Steps To Setup WordPress Multisite Network

• June 3, 2015
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WordPress multisite network will help managing several sites under a single installation of WordPress. Each site has its own sub-domain (i.e. subdomain.example.com) or sub directory (i.e. www.example.com/subdirectory). We can also use domain mapping for each site to create its unique domain name (i.e. www.subsite.com ). WordPress has the ability to create a network of websites which share same WordPress resources such as plugins, themes and database. Although each site has its own set of tables within the database. There are no separate directories for individual website on the network, but they could have separate media upload folders within the shared installation directory.

Steps to setup WordPress Multisite Environment:

1. Backup the database because WP website will be updated
2. Make sure the site is using pretty permalinks. To ensure it, check the following:
   WP ADMIN > Settings > Permalinks
3. Allow multisite within the WordPress configuration file. Open wp-config.php , just below the line /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */ add the following:
   
   define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

   1	define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

4. Refresh the browser window so that you can see a new menu under WP ADMIN > Tools > Network Setup. You need to choose among Sub Directory or Sub Domain install, a network title and a network admin email for the network setup.
5. Enable the network by updating the .HTACCESS and wp-config.php file. For this:

• Add the following code to wp-config.php, just before /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */:
  
  define('MULTISITE', true); define('SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false); define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'localhost'); define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/wpmultisite/'); define('SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1); define('BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1);

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  define('MULTISITE', true); define('SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false); define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'localhost'); define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/wpmultisite/'); define('SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1); define('BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1);

• Add the following code to .HTACCESS replacing the content of the file:
  
  RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /wpmultisite/ RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L] # add a trailing slash to /wp-admin RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d RewriteRule ^ - [L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*.php)$ $2 [L] RewriteRule . index.php [L]

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  RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /wpmultisite/ RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]   # add a trailing slash to /wp-admin RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d RewriteRule ^ - [L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*.php)$ $2 [L] RewriteRule . index.php [L]

Now the WordPress multisite network is ready to use. You can add as many websites as you want to on this enabled network.