Simple How to Guide to Install WordPress MU with 0 Errors

WordPress is a great CMS platform, with a lot of scope for anyone who needs to easily manage their content related needs using an interface that even the most non-technical person is comfortable with. It provides its users with a great deal of features, themes, plugins and much more. For those who have been using WordPress from quite a while can tell how incredibly this CMS has been evolved to become a nice resource to power millions of websites.

WordPress comes with a lot of goodies and one of them is WordPress multisite. WordPress introduced multisite feature in the version 3.0 and since then it has become a preferred choice for online players who want to convert their website into a network of websites using a single installation. In simple words, using multisite feature, it is easier for the site owner create multiple WordPress sites by sharing a single WordPress installation.

How to Install WordPress Multisite

(Image Source: Mashable.com)

Now that you know what multisite is, it’s time to learn how it can be installed. It is pretty simple to activate multisite. How you proceed to set up this feature depends whether your website own an old or new website. It also depends on whether you want to use sub-domains or subdirectories for your websites.

While going through the process, it is recommended to create a backup of all your files and database. This will help you to restore your website if anything goes wrong.

For those who are installing multisite by changing their existing install they have nothing to feel worry about as they can simply delete all the data and re-install everything.

This tutorial focuses on setting up WordPress MU or network on a fresh install. Please read the following instructions carefully to activate multisite networking.

1. To begin with, set up a wildcard sub-domain. Once done, you need to enable multisite using on your current WordPress installation. To enable multisite, simply go to the File Manager and start editing the wp-config.php file by adding the following line which reads “/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */“

/* Multisite */

define( ‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true );

Place this code one line above the line we have added in the configuration file. After adding the code, save the wp-config.php file. The next step is to move to WordPress admin area and install multisite.

2. In the WordPress dashboard go to Tools> Network Set up. While doing so, you’ll be prompted to select between sub-domains and subdirectories for your installation. We advise you to opt for the one that is suitable for your network.

Once done, click “Install”

3. After this enable the network. Also, make sure you have kept your dashboard opened to fetch certain information. Go back to your cPanel file manager and start creating blogs.dir folder in the wp-content folder.

4. In this step, go to your dashboard again. Here go to Tools>Network. Once you are done, you’ll be taken to the screen like this:

(Image Source: Inmotionhosting.com)

You can see all the custom coding here, next go to your wp-config.php file and start copying the codes presented in the screen shot above to the file.

Using your cPanel, edit the same wp-config.php file which you edited in the first step.

5. Open your wp-config.php and .htaccess file and start editing them by adding the codes provided on the screen above. If you can’t find your .htaccess file on your server, it might be because some files are hidden. To get its access, you can modify the settings within your code editor.

Save the changes.

Congrats! You have successfully installed WordPress multisite feature. Login again to your dashboard in order to view the changes. Now you can start adding websites, plugins, and themes to your websites.

When you login to your dashboard, you’ll notice certain changes within it. It now displays a new dashboard widget that allows you search users and websites. You will be also getting links to create new users and website. Also, the admin bar will display an admin dropdown menu that creates a link between different networks administration area. You’ll also observe a new menu which includes the links of your website dashboard, themes, users, plugins etc.

Author Signature: Maria Mincey is an software developer for Xicom, a software development company which delivers most comprehensive web applications and solutions for different industry verticals.