Multiple WP sites from same DATA TABLES (not just DB)

1. Yes, this is safe to do.
2. See above.
3. You’ll need a little bit of custom coding to make this work …

It’s possible to have multiple sites run off the same database (pulling the same content from the same tables) without having to copy anything back and forth. The problem comes when you want different themes for each site. The blog theme is actually set in the wp_options table, so if your sites are all pulling from the same database they will all use the same theme.

There are several theme-switching plugins available already that you can look into using. That would be the easiest solution for you assuming you don’t want to spend any time or budget on developing custom functionality.

Here are a couple of theme switching plugins:

1. https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/nkthemeswitch/
2. https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/theme-switcher/

The alternative is to use a modification of a system like WP Hive. This plugin allows you to install multiple blogs on the same database using different tables – the plugin actually handles which blog points to which table. This could be modified to give you a separate options table for each blog while leaving the rest of the tables alone. This would require a significant amount of custom coding, so I recommend either contacting a developer (I can recommend a few) or dropping a request on https://jobs.wordpress.net. In either case, this route would probably cost you money.

4. The maximum number of blogs depends entirely on your server setup and traffic. I run 10 blogs off the same database with no trouble at all.

Wonderful! Thanks for all the detail!

I believe I will explore the separate wp_options tables approach. I’m still rather new to WP, so I don’t know yet how to account for all the factors (like where I need to touch code that will make the multiple wp-options tables solution actually work, and work safely).

If you have any further hints (favorite articles, sites, books, etc), that would appreciated. Meanwhile, I’ll start looking through the code for references to this table.

I appreciate your warning regarding the complexity of the tasks. PHP is a somewhat new language to me, but I’m very comfortable with the “learn by doing” approach (as has been the case with other sites I now have).

And speaking of other sites… Please forgive the poor forum ettiquette, but I’d like to take advantage of your apparent expertise: I’m having an issue on another site with an $author_base mod. The request for help is at https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/282668, and to my surprise, there has been no feedback thus far. I’ll check there for any replies you might have to share, in case you have the time.

Thanks again for the detailed response!
Gilad

One alternative you might want to look into is the set of functions that WordPress uses to determine the active template. First, WordPress checks for the template name and queries the database to see what template is in use.

The actual function is:

function get_template() {
     return apply_filters('template', get_option('template'));
}

This checks to see what the active template is in the database. You can create a filter to replace whatever value is returned. Here’s an off-the-top-of-my-head example:

function switch_template() {
     add_filter('template', 'whatever-you-want-it-to-be');
}
add_action('init','switch_template');

Like I said, this is off the top of my head, but it should replace the template with whatever you set programatically. You can set your own conditions on this as well to pick which template is being used.

Just one idea among the many you might want to look into. I’d recommend using some kind of phpxref tool to search for different functions so you can see what the get_template() and get_template_directory() functions look like.

Once again, THANKS!

I feel far better armed to tackle this now than I did before! I really appreciate the time you’ve dedicated to support my efforts!

I’ll report back here when I have something to share.

Thanks again!
Gilad

Gilad,

Let me amend the code I sent earlier (now that I’ve had more time to think about it). You actually need two functions:

function switch_template() {
     add_filter('template', 'my_template');
}
add_action('init','switch_template');

function my_template() {
     $my_template = 'My_Template_Name';
     return $my_template;
}

This should allow you to programatically override what’s set in the database.