wordpress — Product Management UX/UI & Interacion Blog — Frank derFrankie Neulichedl

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Wordpress MultiSite on Google App Engine PHP Beta

I'm experimenting with Google App Engine PHP Beta to host Wordpress installs. As expected there are some hickups but they are trying hard to make it as easy as possible. With some great plugins etc. The next step for me is obviously to try to make a MultiSite install - and I succeeded. The main challenge is that you need a separate configuration for the local install and the remote one. Here are the steps for a succesful Wordpress Multi-Site install.

Note: This article is in flux and I will update it as soon as I find out more - so come back of follow me on Twitter @derFrankie or Google+ to get updated.

Prerequisites: Having a working wordpress install locally and on GAE following instructions https://developers.google.com/appengine/articles/wordpress

Basic setup

1. Enable Network Support

Edit wp-config.php and include

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

above /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

2. Deploy your install to GAE 3. Create a local network

  •  Login to your local Wordpress Dashboard and disable all plugins.
  •  Then go to /Tools/Network and create a Network
  •  It will tell you that you can only use folders and that you need to copy some information
  •  Create the .htaccess file and forget about the rest (I give you the tight config later on)
  •  Go to the next step

4. Create a network on GAE

* Login to your Wordpress Dashboard on Google App Engine and disable all plugins * Then go to /Tools/Network and create a Network * Choose Folders as install method * Go to the next step

5. Edit Configuration to work locally and on GAE Open your local wp-config.php and enter the following lines above /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

Don't forget to insert YOUR_PROJECT_ID

if(isset($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE']) && strpos($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'],'Google App Engine') !== false) { define('MULTISITE', true); define('SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false); define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'wp-dot-YOUR_PROJECT_ID.appspot.com'); define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/'); define('SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1); define('BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1); }else{ define('MULTISITE', true); define('SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false); define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'localhost'); define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/'); define('SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1); define('BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1); }

5. Deploy to GAE 

You can now login to both installs and re-enable the plugins if you like and create sites etc. But the sites won't work completely as yet-

Make Sites accessible

Now we want to add additional sites and therefore we need a couple of additional settings.

1. Add some handlers to app.yaml

You need to add these handlers above the other ones

- url: /wp-admin/network/(.+) script: wordpress/wp-admin/network/\1 secure: always

- url: /wp-admin/network/ script: wordpress/wp-admin/network/index.php secure: always - url: /([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*\.(htm.*$|html.*$|css.*$|js.*$|ico.*$|jpg.*$|png.*$|gif.*$)) static_files: wordpress/\2 upload: wordpress/([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*\.(htm.*$|html.*$|css.*$|js.*$|ico.*$|jpg.*$|png.*$|gif.*$)) application_readable: true

2. Add additional handlers for every site you add

- url: /YOURFOLDER/wp-admin/(.+) script: wordpress/wp-admin/\1 secure: always

- url: /YOURFOLDER/wp-admin/ script: wordpress/wp-admin/index.php secure: always

3. Ignore local wp-content/uploads

I use the local installation to test out the whole system  - so I have local assets uploaded that don't need to get deployed. To ignore those files add these lines at the end of app.yaml

skip_files: - wordpress/wp-content/uploads/.*

UPDATE July 9th.: Added url handlers to gain access to the admin section for sub-sites UPDATE July 10th: Fixed access to Admin Pages - works now normally

 

E-Book on Wordpress Multi Site Installation

I would have loved to have this guide when I started moving all the sites I own to one single installation. Not just download, but donate a small amount ) "Setting up Multisite requires just a little more savvy, and the information is all over the place. This ebook strives to pull it all together, explain you what skills you need to get started, and move you to the next step: running your own Network."

#wordpress #multisite #ebooks

Embedded Link

WordPress Multisite 101 - Ipstenu on Tech If you only knew how many times Andrea and I sat and complained “There should be an (updated) ebook!” you'd wonder why it took us so long. Setting up a new WordPress install is pretty easy. Settin...

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Google Authorship - Must have Wordpress Plugin

I've tried a couple of the plugins out there which help you to get your picture next to your articles in Google Search results. To be honest, they don't really work - especially if you have multiple authors. So I kept hacking around - this plugin might be the right answer.

#wordpress #plugin #google #seo

Reshared post from +Fraser Cain

Google Authorship Wordpress Plugin

A few weeks ago I asked the community if anyone knew a way to implement Google's rel=author protocol for Wordpress sites with multiple authors. So, each different author of the blog would get their own little picture in the search results.

Since there didn't seem to be a plugin out there, we created one. This is really basic, but it does the trick. It works on single author blogs too, if you don't feel like hacking your themes to make that work.

Every writer will need to add their Google+ profile to their Wordpress user info, and then "claim" it here in Google+ profile as a "Contributor to".

Embedded Link

Announcing: Rel=Author Wordpress Plugin For Multiple Authors Have you noticed the pictures of authors beside Google search results? These Rich Snippets are displayed by the newly released rel=author tag supported by Google. In order to support this feature, you...

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Use Git to update your customized Wordpress Themes safely

Using Git to manage Theme Versions in Wordpress is a little bit geeky, but can help you a lot if you customize off the shelf (premium or free) themes. As good as these themes are to get a wordpress site up and running quickly, they also need some tweaking. Preserving these tweaks is not as easy. How can you keep track of sometimes multiple files you modified? Why not use a version control system that helps merging code bases. It let's you test out your tweaks, giving you a quick way back if you break something and it's the best tool to merge your changes into an updated version of the theme. Git is such a solution and it's fairly easy to use, once you pass the first hurdle of grasping the concept.

Git (and Github, the web service where you can host your git repositories) are subject in books and many articles on the web, so I leave that part out. In this little step my step I assume that you have Git installed on the web-server you host your Wordpress installation and have command line (ssh) access.

Setting up a theme with Git

  1. Install new theme with Wordpress Install as usually with the management tools provided by Wordpress  
  2. Create a new repository on the web-server SSH into the /wp-content/themes/ and create a new repository git init                         // create new repository git add .                        // add all files in folder git commit -m "original version" // commit with comment  
  3. Get ready for future updates git branch ready4update          // add new branch This will create a branch in which we will then copy the updated theme files when we need to update
  4. Make your modification to the themeNow you can make your changes to the theme as you like - you will continue to make changes to the master branch. You need to commit your changes to register them with git and I highly advise to use the workflow approach described in ProGit to make your work even more efficient. To commit your changes just enter git add .                                // add all files in folder git commit -m "Insert your comment here" // commit with comment  

Update the theme

Now comes the neat part. You have an updated theme and you need to merge it with your customized one. To do this we need to activate the branch we prepared in step 4.

  1. Install new theme files git checkout ready4update     // go to branch

    Now copy the updated theme files into the folder and overwrite everything and commit the changes to the ready4update branch.

    git add .                     // add all files in folder git commit -m "updated theme" // commit with comment  

  2. Get Master branch ready We go back to our master branch and make a temporary branch to have a save update. git checkout master          // go to master branch git checkout -b tempupdate   // create new temporary branch from master and change to it  
  3. Merge the update into the temporary branch And now we merge the two branches git merge ready4update       // merge with tempupdate

    The trick here is that the master and ready4update branch have the original theme as common ancestor. Git can merge this way the changes made by the author of the theme and yours - and if you have conflicts git will help you resolve them.  

  4. Test the website Since we have created a tempupdate branch we are working in, even if something brakes badly you can still go back to your previous stable master branch (git checkout master).  
  5. Merge into master and get ready for next update If the test went well and your wordpress site works well you should get ready for the next update git checkout master         // go to master branch git merge tempupdate        // merge the branch into master git branch -d tempupdate    // delete temporary branch git branch -d ready4update  // delete ready4update branch git branch ready4update     // create new ready4update branch  

Now you are ready to update your theme or make additional changes to it. Believe me - it looks more complicated then it actually is, so go ahead and try it.

How to avoid the "Lock in Effect" in Wordpress Themes and Plugins

How to avoid the "Lock in Effect" in Wordpress Themes and PluginsWordpress is a great open source platform ... but open might turn into closed by using certain plugins and themes that prevent you from moving on ... here is a good guide on what to look out for.

#wordpress #guide #themes

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Google+: View post on Google+About the “Lock in Effect” in WordPress Themes and Plugins The WordPress themes and plugins market is huge these days. With all that wide range of products available, we sometimes stumble into situations where we’d like to change our mind, i.e. use a different plugin or theme instead of the one we’re currently using. Eventually we figure out that it’s incredibly tough to replace some of the themes and plugins, because as soon as they’re deactivated, all (or part) of our data is lost, and the new theme or plugin that was supposed to replace the old on...