I absolutely prefer the Virtual Multiblog plugin above the WordPress MU version. In my opinion it should be integrated within the WP core!
Pro’s:
- Keep in line with the latest WP version without delay.
- Only have to maintain one copy of WP on your server.
- All plugins compatible with your WP version will work without any modifications.
- Option to put multiple blog into the same database or to put them into different databases. I use this to balance my daily database backups (cronjob).
- New blogs can be deployed almost on the fly. I only have to (1) create a subdomain, (2) delete the subdomain folder, (3) create the appropriate symlink before I can start setting up the blog. (Currently working on a interface to automate this with DirectAdmin API’s!)
- When upgrading/migrating to a completely new version of WP, you can simply prepare and test everything first before updating your symlinks (e.g. from wp23.domain.tld to wp25.domain.tld).
Cons:
- You need to understand how to deal with symlinks on your server and document it for yourself for future reference. I have had my test environment screwed up by removing a subdomain (with ‘remove content’ option selected) before removing the symlink, lesson learned not to do it like that anymore 😉
- When your WP installation or theme is broken than multiple blogs are impacted at once (same as with WordPress MU).
About what kind of limitations have you been reading?
That all sounds very promising – I’m not too up on ‘symlinks’ but I’m sure 30 minutes on Google would sort that!
When I talk about limitations – I’m refering to WordPress MU – like not all plugins work right?
I can’t wait to do a test install and give it a try, I presume each ‘blog’ doesn’t have to reside under the same domain – eg I could have a site at http://www.mysite1.com and another blog at mysite2.com rather than just using sub-domains? Probably a silly question, and one that would be answered if I could spend an hour with it!
This really sounds like an exciting development – but I doubt it will appear in the core as they like their WordPress MU! It sounds like a much more elegant solution for what I am looking for.
I realise all blogs run off the same WordPress install, but would it be possible to use custom files for certain blogs – take for example wp-login.php or modified tinyMCE configuration? I guess you might control this with .htaccess possibly? Then you could store custom files in the default location eg /custom/client1/extras – now that would make it the ULTIMATE soulution… any ideas?!
Anyone else using this plugin – how are you getting on with it (WordPress 2.5 compatibility ok?). I’m particularly interested in using custom files for certain sites, as mentioned at the end of the last comment.
Stephen just recently updated his plugin to be fully WP 2.5 compatible, as well as fix some minor security issues and other minor bugs. I love this plugin because it allows me to manage multiple independent wordpress installations off of one set of wordpress core files.
I will also add that I do not use symbolic links as I just point my various domains/subdomains to the directory on my server where the wordpress files are located. if you were looking to run http://www.domain.com/blog1 and http://www.domain.com/blog2 then you would need the symlinks, but if you want to do http://www.domain1.com and http://www.domain2.com, you don’t.
Cheers nprignano – I would be aiming to run this on independent domains (eg http://www.domain1.com and http://www.domain2.com) and this sounds really easy with this plugin!
I have recently found this exciting software but I haven’t noticed a difference – which means something isn’t working!
I have blog one as http://www.bojac.co.uk/blog and second as http://www.bojac.co.uk/blog/rcnblog but not sure how the VM works in that i have ser up the VUSERS etc and not sure what i should be seeing, anyone done this from scrath?
Is this really a plugin as in “ADD NEW” under the admin plugin menu? If so, I am not finding it.
