When you first enable WordPress Multisite you may be surprised to find that the network management tools are fairly minimal. The purpose is to provide the basics and let networks add more management capabilities depending on your site’s needs.
If you’re a Multisite super admin, you’re sure to find a few new tools for your toolbox among these plugins. All of them have been newly added to the WordPress repository this month.
Dashboard Switcher
The Dashboard Switcher plugin adds a dropdown list of the sites owned within a network. This will enable you to quickly switch between them. Grab this plugin to save yourself a few clicks when managing sites in your network.
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Restrict Password Changes Multisite
This is a plugin for WordPress Multisite networks that restricts user password changes and/or resets to super admin users only. It comes in handy when user creation and authentication are handled from an external application, in which case user passwords should only be changed on one system.
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Google News Sitemap With Multisite Support
This plugin dynamically generates a feed that complies with the Google News Sitemap protocol. Install the plugin and the sitemap will be instantly available. It’s also compatible with commonly used caching plugins such as Super Cache, W3 Total Cache and Quick Cache.
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Superadmin plugin
The Superadmin plugin attempts to protect the superadmin (userid 1) against attempts to edit or delete this user. This one still needs some testing, so don’t install it as your only protection.
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Block Spam by Math Reloaded
Block by Math Reloaded is a new plugin that adds a simple math question to spam-vulnerable areas on your site. It protects registration, login and comment forms and is compatible with WordPress single user, Multisite and BuddyPress. If your site is letting a lot of splogs through, give this plugin a try.
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Network Blog Manager
This is one plugin I’d recommend as an addition to any WordPress Multisite network as it helps you easily find blogs on your network with its internal search engine. It also offers you an overview of posts, pages, and comments for each site as well as quick access to the site admin.
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Drupal to WP XML-RPC
This plugin adds some Multisite-specific functions to the WordPress XML-RPC interface. If you’re using the Drupal to WP module to bring your content into WordPress, this plugin is required to complete the process.
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Networks for WordPress
This plugin adds a networks panel for network admins to create and manage multiple networks from one WordPress installation. Each Network can exist on its own domain, and have its own set of blogs / sites, its own set of plugins, themes, administrators, permissions, and policies, but all will share a database of user accounts. Sites can be moved among networks, but for now this will require some manual file changes.
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Admin Bar Minimiser
This plugin gives you an easy way to minimize the new WP 3.1 admin bar with one click. It keeps the admin bar active but less obtrusive, and the best part is that it’s fully Multisite compatible.
Thanks a ton learning about WPMU so that i can easily get started with it.
Do you have any starter guide?? a help from your help would be a great favor for me
Vivek – We have a lot of articles on our site about customizing it if you search for Multisite. Also, there is a getting started guide her: http://premium.wpmudev.org/wpmu-and-buddypress-installation/
Sarah,
Nice article. How about a list of plugins and themes for the main WordPress Multisite blog which does a good job displaying and aggregating the content from the other blogs on the network.
For example, I’ve heard wordpress-mu-sitewide-tags is good.
“Admin Bar Minimiser” looks absolutely terrible. Install “Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu” instead if you want something like that.
Hi,
The latest version of Tallyopia includes a live monitor that lets you watch visitors across all of your sites at the same time, in addition to the standard reports for each site. It’s a lot of fun to watch hits coming in across your network :) We will also be rolling out more multisite friendly reports in upcoming releases so that you can compare traffic and trends across the sites you manage.
More info and details about the plans offered (we have free and paid plans) on our website http://tallyopia.com
Note – this is posted by Tallyopia.com, hope you don’t mind the plug.
Is there a plugin that I can use where it disallow users from accessing the dashboard?
I have a membership plugin installed but if they will login they can check the dashboard and I dont want that..
Regards,
Patrick