Multisite wp in education wc philly2011

Multisite WP in Education

Implementing Wordpress MultiSite at Temple University through

crowdsourcing

Speakers

• Paul Muller, Senior Technical Support• Paul Paire, Exec Director Special Projects• Sheri Stahler, AVP for Computer Services

About Temple

39,000

9 5,000

How things were

• Home grown web pages– No standards/policies– Difficult for the standard user to create/update– Static Web

• Google Sites– Not on a ‘temple.edu’ domain– Limited functionality/restricted features

What we needed

• Easy to use• Policies• LDAP authentication• Moderation of comments• Target audience

– Faculty– Staff

Why Crowdsourcing?

• Beyond the buzzword• Quicker with help• Play to people’s strengths• Different points of view

What we created

http://sites.temple.edu

Any problems?

wp-includes/wp-db.php• Change mysql_connect() to

mysql_pconnect()• Added a one time check to see if the

connection is established, if not try one more timeif ( !$this->dbh ) { if ( WP_DEBUG ) { $this->dbh = mysql_pconnect( $this->dbhost, $this->dbuser, $this->dbpassword, true ); } else { $this->dbh = @mysql_pconnect( $this->dbhost, $this->dbuser, $this->dbpassword, true ); }

Alternate solution

HyperDB• HyperDB is an advanced database class

that supports replication, failover, load balancing, and partitioning.

User Management

• LDAP Integration– Automatically add users when they login

• Site administrators add users from our LDAP, or existing users

• Read-only if not affiliated with Temple

Plugins

• Not all users should have access to all plugins

• Some plugins are site specific

Challenges of Control

• All comments must be moderated• Users cannot change their passwords

through profile, or standard WP process• Temple Branding on Personal Sites?• Sign up process changed significantly

Customized Plugins

• More Privacy Options• Site Creation Wizard• Sidebar login• Superb Slideshow Gallery• LDAP • Custom plugin to avoid hacking core

Accessibility

• Themes (i.e. Search boxes)• Plugins (i.e. Alt-Tags for images)• Wordpress core (i.e. Login forms)• User education (i.e. closed captioning for

embedded videos)

Governance

• Request process for Plugins/Themes• Policies• Central Advisory Group

Bonus slides

Plugins available to all end users• amr events calendar or lists with ical files• Authors Widget• Blubrry PowerPress• Collapsing Categories• FD Feedburner Plugin• FeedWordPress• Galleria Galleria• Google Calendar Events• Gravity Forms• Importers (Wordpress, Blogger, etc.)• LaTex for Wordpress• Members• My Category Order• Peter’s Collaboration Emails• Sidebar Login• Sociable• WordPress SEO

Plugins we use (but not the public)• Exploit Scanner• Health Check• Login Logo• More Privacy Options• Restrict MultiSite Plugins• Simple LDAP Login • Site Creation Wizard• Superb slideshow gallery• Theme Info• Plugin Stats• WP Touch• YD WPMU Bloglist Widget• Custom written plugins (to avoid hacking core)

Functions of custom written plugin• Replace Add User functions with Add LDAP User• Users cannot change password in profile• Password change requests go to our site• Hide Simple LDAP settings from site administrators• Site Admins cannot enable unmoderated or

unauthenticated comments• Encode variables being passed through wp-login.php to

wp-signup.php• Change ‘username’ to ‘AccessNet username’ on wp-

login.php• Change styling & wording for the wp-signup.php steps