Re: Wordpress Multiple Blog Configuration

From: Chris Purves (chris.purves_at_gmail.com)
Date: 09/29/05

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    Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:38:28 +0800
To: Debian User Mailing List <debian-user@lists.debian.org>

    On 20/08/05, Chris Purves <chris.purves@gmail.com> wrote:
    > Hi,
    >
    > I just installed Wordpress and got it running. In the README.Debian
    > file there's a mention that the Debian configuration can support
    > multiple blogs, but no instructions as how to accomplish that.
    >
    > From README.Debian:
    >
    > >>>
    >
    > #### A little more about the (multiple blog) configuration
    >
    > The default wp-config.php searches for a (mysql) configuration filename based
    > on the blog's host. This allows you to host more than one blog on a Debian
    > system.
    >
    > <<<
    >
    > The little more is all there is as far as I can tell. Any help would
    > be appreciated. Perhaps I would be better off with the multiuser
    > edition (not presently in Debian archive)?
    >
    > Thanks.

    Okay, I got it working. Here is what I did:

    Apache2 setup:

    I renamed /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default to 002-default,
    commented out the NameVirtualHost line and changed the <VirtualHost *>
    line to <VirtualHost *:80>. I also added a line "ServerName
    www.mysite.com". First few lines:

    #NameVirtualHost *
    <VirtualHost *:80>
            ServerName www.mysite.com
            ServerAlias mysite.com

            ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost...

    Then I added a file /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/001-wordpress (taken
    from /usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/apache.conf), containing

    NameVirtualHost *:80

    <VirtualHost *:80>
            UseCanonicalName Off
            VirtualDocumentRoot /srv/www/%0
            Options All

            <Directory />
               Options FollowSymLinks
               AllowOverride All
            </Directory>

    </VirtualHost>

    Then I made sure the vhost_alias.load was included in mods-enabled.
    This allowed the site to work as before at www.mysite.com (and
    mysite.com), but anything of the form something.mysite.com would be
    handled by the 001-wordpress file. For each blog I create a softlink
    at /srv/www pointing to /usr/share/wordpress.

    MySQL:

    The /usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/setup-mysql script was okay, but
    it created a new database for every user. I decided that I wanted to
    have only one database with different table name prefixes. What I
    ended up doing was running the scipt once to create the initial
    database, then deleting all the tables and and modifying the config
    file created by the script.
    /etc/wordpress/config-person1.mysite.com.php looks like this:

    <?php
    define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
    define('DB_USER', 'wordpress');
    define('DB_PASSWORD', 'ak2k3WE');
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

    $table_prefix = 'wp_person1_';

    $server = DB_HOST;
    $loginsql = DB_USER;
    $passsql = DB_PASSWORD;
    $base = DB_NAME;
    ?>

    When I want to add a new user I need only create a new link in
    /srv/www, for example /srv/www/person2.mysite.com to point to
    /usr/share/wordpress, then copy config-person1.mysite.com.php to
    config-person2.mysite.com.php and change $table_prefix from
    wp_person1_ to wp_person2_.

    Final Considerations:

    Now I have a setup that allows me to create a new blog by simply
    adding a softlink and copying a file and changing a single parameter.
    I don't have to restart apache or run any scripts and I don't have to
    worry about an endless number of databases being created.

    Problems: having one database may be a bit of a security risk and
    also if the database is corrupted, it will affect all users, not just
    one. This is acceptable for me, as I plan to have frequent backups of
    the file.

    Also, allowing uploading is a bit of a problem. I can set up each
    user to point to a different place on the server to store their files,
    but if they know the location of someone elses files, they could
    change their settings and gain access. I don't see this as a big
    problem, but it's still something I would prefer to do without. 

    --
Take care, eh.
Chris
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