Marty Spellerberg

WordPress 3.0 Network Domain Name Mapping on MediaTemple

I’m really excited about the new Network feature in WordPress 3, which allows you to run many sites off the same install. I’m hoping this makes it easier to keep my friends’ sites up-to-date and malware free.

I installed WordPress at 0003.org and am running the second site kateschneider.net off of it. Here’s how:

1. Follow the standard WordPress installation instructions. Give some thought to where you want to put this, as you won’t want to change it later.

2. Follow the codex instructions to Create A Network. You have a choice between subfolders and subdomains; I went with subfolders. Subfolders turned out to be a problem for root-relative links in sites whose domains aren’t yet attached, so I re-started with subdomains.

3. Go ahead and add the second site using Super Admin -> Sites.

4. Next, follow Otto’s Domain Mapping plugin tutorial. I found you don’t need to use the “mu-plugins” folder, It turns out there is a good reason to use the mu-plugins folder and it stands not for “multiuser” but “Must Use”; but IMPORTANTLY, you DO need to use the trunk version rather than the standard version. It looks like they’ve updated the plug-in so now it’s cool.

5. Otto says that when it comes to mapping the domain, all hosts are different. MediaTemple users will want to follow the KB instructions for Pointing Multiple Domains to the Same Alternate Domain Folder. (In their example, “mt-example.com” would be the name of the domain where you’ve installed WordPress, and “alt-example.com” the second site.)

6. Finally, go back Super Admin -> Sites and Edit the second site. Under Site Info there’s a checkbox for “Update siteurl and home as well”; uncheck that. Then scroll down and update the Siteurl and Home fields with the proper domain name.

That’s it — one WordPress, two sites! I hope the instructions make sense; please let me know if they don’t.

Cheers!

Posted June 2010