WordPress Multisite Setup Tutorial with Screenshots (Including Pseudo-static Rules)

WordPress Multisite, Naiba has heard about it many times, recently researchingNaiba's Theme DEMOWhen building this site, the multisite feature was used, so here we record and share the specific steps and methods for setting up WordPress Multisite. For areas not covered in this article, you can refer tothe official documentation.。

Introduction to WordPress Multisite

Typically, when we build a WordPress site, the conventional steps are: add a virtual host, bind a domain, upload the installation package, create a database, install WordPress. For WordPress Multisite (subdirectory mode), it only requires: enabling multisite mode, adding a new site. For subdomain mode multisite, there should be an additional domain binding step. This is also faster than the conventional installation method, suitable for those who need to create multiple sites at once. These multisites share the main site's database, theme files, and plugin files. Any resources available on the main site can be used directly by the subsites, eliminating the hassle of repeatedly installing themes and plugins. At the same time, user data across multisites is interconnected, and upgrades only require upgrading the main site, after which other subsites are automatically upgraded.

WordPress Multisite Setup Tutorial

This article was completed based on WordPress 5.2.

First, add this line of code to the WordPress site configuration file wp-config.php for the site where you want to enable multisite.

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

Add the code on the line above the comment /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */. Then refresh the website admin dashboard, and an option to configure the network will appear, as shown in the image below.

You can choose between subdomains and subdirectories, select according to your needs.

Subdomain means one website corresponds to one domain. Naiba hasn't tested the subdomain form. Also, if you want to bind other domains, you canrefer to this tutorial. Subdirectory is in the form of a folder appended to the current domain, for example, Naiba's Theme DEMO uses a subdirectory to demonstrate each theme. After installation, you need to copy the following code and add it to the configuration file wp-config.php. Add it on the line below the code added earlier.Refresh the WordPress admin dashboard again, and the Sites option will appear.WordPressThe pseudo-static rules for Nginx for multisite are not provided here; only Apache rules are given. Naiba will share the Nginx pseudo-static rules later.To add a new site, fill in the corresponding information and add it. If you have plugins enabled, you need to manually deactivate all plugins first.

WordPress Multisite Nginx Pseudo-Static Rules

After adding, when we visit the newly added subsite, we will find the webpage layout is misaligned. This is because the pseudo-static rules haven't been added yet. We just need to add the pseudo-static rules.Currently, the WordPress Multisite Nginx pseudo-static rule Naiba uses is the following one.

# wordpress固定链接设置
  try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;

  # 管理面板添加斜杠
  rewrite /wp-admin$ $scheme://$host$uri/ permanent;

  # 传递上传文件给 wp-includes/ms-files.php
  rewrite /files/$ /index.php last;

  # 重写多站点 '.../wp-.*' and '.../*.php'.
  if (!-e $request_filename) {
    rewrite ^/[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+(/wp-.*) $1 last;
    rewrite ^/[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+.*(/wp-admin/.*\.php)$ $1 last;
    rewrite ^/[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+(/.*\.php)$ $1 last;
  }

Another rule

#ignored: “-” thing used or unknown variable in regex/rew
rewrite ^/([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ /$1wp-admin/ permanent;
if (-f $request_filename){
set $rule_2 1;
}
if (-d $request_filename){
set $rule_2 1;
}
if ($rule_2 = "1"){
#ignored: “-” thing used or unknown variable in regex/rew
}
rewrite ^/([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) /$2 last;
rewrite ^/([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*.php)$ /$2 last;
rewrite /. /index.php last;