Wordpress 3.0 offers with the Mu system inbuilt and there is no need to download and install the wordpress mu script because you just need to set some settings and the blog is ready. Just upgrade your current Wordpress blog to the latest version and then make sure you are logged into the Dashboard & Ftp to get started.
First access the wp-config.php file and then add the following line of code in the file. You can place it just before this line which can be found almost at the end of the wp-config file. ‘/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */’. Once this is done you will find a new option under the Tools panel under the Wp-Admin section.
define (‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true ) ;
Click on your Blog > Wp-Admin > Tools >
Under this Network Details option you will be able to find the type of installation you would like to perform, by default there are two options either selecting Sub-Folders or Sub-Domain, though in most cases its preferred to select the Sub-Domains option. Enter the Network Title option which is going to be listed as the Blog Title of each newly created sub blog and the admin email is useful for sending alerts and notifications. Now we need to proceed towards a little bit of manual setup process which is not easy for first times but they will have to learn this and implement slowly to make sure everything works perfectly.
Once the Network settings are implemented and set you will have to login to the FTP software and then create a new folder / director under the wp-content folder with name blogs.dir which is the location where all the uploaded media like Images, Videos etc would be hosted instead of the normal Uploads folder which is the default location in single wordpress installation. You will have to make this folder writeable for the web server to allow the wordpress script to upload Images and transfer them to this directory, hence right click on this and set the permissions at 0666 (-rw-rw-rw-).
Click on the wp-config.php file again and select the edit option and add the following code to it, which would allow it to understand your desired settings. The following code should be added just above the line which says ‘('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );‘
define( 'MULTISITE', true );
define( 'SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', true );
$base = '/';
define( 'DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'amitbhawani.com' );
define( 'PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/' );
define( 'SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );
define( 'BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );
You will have to change the above code based on your preferences like the domain current site should represent your main blog url, if you would like to have a subdomain installation and also the path of the current website.
Finally its time to set the .htaccess file which is going to redirect the users directly and also the set the media folder redirection. Right click on the .htaccess file and select edit and then add the following code in it. If you have the default Wordpress generated Rewrite code, you will have to remove it completely and then add the below one to make sure everything works perfectly.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L]# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ – [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
Once everything is implemented correctly you will find that there is a new option under the Wp-Admin Dashboard with the name Super Admin which gives you access to creating new blogs and user accounts.
You can click on the Sites option and then Add Site to create a new blog which is a part of the main multi site network. The themes option is important location where you will have to Enable Network Themes to make sure that these are displayed on the sub blogs for activation. Under the other options you can change the Network Name, Network Admin Email and many other options. Overall a very easy setup which wont take more than 15mins to complete and would run the blogs perfectly along with each of the different blog member handling a different blog of their own.