HowTo Install WordPress MultiUser Edition
What is WordPress MU?
-
“WordPress MU is multi-user version of the famous WordPress blogging application. It is ideal for people wanting to offer a hosted version of WordPress, but due to its complexity installation and maintainance is not supported in the same manner WordPress is. (You cannot get support on the WordPress support forums.)”
WordPress Multi-User Edition has a pretty active forum but I couldn’t find any installation guide. This is how I installed WordPress MU and I’m presenting a step-by-step installation procedure with screenshots.
The installation was done in CentOS and should be pretty much same in most of the *nix flavors. I’ve used the domain name mu.nirlog.com which was setup internally to capture screenshots for this tutorial. You won’t be able to access it from outside.
1. Create a wildcard entry in your DNS record for *.yourdomain.com to resolve to your server’s IP address.
In Bind DNS Server following two lines should be inserted in the zone file of nirlog.com. The domain for Multi-User Blog would be mu.nirlog.com where users can register their own blog e.g. test.mu.nirlog.com
mu IN A 192.168.1.1
*.mu IN A 192.168.1.1
2. Add a ServerAlias in Apache configuration file for *.yourdomain.com.
In Apache 2.x, configuration add the following line in virtual domain setting:
-
ServerAlias *.mu.nirlog.com
3. Get the Wordpress Multi-User Edition from the WordPressMu download site
-
wpmu-unstable.tar.gz
4. Make sure you fulfill the requirements (according to WP MU site)
Apart from WordPress Requirements
Apache mod_rewrite – if you had WP installed already with fancy URLs then you should be fine.
Apache FollowSymlinks must be switched on. This will disappear in later releases.
5. Start Installation
Untar wpmu-unstable.tar.gz into your web directory. It’ll create a wpmu-… directory, change that name to wpmu. After this you can basically follow the instructions in your browser.
So, the real steps should go as following:
-
tar xvfz wpmu-unstable.tar.gz
Which creates
-
wpmu-2006-02-01
Rename it:
-
mv wpmu-2006-02-01 wpmu
6. Fix the permissions (not very secure, but won’t work without it)
-
chmod 777 wpmu
chmod 777 wpmu/wp-inst/
chmod 777 wpmu/wp-inst/wp-content/
You won’t be able to go further without fixing the permission
7. Enable Virtual Server Support by choosing Virtual Server Support: Yes. This will enable the registering users to have a sub domain of their choice.
8. Enter the MySQL Database information and press Submit.
9. Choose a Weblog Title and enter the Email address. Login ID and Password will be sent to this email address.
10. That’s it, you’re done. Check your email for the admin password.
11. Users can browse the site to Login or Create a new blog by themselves
12. User can create a new blog by signing up.
13. A user successfully creates a new blog.
14. This is a newly created blog by the user.
15. User’s admin panel. The user has full control of his blog.
16. Administrator’s admin panel. Administrator can manage all the blogs.
This post has 29 comments
February 8th, 2006
1. Bravo.
2. Thank you!
April 12th, 2006
Hii.. I just wanna know if there is the traduction to spanish for this WPMU.
June 12th, 2006
Hi. Great to know of another person who has installed WordPress MU.
Please do drop by http://www.wpmuforum.com to help up new users. It is still new but I think the site will take off very soon.
June 13th, 2006
Thanks for stopping by Kimmy. I visited the forum and can see you’ve well categorized the topics of discussion. I’ll be visiting time to time and will be happy to help new users.
July 4th, 2006
How can i On the feature of MOD_rewrite
in my webhost .
July 4th, 2006
Gourav,
if you have root access to your server, you should uncomment (remove the ‘#’ pound sign) the following line in you apache configuration file “httpd.conf” to load the mod_rewrite module. If you don’t have the root access, you should ask your web hosting company to do so:
That’s loading the module and it’s turned on by the wordpress(mu) in “.htaccess” file with following line:
July 17th, 2006
i have windows 2003 on my PC. And i want to use wordpress multiuser on my webhost. currently i am using webhost4life as a webhost. But its not supporting Apache webserver. so can u tell me any webhost who is best for me (cheap and best). Which provides me Apache webserver , PHP, mysql , and some good features.
Thanx
RAhul
July 17th, 2006
Rahul,
recently WebFaction had been in the news for their excellent home grown web control panel and support for one click installation of applications such as Rails, Django, TurboGears and Zope. The price is also quite cheap.
I don’t use their service but I was impressed by their control panel demo. You can give it a try.
August 7th, 2006
Hi
I am using asmallorange as a webhost.
I am using the wordpress MU on it.
But i am facing a new problem. when i am regestering there as a new user and choose a Blog name. They are sending me new login address and password at my mail address. And saying that when I click on that link i will get a new mail to activate my this new user Blog.
But when i click on this LINK its showing the error “Page can not be displayed”. SO plz help me.
GOURAV
August 7th, 2006
GOURAV,
how does the link look like? In my case it looked as following:
http://newblog.yourdomain.com/wp-login.php
You have to make sure to create a wildcard entry in your DNS record for *.yourdomain.com to resolve to your server’s IP address, which is the first step mentioned in installation process.
August 10th, 2006
Hi
Can u tell me the Any theme for wordpress multiuser. I want to change the entire loook of wordpress multiuser. Plz tell me some themes so that i can change the looks of wordpress MU .
August 11th, 2006
I haven’t seen any good MU themes but you can check the MU forums. Let me know if you find a good one.
August 11th, 2006
Hi
I am using asmallorange as a webhost.
I am using the wordpress MU on it.
But i am facing a new problem. when i am regestering there as a new user and choose a Blog name. They are sending me new login address and password at my mail address. And saying that when I click on that link i will get a new mail to activate my this new user Blog.
But when i click on this LINK its showing the error “Page can not be displayed”.
this is the link:
http://amit.mindsolinc.com/gourav/wpmu//wp-activate.php?key=6b8c891cf5914913
SO plz help me.
GOURAV
August 11th, 2006
There seems to be an extra slash (//) after “wpmu” in the link.
The link is like this:
http://amit.mindsolinc.com/gourav/wpmu//wp-activate.php?key=6b8c891cf5914913
If you remove one slash like this:
http://amit.mindsolinc.com/gourav/wpmu/wp-activate.php?key=6b8c891cf5914913
It should work.
March 3rd, 2007
Niranjan,
Would you install WordpressMU on my GoDaddy.com account for a fee. I’m not very savy on editing code on the server, but would love to give MU a whirl to see what it does.
Thanks
March 3rd, 2007
Rick,
I would be happy to help you. I’ve sent you an email with details. Let me know if you have any queries. The most important thing is that your hosting provider should fulfill the system requirements of wordpress mu.
May 2nd, 2007
Hi
I am using wordpress mu . Can u tell me how can i use the Trackback feature in wordpress mu.
Wht it means and how can i use it. Plz tll me with example.
And second when i m uploading any image its not showing. just a pic sighn with cross is there. but the image is missing.
Plz help me
May 4th, 2007
Hi Niranjan
Plz help me.
I am using wordpress mu . Can u tell me how can i use the Trackback feature in wordpress mu.
Wht it means and how can i use it. Plz tll me with example.
And second when i m uploading any image its not showing. just a pic sighn with cross is there. but the image is missing.
Plz help me
May 4th, 2007
Hi Gourav,
Login to wordpress –> “Write” –> “Write Post” there should be a “Trackback” box at the bottom. You can include the URLs you want to trackback there.
As for the image upload, I also had a problem during my installation. Maybe this discussion thread can help you.
May 6th, 2007
Hi
I know that where the option of trackback.
But i dont know that wht URL i should use there. And whts the meaning of Trackback. Can u give me a example.
May 7th, 2007
Gourav,
check if this helps you.
December 8th, 2007
Niranjan, are you assisting with installation with the MU?
Can you install into a subdomain?
Are the pic uploading issues mentioned within the posts here fixed?
Can you limit what is seen within the admin section? If so what can be elimated?
Can you add plugins/themes?
Can we talk?
December 9th, 2007
Hi Pazman,
I’ve outlined the basic installation steps in the post and if you have any specific questions, either other readers or I’ll try to help. wp mu forum is other good place to go for help.
Yes, you can install wpmu in subdomain. I didn’t follow up with the pic uploading issues but I think it’s fixed because I’ve seen other sites using the feature. I’m not sure about the admin section limitation but the plugins/themes should be ok.
Sure, we can talk. You can send me email via contact me
November 12th, 2008
I was trying to install it on my internal IP but it gave me some error.
Not sure how to fix it.
Can I install WPMU on shared hosting account?
December 6th, 2008
Install WPMU with Controlpanel 11 is easy. Try this …
If your hosting work with subdomain unlimited and Control Panel 11 your hosting is ready and no need anything again to install WPMU.
Try this:
from Controlpanel 11 create subdomain * (This is asterix, your subdomain like *.yourdomain.com)
Install WPMU and create database.
Chmod public_html and wpcontent and .htaccess to 777
continue install WPMU.
Finish.
WPMU work 100%. Try my test page (only for test) at http://iklani.co.cc
May 18th, 2009
It is very. It is very user friendly to use, thank u for this.
July 8th, 2009
Wow great post man, thanks for the information.
July 8th, 2009
I’m glad that you find it useful.
January 11th, 2010
Hey, I found your blog in a new directory of blogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, anyway cool blog, I bookmarked you.
I’m Out!
Trackbacks