I haven’t had any experience with the WP_PLUGIN_DIR but I have heard good stuff about ManageWP (https://managewp.com). Moreover, I Googled around and found this InfiniteWP (http://infinitewp.com) which looks like it’ll do what your wanting to do as well. Finally, I also found MainWP (https://mainwp.com) which appears to update plugins on multiple standalone WordPress sites too. I guess the good news here is that if you do split up your multisite into individual sites you’ll not necessarily have to loose the ability to update all sites at one time. 🙂
Hope this helps!
Randy
Two more to list are WPRemote (https://wpremote.com) and iControlWP (https://www.icontrolwp.com). LOL, when I went searching just a bit ago all I was aware of was ManageWP being that we had discussed its use with one of our clients. That is, I had no idea there were so many remote control like WordPress plugins out there!
ManageWP is way too expensive. And I have used InfiniteWP. It’s nice and works pretty well, but you’re still keeping a dozen copies of plugins.
My biggest problem with InfiniteWP is that you can only have ONE account for management. So in a large company like mine, we’d all have to share the same login. Not ideal.
More importantly, for me.. I really need the ability to share the same source code for at least one plugin across all of the sites. I’m experimenting with that now using a SYMLINK in the plugins folders of all the sites. Seems to be working well, but if that works, I might as well try sharing a single plugin folder across all of the sites.
Ah, that makes sense. Our programmers use a service called Beanstalk (http://beanstalkapp.com) to share the same custom plugin source code across multiple sites. That might be worth looking into. I know the times I have used the service, to either update or regress a plugin build, it’s been super easy and quite bulletproof. 🙂
I’ve been thinking about using Github, but it’s kind of a hassle.
After talking it over with our IT manager (he’s a good sounding board, even if I just want to listen to myself talk) and I’ve decided against using WP_PLUGIN_DIR. Mostly because if I update a plugin on one site, it could temporarily take down one of the other sites during the replacement process. Unlike Multisite, there’s nothing to prevent all of the sites from allowing access while the plugin(s) are being updated.
Better to just manage each site’s plugins and themes separately using InfiniteWP and deal with sharing the same login (for now).
However, I am going to share our “common-core” plugin across all of the sites through a single folder using a SYMLINK. At least then I’m not having to deal with different versions of that one plugin.
I think our guys use Subversion rather than Git. And with the use of Beanstalk, LOL, mere mortal software testers such as I can work with it too. 🙂
Glad to hear you’ve got a good sounding board. Folks like that are vital to any successful operation.
Good luck with what you’re doing and do let us know how InfiniteWP and SYMLINK work out. 🙂
