As mentioned, the Network Admin Dashboard has its own set of unique menus separate from the regular Site Admin Dashboard. Those menus are located on the left side of the Network Admin Dashboard. This section goes through each menu item and provides you with explanations and instructions on how to work with the settings and configurations to help you manage your network, sites, and users.
The full list of menus available on the Network Admin Dashboard includes
All the items in the Network Admin Dashboard are important, and you will use them frequently throughout the life of your network. Normally, we would take you through each of the menu items in order so it's easy for you to follow along in your Dashboard; however, performing some preliminary configurations on your network before you do anything else is important. Therefore, the following section starts with the Settings menu and then takes you through the other menu items in order of appearance in the Network Admin Dashboard.
When you click the Settings menu link in the Network Admin Dashboard, the Settings page loads in your browser window. The Settings page contains several sections of options for you to configure to set up your network the way you want to.
The operational settings, shown in Figure 3-3, are Network Name and Network Admin Email:
The Registration Settings section (see Figure 3-4) allows you to control aspects of allowing users to sign up to your network. The most important option is whether to allow open registration.
From one of the following options, decide how you want registrations to be handled on your network:
These options apply only to outside users. As a network admin, you can create new sites and users any time you want by using the options in the Network Admin Dashboard. (See the information about creating new users in the upcoming “Users” section.)
The remaining options under the Registration Settings heading are as follows:
The New Site Settings section is a configurable list of items that populates default values when a new site is created. The list includes the values that display in welcome e-mails, on a user's first post page, and on a new site's first page, as shown in Figure 3-5.
A few variables you can use in this e-mail aren't explained entirely on the Site Options page, including
You can use this area to provide useful information about your site and services. This also serves as a nice guide for new users because they can view that post in their Dashboard, on the Edit Post page, to see how it was entered and formatted and then use that as a guide for creating their own blog posts. You can also use the variables mentioned in the bullet points in “Welcome Email” to have WordPress automatically add some information for you.
The Upload Settings section (see Figure 3-6) defines global values pertaining to the type of files you will allow the site owners within your network to upload using the file upload feature on the WordPress Write Posts and Write Page areas (see Book III, Chapter 4). The check boxes shown in the Media Upload Buttons under the Upload Settings section are deselected, by default. To give your network site owners the ability to upload files, place a check mark next to the name of each media type:
Enabling the file types will display the upload icons above the post box on the Write Page and Write Post pages in the users Dashboard (see Book III, Chapter 4 for information on uploading files). In some situations, you may decide to disallow certain file types, so disabling a file type removes that file type's icon from the post editor.
The next option in the Upload Settings section is Site Upload space. The amount is in megabytes (MB), and the default storage space is 10MB. This amount of hard drive space is what you give users to store the files they upload to their blogs. If you want to change the default storage space, type a number in the text box provided.
The Upload File Types text field defines the types of files that you, as the network admin, will allow site owners to upload to their sites in their Dashboard. Users cannot upload any file types that do not appear in this text box. By default, WordPress includes the following file types: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .mp3, .mov, .avi, .wmv, .midi, .mid, and .pdf. You can remove any default file types and add new ones.
The final option under Upload Settings defines the Max Upload file size. This amount is in kilobytes (K), and the default file size is 1500K. This means that a user cannot upload a file that is larger than 1500K. Adjust this number as you see fit by typing a new number in the text box provided.
The Plugins menu is disabled within the Dashboard of all network sites (except for the network admin's), as shown in Figure 3-7. However, the network admin always has access to the Plugins menu. If you leave this option unselected, the Plugins page will be visible to users on their own site dashboard. Place a check mark in the box to enable the Plugins menu for your network users. For more information about using plugins with WordPress, see Book VII.
When you have completely finished configuring the settings on the Network Settings page, do not forget to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page, underneath the final Menu Settings section (see Figure 3-7). If you navigate away from the Network Settings page without clicking the Save Changes button, none of your configurations will be saved, and you'll need to go through the entire process again.
Clicking the Sites menu item on the Network Admin Dashboard takes you to the Sites page where you can manage your individual sites. Although each site in the network has its own Dashboard for basic tasks, such as posting, changing themes, and so on, the Sites page is where you create and delete sites and make edits to properties of the sites within your network. Editing information from this page is handy when you have issues accessing a site's back-end Dashboard.
The Sites page also lists all the sites within your network. The listing shows the following statistics about each community site:
When you hover on the pathname of a site in your network, you see a handy listing of links that will help you manage the site. Figure 3-8 shows the options that appear beneath a site listing when you hover your mouse on a site name in the list.
The management options for network sites, shown in Figure 3-8, are as follows:
Generally, you only use the Edit Site page (refer to Figure 3-9) when the settings are unavailable from the Dashboard of that particular site, by configuring the options that appear underneath each of the four tabs on the Edit Sites page, as shown in Figure 3-9:
Also in the Sites menu in the Network Admin Dashboard, you see a link called Add New — click that link to load the Add New Site page in your Network Admin Dashboard (Figure 3-10). You can create a new site from the Add New Site page, as shown in Figure 3-10. Fill in the Site Address, Site Title, and Admin Email fields and then click the Add Site button to add the new site to your network. If the admin e-mail you enter is associated with an existing user, the new site is assigned to that user in your network. If the user doesn't exist, a new user is created and an e-mail is sent with a notification. The site is immediately accessible. The e-mail the user receives contains a link to their site, a login link and their username and password.
Clicking the Users menu link in the Network Admin Dashboard takes you to the Users page where you see a full listing of members, or users, within your network. The Users page (see Figure 3-11) lists the following information about each user:
Similar to the Sites page, you can add and delete users to the network, and manage users, by clicking the Edit or Delete links that appear under their names when you hover on them with your mouse (the same way you do with sites on the Sites page).
To delete a user, you simply hover over the username in the list that appears on the Users page. Click the Delete link and a new screen appears with a page telling you to transfer this user's posts and links to another user account (most likely, yours). Then click the Confirm Deletion button and WordPress removes the user from the network, permanently — this action is irreversible, so be certain about your decision before you click that button!
You can also edit a user's profile information by clicking the Edit link that appears when you hover your mouse on his name on the Users page. Clicking that link takes you to the Edit User page, shown in Figure 3-12, where you are presented with several options, which just happen to (mostly) be the very same options and setting that you configured for your own profile information back in Book III, Chapter 3.
The only difference with the Edit User page within the Network Admin Dashboard is the setting labeled Super Admin — deselected by default. However, if you select this box, you grant this user network admin privileges for your network. This means that the user has the exact same access and permission as you.
At the time of this writing, the terms super admin and network admin are interchangeable. When WordPress merged the WordPress MU code base with the regular WordPress software, the term they used to describe the network admin was super admin. Now, network admin is the standard term; however, areas within the Network Admin Dashboard and regular Dashboard still use Super Admin as a label. We will most likely see that change in the very near future because WordPress will realize the discrepancy and update later versions of the software.
Also in the Users menu in the Network Admin Dashboard, you see a link called Add New — click that link to load the Add New User page in your Network Admin Dashboard (Figure 3-13).
You can add a new user from the Add New User page, by filling in the username and e-mail of the user you want to add and then clicking the Add User button. The new user is sent an e-mail notification alerting them of the new account, along with the site URL, their username and password (randomly generated by WordPress at the time the user account is created).
When a network is enabled, only users with network admin access have permission to install themes, which are shared across the network. You can review details on how to find, install, and activate new themes with your WordPress installation in Book VI, Chapters 1 and 2. After you install a theme, you must enable it in your network in order for the theme to appear in the Appearance menu of each site, where users in your network can activate it on their site. To access the Network Themes page (shown in Figure 3-14), click the Themes link under the Themes menu on the Network Admin Dashboard.
In Chapter 5 of this minibook, we show you how to enable a theme on a per-site basis.
Most WordPress plugins will work on your network. There are, however, some special plugins and some special considerations for using plugins with a network.
First, if you need a refresher on how to find, install, and activate plugins in WordPress, page back through and find Book VII, Chapters 1 and 2 for this information.
Browse to the Plugins page in your WordPress Network Admin Dashboard by clicking the Plugins link under the Plugins menu. You find that the Plugins page is just as we describe in Book VII, Chapter 1, but you could easily miss one very small, subtle difference if you don't know where to look. Check out Figure 3-15 below the name of the plugin. Do you see the Network Activate link? That is the big difference between plugins listed in the regular Dashboard and the Network Admin Dashboard. As the network admin, you can enable certain plugins to be activated globally, across your entire network. This means that all sites in your network will have the network-activated plugin features available. (Plugins that you activate on the regular Dashboard {under Site Admin} are only activated and available for your main Web site.)
Earlier in this chapter in the Settings: Menu Settings section, if you select the Plugins menu, then users see the plugins listed on their Plugins page in their Dashboard. In their list of plugins, they only see the plugins that you have not network activated; rather, they see a list of all the plugins you installed in your WordPress installation, but none of them are activated on that user's site. The user has the ability to activate, and deactivate, those plugins as they desire.
Network admins are the only people who can install new plugins on the site; regular users within the network do not have that kind of access (unless you made them a network admin in their User settings).
Also located in the Plugins menu in the Network Admin Dashboard are two other links: Add New and Editor. This is where you can add and install new plugins by searching the WordPress Plugin Directory within your Dashboard (we cover this in Book VII, Chapters 1 and 2), and the Editor link gives you access to the Plugin Editor, covered in Book VII, Chapter 4.
Clicking the Updates link on the Network Admin Dashboard menu gives you access to the WordPress Updates page, which takes you through the same process of upgrading your WordPress installation software as we describe in Book II, Chapter 6. (In fact, the page looks the same as the one we show you in Book II, Chapter 6.) However, with a network site, WordPress takes the extra step of upgrading all sites within your network so they all use the same, upgraded feature sets.
If the process of upgrading network sites stalls or stops, the URL of the last site upgraded displays on the WordPress Updates page. The network admin can access the dashboard of the site where the upgrade stopped, which usually clears up the issue. A user accessing their site Dashboard after an upgrade also triggers this process.