of stuff in the root folder of my server, and was hoping to keep it nice and neat so everything for my wordpress network is under one directory..
I spent all day yesterday trying to get this domain mapping to work, and I am very surprised how difficult it has been for me to simply point domains to subsites of the WordPress 3.0 Multisite…
Is there a manual way to do this with apache? I am a good developer but I am limited with DNS/Apache…
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!
This is the error by the way:
“The domain mapping plugin only works if the site is installed in /. This is a limitation of how virtual servers work and is very difficult to work around.”
Sorry, no way around it. You really *need* to install WordPress in the root of your domain for multi-site to work properly in the first place.
Really? That is very surprising : [ Thank you very much for your help…
Does this mean I’d have to install WP directly into http://127.0.0.1/ (rather than http://127.0.0.1/multisite) to test multi-sites at home on my local MAMP setup?
Multi-site operation *really* wants to be at the root of your site. But, a subdirectory installation will work for the subdirectory (not subdomain) mode.
Hey, great tutorial.
I’m having the same issue, but I thought my install WAS in the root. I’ve got it in the /public_html/ folder. Is that not considered the root? Or is it meant to be the one above that?
I had the same error…I worked around it but now my domain mapping doesn’t work properly. Lol…not sure if this is the reason though. Here is how I did it:
Simply added a letter to all the plugin folders/filenames. So mu-plugins became amu-plugins and sunrise.php became asunrise.php.
Then I commented out the define sunrise portion of wp-config.php…
After logging in as admin successfully, I go and reverse all my file name changes/comments and I was able to see everything appropriately.
The reason I did this is because I define my Virtual Servers in my httpd.conf file…so the site is at root if root is the file path I specify for the site. I’m not sure why I received that error if my thought process on ‘root’ is right…I could be wrong though. 🙂
That is an interesting workaround… I think I’m just gonna play it safe and install in Root, though I would have preferred not too…
When you say “I go and reverse all my file name changes/comments and I was able to see everything appropriately.”, what do you mean?
I switch amu-plugins back to mu-plugins and asunrise.php back to sunrise.php and I take my comment tags out of wp-config.php…that’s what I meant.
Ok I see…
I am thinking of just signing up for a new host account, they are cheap anyway. Should I get a shared account, VPS (more expensive) or do I need dedicated?
I am thinking of just having a dedicated host account for this, just want to make sure I don’t need anything too special. I am planning on going through HostGator.
Thanks so much for your help!!!
Whatever fits your budget and needs best, really. Hell, I’m running half a dozen sites on a shared GoDaddy host. It’s slow, but it works fine with multi-site.
Excellent tutorial!
Everything works perfectly now, except for one thing: logins are borked on sub-sites.
Trying to go to subdomain.org/wp-admin leads to http://subdomain.org/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http://subdomain.org/wp-admin/&reauth=1
Which means when I login, nothing happens.
Seems related to this Trac issue, except logging out, clearing cache, restarting browser, etc doesn’t work. Tried from a different workstation, different browser.
Still no go. Can’t log in no matter what. Main site login still works though. Just not the subdomains.
Okay, but that URL redirection is correct. That is what it is supposed to do. The wp-login presents you with the login screen, where you log in, then it redirects you back to wp-admin.
My sites do the exact same thing, and login works just fine for me.
Not working here. :-/
Here’s the login address: metagnosis.net/wp-admin
Login: drone
Pass: haltime
Nothing. No error message, just a constant redirect to sign in.
[…] WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial – Otto On WordPress A walkthrough on how to map different domains to the different sites within your network […]
Hi, glad to know WP3 is finally out!! I followed this tutorial and everything is fine except the sub-sites display the default server page…
So basically if I type in onemilliontreepledge.enconetwork.com, it redirects fine to http://onemilliontreepledge.com… and if i type http://onemilliontreepledge.com it works… however it doesnt go to the wordpress site, it goes to the default hostgator page…
i am wondering if there is an extra step i am missing? i used subdomains, but i am guessing wildcard subdomain may be the problem?
However if i type in a random subdomain it brings me to the signup page for my wordpress site, so i am assuming wildcard is setup correctly?
Making your TLD point to your site is somewhat outside the scope of this tutorial. But basically, you’ll need to point the domain at the hosting system and the hosting system will need to know that that domain should connect to your site. That’s something you have to setup with your host.
Im not sure if i am understanding correctly, but basically enconetwork.com is the top level domain, so if i type http://www.enconetwork.com the wordpress site comes up as expected…
i then added sub sites, for example onemilliontreepledge.enconetwork.com…
i then have onemilliontreepledge.com added as a domain under ‘domains’ and pointed to the site id
when i type in either it onemilliontreepledge.com or onemilliontreepledge.enconetwork.com it brings me to the default server page but doesnt load the appropriate blog…
i have done everything else correctly, am i still not understanding something?
I don’t know a good way to explain this…
You have a hosting account, running a website. Domains point to this hosting account.
When the hosting service gets a web request, it needs to know what domain connects to what website. Your hosting service needs to know your domain names, basically.
This has nothing to do with wildcard DNS or any of that. The problem is that your hosting service doesn’t know to connect your new TLD with your existing website.
Talk to them about it. They need to know your new domain name and they need to know that it connects to your website. They DON’T need to know that it connects to the subdomain. WordPress handles that for you. You basically want them to connect all your TLDs to the exact same hosting account and path and website.
ok thank you much i will check it out and let you know what i was missing!! thanks again for all of your help!!!
I’m getting a redirect loop on the child site when I try to set this up. Is there some setting in Apache I should set or look into? I’m getting ready to just pay someone to do this. 🙁
Generally a loop like this means that you have your domain set up wrong to being with.
The very first thing to do before you ever do anything else is to get your new domain pointing to your main site. Once you have that, then the rest of this all just sort of follows.
I can’t give you specific details on how to point your domain to the right place, because I don’t know them. I don’t use your domain service, I don’t use your hosting system. I can’t tell you the magic trick to make that work because it’s going to be different everywhere.
Ask your hosting service this question: “I want to buy domain example.com, how do I set up this new domain to point to my already existing website at whatever.com?” Then follow those instructions. Once you have that, then this guide will let you map that domain to a new “site” in WordPress.
Thanks for the reply. I’m trying to be cheap so I bought a VPS and I’m playing server admin. All my domains are set up fine and point to the server. Just when I add a child domain and try to access it it will go into a 301 redirect loop, which makes me assume something is going on with the plugin/wordpress install.
Hi Matt,
I am wondering if you were able to fix this issue, I am experiencing the same loop problem.
Thanks!
You know I fixed it, I just don’t know how… 😛
But I think it could have been while changing the site settings “Domain” and “Path” for each domain, like this:
Domain: http:// [ http://www.example.com ]
Path: [ / ]
So the domain field only contains the domain (no slashes) and the path only contains one single slash ( / ).
Hope that helps…
Juan Salcedo
Hi Otto,
Would it be simple to merge existing sites into a multi-site WP 3.0 configuration? How to handle the database etc. Could you simply export (WP Export) the old site and then import it into the 3.0 site?
Also, I get plenty of space and bandwidth on DreamHost, but what I discovered recently it’s REALLY EASY to run out of shared memory for php processes. This is more likely to happen where the sites share the same User. I don’t think there’s a way I could map domains to subfolders and NOT be the same user, but was wondering if you had any thoughts.
Again, the idea is to get set up on shared hosting and then if/when traffic warrants, move to a VPS.
P.S. Still thinking a WP 3.0 Multi-site specific hosting comparison article could be very useful.
I have a new post on this coming up… give me a day… and time to sober up. Damn the Lakers!
Awesome.
Quick answer for you: Basically it’s an export and an import operation, but the problem is the uploaded files. In WordPress multi-site, uploaded files get a different URL than they do with normal operations. basically, there’s a new url of /files/* that gets remapped to all of the uploaded files on the site using htaccess rules and such. It’s actually much cleaner.
But this means that after importing, all your links to these files in your posts will be broken in the new site. I used a plugin called Search Regex to let me go through all my posts after importing and replace the old URLs with the new ones.
I’m not sure what you mean with sharing the same user and such.
hey.. thanks for this.. super helpful
it literally took me less than an hour from installing a fresh WP3.0 to mapping a new domain..
next up.. integrating some bbPress forums.. hmm
[…] 6. WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial […]
Hi
I can see the link “Domain Mapping” under “Super Admin” (link to /wp-admin/ms-admin.php?page=dm_admin_page).
This site will show the error: Cannot load dm_admin_page.
how i can fix it?
Well thanks everyone for your help, turns out I was doing it correctly, but the hosting company for some reason had the wrong IP in the httpd.conf file, so that’s relieving but frustrating… Anyway here is the process I used from blank server to multidomain functionality:
MULTISITE
1. Install WordPress 3 in ROOT of Server (thanks otto for clarifying the importance of installing in ROOT)
2. Add define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true); into wp-config.php
3. Add wildcard domain for primary domain (*.yourdomain.com)
4. Within WP Admin go to Tools >> Network and follow on screen instructions
DOMAIN MAPPING
1. Add the **trunk** version of sunrise.php (You can find the link at the beginning of Otto’s post) in the wp-content/ folder
2. Add the domain_mapping.php file to wp-content/mu-plugins
3. In wp-config.php add define( ‘SUNRISE’, ‘on’ );
4. In WP Admin go to Super Admin >> Domain Mapping to set IP or CNAME (I used IP, that seemed to be the easiest)
5. Within cpanel or your server add an Add-On Domain to point to your root folder, which in my case was public_html/
6. Under Superadmin >> Domains, add domains using the particular Blog ID and domain name
7. Enjoy!!!
Hopefully this helps, let me know if I missed anything!!!
It appears to me that you need to ‘park’ your domains if jsut changing the ‘a’ record in the DNS of the registered domain that you are going to be mapping. After that, all seems to work.
Thanks for the helpful tutorial.
[…] 8. Um diese Domains auf eine bestimmte Domain zu leiten, ist Domain mapping erforderlich (ausführliches Tutorial zu Domain mapping) […]
Otto –
The tutorial is very clear, and I followed it precisely. However, after completing all the steps and enabling sunrise.php I am not able to see the “Domain Mapping” link under the SuperAdmin options.. Any ideas? This seems pretty basic, however I can’t progress any further until I can actually access the domain mapping plugin page. Is there some step to enable the plugin that’s not mentioned in the tutorial? Many thanks!
Best Regards,
Kemble H.
u have mentioned in which part of the code should we paste this? define( ‘SUNRISE’, ‘on’ );
I have codes like this in edit space
dmtable = $wpdb->base_prefix . ‘domain_mapping’;
$wpdb->suppress_errors();
$dm_domain = $wpdb->escape( preg_replace( “/^www\./”, “”, $_SERVER[ ‘HTTP_HOST’ ] ) );
$domain_mapping_id = $wpdb->get_var( “SELECT blog_id FROM {$wpdb->dmtable} WHERE domain = ‘{$dm_domain}’ LIMIT 1” );
$wpdb->suppress_errors( false );
if( $domain_mapping_id ) {
$current_blog = $wpdb->get_row(“SELECT * FROM {$wpdb->blogs} WHERE blog_id = ‘$domain_mapping_id’ LIMIT 1”);
$current_blog->domain = $_SERVER[ ‘HTTP_HOST’ ];
$current_blog->path = ‘/’;
$blog_id = $domain_mapping_id;
$site_id = $current_blog->site_id;
define( ‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, $_SERVER[ ‘HTTP_HOST’ ] );
$current_site = $wpdb->get_row( “SELECT * from {$wpdb->site} WHERE id = ‘{$current_blog->site_id}’ LIMIT 0,1” );
$current_site->blog_id = $wpdb->get_var( “SELECT blog_id FROM {$wpdb->blogs} WHERE domain='{$current_site->domain}’ AND path='{$current_site->path}'” );
define( ‘DOMAIN_MAPPING’, 1 );
}
?>
so really where should I paste this?
You place that in your wp-config.php file. You’re looking in the wrong place.
[…] No responses by Mark Ghosh on June 21st, 2010 in WordPress Hack, WordPress Plugins WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial. As an extension of the excellent walk through of the multisite functionality of WordPress 3.0 by […]
Hello,
I mapped zabaluba.com domain to efeoge.com.tr, i made all steps but i entered zabaluba.com, browser direct to efeoge.com.tr
any ideas?
Having it redirect before you add the domain mapping is normal. This is what happens when you first set up the TLD and point it to your site.
After you do the mapping, it shouldn’t redirect anymore, HOWEVER, browsers can cache redirects. Close your browser and restart it, then try it. Alternatively, clear your browser cache and retry.
If neither of those works, then you didn’t do the mapping correctly or something. Check the Super Admin->Domains section to see what’s wrong.
Hi Otto, thank you for this interesting TUTO.
I have a question: I had already installed the Domain Mapping plugin on WP 3.0 but not in /mu-plugins/ but in regular /plugins/ ( yes, simply via the WP plugin installer and then just moving sunrise up to /wp-content/ via FTP 😉 ) and then activated it Network Wide… Si it is the stable version (not from trunk) and not in /mu-plugins/ but it seems to be working just fine.
Can you please clarify the need to go and create that archaic /mu-plugins/ (thought it was completely binned in WP3 anyway) ? Is there any argument against placing it in /plugins/ ?
Thanks 🙂
If you have it in plugins, then your sites have the ability to turn it off on an individual basis, which you don’t want.
Files in mu-plugins are forced to be activated all the time (MU = “Must Use” now).
[…] WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial. As an extension of the excellent walk through of the multisite functionality of WordPress 3.0 by our very own Klint Finley, Otto has put together a domain mapping tutorial that is receiving rave reviews. Follow the steps to map multiple domain blogs from within the same WordPress 3.0 install. […]
Otto, Thanks bunches and speedy hangover recovery. I am eagerly awaiting your tutorial on adding already existing WP sites into a newly set up 3.0 network of sites but may attempt it anyway, beforehand. I understand basically, you export from the old existing sites, then import on the new network, and then deal with the uploaded file urls. Two possibly dumb but big questions that might help me get started- do I upgrade the site I plan to export/add before exporting to WP 3.0 first? Then, do I add/create the site into the network and then go to ‘import’, or do start that process by importing the files first and then creating a new site?
Thanks again.
I don’t think it makes any particular difference, realistically. I exported from 2.9.2 blog and imported into a 3.0 alpha blog when I did it.
You do create the new site first, then import the content. Then fix the content. Then map the domain. The domain mapping is the last step which makes your new site “live” as it were.
That looks like tutorial enough to me… Thanks again.
Please write us how to doing this work in WP 3 full version?
[…] started using the new multi-site feature:WordPress 3.0 Walkthrough: Getting Started with MultisiteWordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial Tags: how-to, jultisite, tutorial, wordpress 3.0 Comment (RSS) | TrackbackLeave a […]
[…] install the WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin – use the trunk version(!) for 3.0 compatibility. Put sunrise.php and domain-mapping.php into the right directories. Activate […]
[…] Next, follow Otto’s Domain Mapping plugin tutorial. I found you don’t need to use the “mu-plugins” folder, but IMPORTANTLY, you DO […]
Great job dude!
Could you make a tutorial explaining what changes when a site is upgraded to a network, what changes are done in the network’s main site’s tables. It would be great if we chould just export all wp_ tables from a WP database, rename them all to wp_2_, and import to a network database that already has a site with ID 2, and have our site fully working as before!
Great job. Just got it setup, and now running two our of my 6 sites off the one installation. I’m working on moving the rest over now, saves having to update each one individually.
Thanks.
Otto,
Thank you so much!
Amazing and clean tutorial!
Everything works perfect.
Regards
[…] Not to worry though, Otto on WordPress has created this great MultiSite domain mapping tutorial. […]
How can i connect other domains to main domain?
May i park the mapped domain to main domain?
I am a total newbie, as in I have never set up any blog before ever. Due to your fantastic instruction and the ones found for preceding steps all is working flawlessly. Now the work of design and set-up remains.
Here is my question…
It is my intent to employ a host of strategies that will result in significant traffic and monetization strategies on at least 3 WordPress sites. My original thought was to gain efficiencies my administering through a single WordPress installation and parent admin. Are there any downsides to the multi-site structure that may complicate or inhibit future migration to hosting the sites on separate IP’s with unique SSL certificates. In other words, possible future transition from the multi-site set-up to a more “dedicated” singular set-up configuration. Also, are there any performance considerations with “multi-site” that should play into my initial set-up configuration decisions.
Thank you so much for your help. -Curtis
******[corrected]*******
I am a total newbie, as in I have never set up any blog before ever. Due to your fantastic instruction and the ones found for preceding steps all is working flawlessly. Now the work of design and set-up remains.
Here is my question…
It is my intent to employ a host of strategies that will result in significant traffic and monetization strategies on at least 3 WordPress sites. My original thought was to gain efficiencies by administering through a single WordPress installation and parent admin.
Are there any downsides to the multi-site structure that may complicate or inhibit future migration to hosting the sites on separate IP’s with unique SSL certificates? In other words, possible future transition from the multi-site set-up to a more “dedicated” singular set-up configuration.
Also, are there any performance considerations with “multi-site” that should play into my initial set-up configuration decisions?
Thank you so much for your help.
-Curtis
[…] WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial […]
[…] How To Create A Side Blog With WordPress 3.0 How to Enable WordPress MU into WordPress 3.0 WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial Creating a network of multiple sites in WordPress […]
[…] enabling Multisite in WordPress 3.0 that takes you through the entire process.WordPress contributor Otto has written a great guide about domain mapping in Multisite mode in WordPress 3.0.The excellent […]
[…] contributor Otto has written a great guide about domain mapping in Multisite mode in WordPress […]
[…] contributor Otto has written a great guide about domain mapping in Multisite mode in WordPress […]
[…] contributor Otto has written a great guide about domain mapping in Multisite mode in WordPress […]
[…] contributor Otto has written a great guide about domain mapping in Multisite mode in WordPress […]
[…] contributor Otto has written a great guide about domain mapping in Multisite mode in WordPress […]