Howto: Domain Mapping without a Plugin – Instructions
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yes, it works natively without instructions, and here is what you need to know to make it work:
recent versions (as of WP 4.x) of WordPress Multisite (fresh installs) have the ability to map your custom domain (e.g. example.com) onto a subsite of your install without the help of a plugin. This should be possible with subdomains and subdirectory type sites ( I have accomplished this with subdomain and not tried with subdirectory myself, so someone may want to confirm this actually works.)
But it somehow remained a “hidden feature” – i.e. there is no proper UI – and there is a definite lack of comprehensive information on the web. Hence I am typing this short guide on how to get this accomplished.
What you don’t need: – a plugin or sunrise.php
What you need: – you need a dedicated IP Address for your multisite install (ask your hosting provider to set it up for you, if you are on shared hosting). You can add other sites and installations in your account if you want, but you can have only one multisite install per IP!
The guide is given assuming you have CPANEL access. I keep this short and to the point as I don’t have time for an elaborate explanation. sorry.
Here we go:
Step 1: Create a Multisite install – obviously (instructions are abundantly available on the net, hence I refrain from explaining this step).
Step 2: if you want to use subdomains, create a wildcard subdomain (just create a subdomain with an asterisk ‘*’ (no quotation marks) as subdomain name in your CPANEL.
Step 3: create a subsite that you wish to map your custom domain on.
Step 4: Login as network admin and go to My Sites > Network Admin > Sites and choose ‘edit’ for the subsite you have just created.
Step 5: in the info Tab enter the new custom domain (e.g. example.com) in the Site Address (URL) field. Don’t use the www, but insert the domain as https://example.com and click “save changes”.
Step 6: in your registrar’s DNS settings you have to create an ‘A’ record pointing to the IP adress of your multisite install. (You can create one for ‘example.com’ and one for ‘*.example.com’ so the https://www.example.com will be taken care of).
Step 7: this last step is important. While the domain will now resolve to your subsite, you need to add one line of code to your wp-config.php to correct an issue with cookies. As cookies are currently set for subsite.maindomain.com, you won’t be able to even login from example.com. Add the following line of code to wp-config.php after all the multisite parts to have your site hand out cookies for example.com:
define( ‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, $_SERVER[ ‘HTTP_HOST’ ] );
That’s all – you have just created a subsite with your own custom domain!
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/
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@cleanteam ‘s answer did not work for me either. Using @rleon ‘s answer of
define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', '');Worked for me on WPEngine and allows you to traverse across the dashboards without re-logging in.
All I did was set my domain name to https://www.example.com (client is using www only) on the subsite and edit the wp-config.php with the above line of code
Also I am using this great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-2k6lYLVfE to cheat and point my www. with a CNAME to WPEngine and then point the root (@) to www so i can dynamically point the site to WPEngine and not worry about when the IP address changes.
@wpmuguru PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can their be a note on the plugin homepage that it does not need to be used anymore and for official instructions on how to get by without it? WPEngine and others still point to using the plugin as mandatory in their support docs.
And thank you so much for working on all this!!!!
Solution for multisite install with differing domains:
—————————————————————————————-I had three sites with the same sub-domain and wanted to add a new site with a different domain here is what I did:
1. In wp_config.php file, make subdomain = false.
2. In WP control panel as admin, create a new site. WordPress defaulted to the subdirectory mode so my site initially looked like mainsite.com/newsite. Just save it that way.
3. Go to My Sites > Network Admin > Sites and choose ‘edit’ for the subsite you have just created.
4. Enter the new custom domain (e.g. example.com) in the Site Address (URL) field. Don’t use the www, but insert the domain as https://example.com and click “save changes”.
5. In your registrar’s DNS settings you have to create an ‘A’ record pointing to the IP address of your multisite install.
6. Add two lines of code to your wp-config.php to correct an issue with cookies:
define( ‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, $_SERVER[ ‘HTTP_HOST’ ] );
define(‘SUNRISE’, ‘on’);7. Then add the Administrator as a new user on you new new site.
8. You should be able to see all subsites in your multisite control panel and be able to login to each site’s control panel separately too as Admin.
Don’t know if this has already been addressed in the replies, but anyone simply copying and pasting the referenced define function may find that it does not work. That is because this:
define( ‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, $_SERVER[ ‘HTTP_HOST’ ] );is not the same as this:
define( 'COOKIE_DOMAIN', $_SERVER[ 'HTTP_HOST' ] );Check your single quote operators and make sure they’re the right ones. Copy/pasting the second line above may work for you.
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