wordpress-mu – Page 2 – Something Odd!

WordPress MU Domain Mapping 0.5

WordPress MU Domain Mapping is a plugin that allows the users of a WordPress MU site to use custom domains on their blogs.

It’s been a while since the last release but with the help of Ron Rennick, and many others (kgraeme – you kick ass at finding bugs!) I think the wait has been worth it. Changes since the last release:

Works in VHOST or folder based installs now.
Remote login added.
Admin backend redirects to mapped domain by default but can redirect to original blog url.
Domain redirect can be 301 or 302.
List multiple mapped domains on site admin blogs page if mapped
Bug fixes: set blogid of the current site’s main blog in $currentsite
Bug fixes: cache domain maps correctly, blogid, not blog_id in $wpdb.
and lots more bugs fixed and squashed.

There are still a few limitations however:

Your WordPress MU site should be installed in the root of your server.
It’s not possible to map a path on the new domain.
You cannot map a domain on to the main blog in a folder install of WordPress MU.

Grab it from the page above, make sure you read the readme.txt as the plugin needs to be installed and configured correctly. You’ll also need to be familiar with concepts such as CNAME and A DNS records and how to configure your server correctly.

Please try it first on a test server. We have gone to extraordinary lengths to try to fix every bug we could but it’s always better to be careful when trying out new software.

WordPress MU 2.8.6

WordPress MU 2.8.6 has just been released and may be downloaded immediately.

This is a security release with the same fixes as WordPress 2.8.6 plus quite a few MU specific bug fixes too.

Please upgrade as soon as you can.

WordPress MU 2.8.5.1

Update! WordPress MU 2.8.5.2 has a tiny fix for a post publish bug. You can download it from the usual place.

WordPress MU 2.8.5.1 has just been released and may be downloaded immediately.

This is a security and bugfix release and a recommended upgrade for every WordPress MU site. What happened to 2.8.5? I had it tagged and ready for release when Luke reported a little problem. It wasn’t possible to edit blogs! It was an easy bug to fix but code had been tagged and zip/tarball archives created so I had to create new ones. Thanks Luke! Saved the day. 🙂

Thanks to everyone else who contributed and helped in any way during the making of this release. Your help is invaluable.

This release also fixes a problem with slashes in blog and site options. You’ll be prompted to run the site upgrader. Please run it on all your blogs. For a more comprehensive look at what has changed recently, take a look at the Trac Timeline.

WordPress MU 2.8.4

WordPress MU is a multi user or multi blog version of WordPress that is used to run sites like WordPress.com.

Today’s WordPress MU release is 2.8.4, a security release that fixes an annoying bug that allowed any user to reset the admin password. Your password was never at risk however so it’s more an annoyance than anything else.

Oh, thanks to everyone who tested the exploit on my blog. See? You didn’t get my password! 😛

Upgrade automatically from within your dashboard (first fix the upgrader if you haven’t updated to 2.8.3 yet), or download the new release from the download page and upgrade manually, overwriting your current install with the new files.

Edit: James Collins noticed that line 164 of wp-login.php wasn’t merged properly. If you downloaded 2.8.4, please grab 2.8.4a. Thanks James for the prompt feedback!

WordPress MU 2.8.3

WordPress MU is a multi user or multi blog version of WordPress that is used to run sites like WordPress.com.

WordPress MU 2.8.3 is a security and bugfix release based on the fixes in WordPress 2.8.3 but also contains many other changes.

It’s a required upgrade for security reasons but also fixes a number of annoying bugs, especially #1067 and #1076.

Unfortunately the automatic upgrader in MU 2.8.2 is broken but it’s simple to fix:

Before upgrading, edit wp-admin/includes/class-wp-upgrader.php and look for line 697.

if ( !$wp_filesystem->copy($working_dir . ‘/wordpress/wp-admin/includes/update-core.php’, $wp_dir . ‘wp-admin/includes/update-core.php’, true) ) {
See the “/wordpress/wp-admin/includes” bit? Change that to “/wordpress-mu/wp-admin/includes”:

if ( !$wp_filesystem->copy($working_dir . ‘/wordpress-mu/wp-admin/includes/update-core.php’, $wp_dir . ‘wp-admin/includes/update-core.php’, true) ) {
Save the file and auto upgrade. I upgraded this afternoon without a hitch after making that change. It’s fixed in 2.8.3 so it’s the last time you’ll have to do it.

Do not copy and paste the line above as WordPress will have changed the quotes to “smart quotes”. Actually go in and type “-mu” after “wordpress”. No copy and pasting please!

If auto upgrading still doesn’t work, don’t sweat it. Download the new release from the download page and upgrade manually, overwriting your current install with the new files.

WordPress MU 2.8.2

WordPress MU 2.8.2 has just been released. This is a security release with the same fix as the standalone WordPress.

WordPress 2.8.2 fixes an XSS vulnerability. Comment author URLs were not fully sanitized when displayed in the admin. This could be exploited to redirect you away from the admin to another site.

This release also fixes a number of other bugs, most notably the upgrade notice, but also fixes a number of other problems. See the timeline for a record of the latest activity.

Grab the new release from the download page or upgrade automatically from within WordPress MU.

Worldwide Photowalk on MU

For all you photographers out there, did you know the Worldwide Photowalk takes place next Saturday? It’s a good chance to meet other photographers in your area. It was a pleasant surprise when I realised their website runs on WordPress MU! I’m leading the Cork City Walk (still a few places left!) on Saturday and it was nice when I recognised what it was running on.

So, if you’re free on Saturday, check out the listings page. There might be a photowalk near you!

PS. If you’re running WordPress MU, check out the alpha release of the new version. It fixes a number of bugs in the original 2.8.1 release. It’s very stable but try it out on a test server first.

WordPress MU 2.8.1

WordPress MU is a multi user or multi blog version of WordPress that is used to run sites like WordPress.com.

Just a day after WordPress 2.8.1 came out and here’s WordPress MU 2.8.1. The original WordPress announcement has plenty to say about this release, but what you need to know is this is a security update and a required upgrade.

This is the first MU 2.8.x release because of course there wasn’t a 2.8 one. Make sure you upgrade to stay up to date. The handy auto upgrade facility built in to the software should kick in but if not, go to the download page and grab the new zip file. Unzip over your current install and any database upgrades will take care of themselves when people login.

The WPMU Timeline is a good place to look to keep track of what has changed. Many bugs were squashed and features added.

WordPress MU 2.8.1 beta

WordPress MU is a multi user or multi blog version of WordPress that can be used to run sites like WordPress.com.

MU Admins! Please download and test wpmu-2.8.1-beta.zip on a test server! This is a beta release that is this <—> close to being final but it needs testing by the community.

It works fine on my test server but I haven’t been able to test every last thing to death. That’s where you come in. Download it, install it, login, look around. Notice anything broken? That’s what Trac is for. Verify you can repeat the problem, open a ticket and describe how the problem can be reproduced. Well done. You’ve just contributed to a Free Software project. 🙂

PS. I know there are two “My Blogs” links in the beta. That was fixed 2 days ago. Grab the zip file from the end of this page to get the most up to date code.

WordPress MU Catchup: big merge, wpmudev goes gpl and MU support

Exciting times in the world of WordPress and WordPress MU. Last weekend’s announcement by Matt that WordPress MU would merge into WordPress caused a flurry of activity and questions on twitter and on blogs, most notably with speculation that WordPress.org would run on MU and by jeffr0 who asked me on IRC what was happening.

Basically, the thin layer of code that allows WordPress MU to host multiple WordPress blogs will be merged into WordPress. I expect the WordPress MU project itself will come to an end because it won’t be needed any more (which saddens me), but on the other hand many more people will be working on that very same MU code which means more features and more bugfixes and faster too. It also means no more marathon code merging sessions. I certainly won’t miss that.

Meanwhile in the real world, there’s more merging to be done. WordPress 2.8 is expected next Wednesday and it has introduced fancy new stuff I haven’t finished fixing yet in WordPress MU. Expect an MU 2.8 beta sometime next week I hope.

In what I first thought was fabulous news, James Farmer has announced that WPMU DEV Premium has been relaunched. The site offered premium support for WordPress MU for a very long time. It also sold proprietary plugins which I’ve never agreed with (because of the conflict with WordPress) but now all plugins are GPL licensed.
Then I found out that you need to signup and pay a subscription fee to download them. I’m conflicted about it, because if I’m honest, while they’re sticking to the letter of the GPL, the spirit may be lacking.
So, should you signup there for a month, download all their plugins and upload them to WordPress.org? It’s tempting isn’t it? But no, you shouldn’t. This is real income for James, Andrew and company. If their plugins are uploaded elsewhere will they be updated? Will you signup for another month and grab them all again and upload each and every one to separate Subversion repositories? Will you provide support when things go wrong? I didn’t think so.
If it really bothers you that GPLed plugins are not available “free as in beer” then write your own and support it. It’s not something to be done lightly.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

(GNU GPL v2.0)

Of course, WPMU DEV aren’t the only MU support people in town. Check out Ron & Andrea’s musupport.net and of course I recommend the Automattic Support Network where you’ll find me and the rest of Automattic.