cdvrooman

Then Ipstenu suggested the post be reopened in Multisite since that is now up and running and here were are.

I posted the following:

Hello,
I’m using WPMU 3.0.3, BP 1.2.7 & s2Member in multi-blog mode with open registration & blog creation.
Ok… I disabled Akismet, and then moved it to the wp-content/mu-plugins directory and now it’s not appearing in my plugin list.

Seven questions:

1. In my case, I had already configured Akismet with my “Akismet API Key”, but if I had installed it directly into /mu-plugins and then not have seen it on the plugins page, how would I have entered the API Key?

2. Now is everybody using *my* Akismet installation based on my API Key?? Previously I had “Network Activated” Akismet. then I added a new test account (with blog) as a sub-domain. When I logged in as the account owner and went to the Plugins page of the Admin, Akismet was asking me to enter an API Key (which is actually something I don’t want to make each new account owner go through; transparency is important).

3. Let’s say in general I’m using Plugin X which has a couple of configuration settings. If the plugin is in mu-plugins and I need to upgrade the plugin and tweak its configuration, what is the best procedure for going about that?
For example:
a. move/rename plugin in /mu-plugins
b. install latest version in /plugins
c. activate
d. configure settings
e. deactivate
f. move to /mu-plugins

4. What happens when I have the same plugin installed in *both* /plugins and /mu-plugins? Which takes precedence? What if one version is newer than the other?

5. If a plugin in mu-plugins/ doesn’t show up even in the master site’s plugins list, how do I know it is actually working (for example, Akismet shows a list of working servers on their site under Settings).

6. When upgrading WordPress, one step is to deactivate all plugins. What about mu-plugins… how are they deactivated.

7. I found this link, http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/4163/how-is-network-activate-different-from-activate-by-implementation

Where the accepted answer is this:
“Network activation will activate a plug-in for every site in a network whereas regular activation will only activate a plug-in for the site you’re currently on. As far as implementation goes, there is one other important difference:

If your plug-in is built to do something when it’s activated (via register_activation_hook()), this will fire automatically when you activate a plug-in normally, but it will not fire for a network-activated plug-in until you visit the admin screen for each blog.

So if major database updates are tied in to register_activation_hook() they won’t occur until you log in to the other sites.”

What about mu-plugins? How do they relate to the firing of register_activation_hook()?

Thanks,
Christopher.

ironclad pointed out this plugin, http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/exclude-plugins/ for making plugins in the /plugins directory that have been Network Activated remain hidden from site admin users.

Two additional side notes about the Exclude-Plugins plugin:

1. You can configure newly installed plugins to automatically be excluded from user site admins; a nice feature to keep them from playing with a plugin you just installed and want to configure a certain way.

2. You have the possibility to “Force Deactivate” plugins that were originally visible to the user site admins, i.e. not excluded, that you have since excluded using the plugin. However, since those plugins will ‘no longer exist’ for the site admins, they won’t be able to deactivate them. This is the work around to deactivate all plugins that have been excluded.

Finally, a personal note. Be carefull using Exclude Plugins and “Force Deactivate” with the s2Member plugin or you could lose that important functionality very easily.

justbishop, Ruben.cc & Andrea_r worked out that the BuddyPress plugin should go in the /plugins directory and should be “Network Activated”. In fact, Andrea_r pointed out that just “Activating” BuddyPress will still cause it to automatically “Network Activate” itself no matter what.

Additionally, althouh BuddyPress is Network Activated, it will remain hidden from user site Admins.

Ipstenu,
Ok… I looked in /wp-config.php, but there was no mention of the WP_DEFAULT_THEME. But I did find this in /wp-includes/default-constants.php:

if ( !defined('WP_DEFAULT_THEME') )
		define( 'WP_DEFAULT_THEME', 'twentyten' );

When I look in /wp-content/themes/ the only directory is ‘twentyten’; however, I’m running BuddyPress 1.2.7 and I specified the default BP theme after enabling the BP plugin. When I look in wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/ , ‘bp-default’ is the only theme directory.

So… what should I do as a best practice? Do I create a symbolic link in the /wp-content/themes directory to bp-themes/bp-default, do an outright copy of the /bp-default directory to /wp-content/themes or something else?

Sincerely,
Christopher.

Ipstenu,
Where would I enable that? Is that the only way a sub-domain will be created automatically?

Is it possible to permit the creation of the sub-domain, but never allow the addition of users or other blogs to that account?

Bascially, I want to have open/paid registration that entitles everybody to have a sub-domain that is created on account creation.

If a new blog on account creation is not necessary, can I still enable other plugins without enabling a personal blog?

Thanks.