Multisite themes, widgets, and more

  • dave123678

    (@dave123678)


    13 years, 4 months ago

    All:

    I have recently installed multisite, and am in need of some guidance/advice…

    In short, I am trying to understand some (what I expect to be) simple concepts in terms of themes, widgets, etc.

    If I want specific items to show in each network site (ie ads) do I need to modify each theme available to place widgets in a certain place? And how do I ‘lock’ down a theme to either allow/disallow different widgets.

    Similarly, is there anything I should know before activiting a theme network-wide? My goal is to allow as much user flexibility/creativity as possible, but also to ensure that certain widgets/ads show up in similar places.

    Thanks for any advice and/or tutorials…

    Best,

    David

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • @mercime

    (@mercime)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    If I want specific items to show in each network site (ie ads) do I need to modify each theme available to place widgets in a certain place?

    Make sure that each one of your themes has the wp_header and wp_footer actions so you could use that to insert ads and corresponding styling.
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/ads
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/advertisements

    And how do I ‘lock’ down a theme to either allow/disallow different widgets.

    Via theme’s functions.php file

    Is there anything I should know before activating a theme network-wide?

    – Make sure that each theme has the wp_head and wp_footer actions in header.php and footer.php respectively
    – Make sure that the theme you’re going to upload to your server and activate does not have obfuscated code.
    – You can activate a theme sitewide via dashboard > Super Admin > Themes

    Andrea Rennick

    (@andrea_r)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    It sounds mostly that you want to be able to have ads that users of the network can;t remove.

    Use an ad plugin that uses hooks to place ads (like after content) and if you want them unremoveable from the sidebar… hardcode it in the theme.

    Thread Starter dave123678

    (@dave123678)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    Andrea and Mercime:

    Thanks for your feedback and replies.

    I think Andrea pretty much hit it on the head.

    I am guessing that the proper thing to do is to format each theme (and hard-code where necessary) before distributing to the user base.

    Correct?

    @mercime

    (@mercime)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    Correct. Also:
    – You might want to disable Theme Editor http://wpmututorials.com/plugins/disabling-the-plugintheme-editor-3-0/
    – Make sure there’s no obfuscated code that are not yours in the themes you upload to your server as well.

    Thread Starter dave123678

    (@dave123678)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    Thanks…I guess it is actually a little more difficult to administer a network…

    Andrea Rennick

    (@andrea_r)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    @mercime – admins of each site cannot edit themes. Why disable the editor? Only super admins have access to it anyway. Even tho we wrote the post, it still depends on your setup.

    @dave – yes, running a network for users IS a little more difficult.

    @mercime

    (@mercime)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    @andrea_r – I agree with security issues per Ron’s post. More importantly, disabling theme editor ensures that a lazy person like myself has a copy of all theme changes I make in my own hard drive 🙂

    Andrea Rennick

    (@andrea_r)

    13 years, 4 months ago

    Hee! 😀

    Actually, I usually forget its there as I got out of the habit of using it in the early MU days.

    (yeah Ron & I argue these finer points over dinner too 😛 )

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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