WordPress.org

What's the catch?

• You need to edit a few core files if you want to get pingbacks at the new blogs. (See below.)
• Every plugin activated on the main blog is also activated on new blogs, unless (once again) you make a small change to a core file. (See below.)
• Edit/delete links on posts and comments won't work all of the time. It's possible to fix this by editing a few more core files.
• There may be difficulties with some plugins, but most should work. Some plugins which use their own database tables will need to be modified to install correctly.
• If you ever do a WordPress upgrade and run upgrade.php, you'll need to run upgrade-multiply.php as well.
• Trackbacks don't work without pretty URLs (i.e., if your permalinks look like http://example.com?p=34 you're out of luck) unless you make a few additional changes to core files. The easiest fix in most cases is to switch to pretty URLs.

What do I put in the new `index.php`?

The file should contain something like this:

<?php 
$mb_press_id = 1;
define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);
require('../wp-blog-header.php');
?>

... where $mb_press_id is whatever the press ID is, and you're requiring the relative path to wp-blog-header.php.

For example, if WordPress is installed at http://example.com/wp/ and you want a new press (ID, say, #4) at http://example.com/cats-are-super/, your http://example.com/cats-are-super/index.php file should contain this:

<?php 
$mb_press_id = 4;
define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);
require('../wp/wp-blog-header.php');
?>

If you're using .htaccess/mod_rewrite, you should generate a set of rules for each press, and (if the file isn't saved automatically) it should go in the same directory as the index.php you just made.

If you don't know the press ID, look under Manage->Presses.

How do I enable pingback?

First of all, you have to make two small changes to wp-blog-header.php. Search for "X-Pingback", and replace "get_bloginfo('pingback_url')" with "mb_get_pingback_url()". Please note that if you remove Multiply you will need to change this back.

If you're using .htaccess/mod_rewrite, you're done. Multiply adds special rewrite rules to handle pingbacks. If you're not, or you're not sure, there's one more step.

For each press you add, you need to add a file called xmlrpc-{$press_id}.php to the WordPress install directory, where "{$press_id}" is the ID of the press. Multiply will try and create this file automatically, but on many hosts you will need to do it yourself. The contents are similar to those of the index.php you already made. For example, xmlrpc-1.php would contain this:

<?php 
$mb_press_id = 1;
require('./xmlrpc.php');
?>

This should be placed in the WordPress install directory -- the one containing wp-blog-header.php, wp-login.php and the rest.

Can I post using W.Bloggar, Ecto or another XML-RPC client?

If you've used the pingback fix above, you can post to your blog using a rich client like W.Bloggar or Ecto by pointing it at (e.g.) xmlrpc-3.php instead of the normal xmlrpc.php.

How do I have separate plugins?

You can already have plugins on the alternate blogs that aren't on the main one, just not less. To keep them entirely separate, you need to make a very small change to wp-settings.php.

Search for the line that says:

if ('' != $plugin && file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-content/plugins/' . $plugin))

and change it to this:

if (!isset($mb_id) && '' != $plugin && file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-content/plugins/' . $plugin))

And you're done.