Multisite setup with multiple services, locations, and languages

  • I am plannig to setup a multisite network which will have 3 levels of complexity:

    1. Multi-service (domain.com/directory/ , domain.com/store/, …)

    * the directory service runs on a separate WP installation with his specific theme

    2. Multi-region (USA, Canada, Germany, …)

    3. Multi-language within a region (Germany English + Germany German)

    Ideally, the URL structure I think works best could be:

    country.domain.com/language/service/

    for example

    germany.domain.com/en/store/

    Being a local service, it makes sense for me to keep separate the different countries. I think a sub-domain should serve this purpose (I don’t want to have different domains per each country).

    How should I setup the WordPress Multisite in order to control all of this? I wouldn’t mind having a multisite group PER COUNTRY (one super-admin per country). But I am not sure I can start with a sub-domain as main site and use subdirectory as child sites (and sub-sub directories for languages within a country with WPML).

    Can somebody help me understand how to go?

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by fab1987a.
Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • Build a multisite then study up on domain mapping for the multisite.

    You should be able to do what you wish with that.

    Thread Starter fab1987a

    (@fab1987a)

    Thank you for your response @jnashhawkins .

    For what I know (not much yet), domain mapping is used when you want to link each website to a completely different domain. Would it work with subdomains too?

    Can you give me some tips on how to start and what I should study?

    Thanks again!

    My answer stands! Build the multisite. You’ll learn a lot right there.

    Learn domain mapping as used with WordPress multisite. That’s how it is done.

    https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/ is where I learned much of this after reading all I could find about multisite itself.

    https://www.wpbeginner.com/ is another great resource.

    Thread Starter fab1987a

    (@fab1987a)

    Okay, I will install multisite and play with domain mapping to figure it out myself.

    Besides technicalities, do you think this is the best URL strategy to adopt in my case?

    country.domain.com/en/servie

    Or you would structure it differently? How could I make if more user-friendly?

    Thread Starter fab1987a

    (@fab1987a)

    Also, would you suggest using a multi-network instead?

    It seems a better option than using domain mapping. However, I only found this article talking about it:

    https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-multi-network/

    And the plugin is very outdated. Does it still work?

    The only multinetwork plugin I know of is the one you are probably looking at.

    I run two multisites… One is a simple multisite while the other is a multinetwork multisite. I’m stuck on PHP 5.6 right now until I get around to changing servers and I’m not in a hurry to do so right now.

    I can’t tell you the multinetwork plugin will work under 7.X PHP so if you want to try that I won’t encourage you but you might want to build the multisite up and get your PHP to 7.4 then install the multinetwork plugin while you’re at it and play with that for a time.

    Multinetwork isn’t easy but, if you can get your head around it, then it might make the subdomain mapping a bit easier to comprehend with your subdirectories under those.

    Maybe some hand-drawn conceptualization ‘maps’ of what your network looks like with and without might actually help you now or make it easier later.

    I will tell you everything you go to do like moving, migrations, restorations from backups, etc. all become more complicated with multisite and the multinetwork multisite adds a second layer of complexity over that.

    I’m not sure how much more support you’ll find with this subject but I’ll do my best to help and there are others here who know this stuff.

    I’d still say multisite and learn the domain mapping first as domain mapping will be needed regardless of what other direction you wish to go with what you’ve described.

    I do get a lot of satisfaction seeing my multinetwork multisite running. That, to me, was worth all the study and work itself.

    Thread Starter fab1987a

    (@fab1987a)

    I followed your advice and installed a multi-site. It worked fine using a sub-domain as main site, and sub-directories as sub-sites.

    I was able to obtain this:

    main site: country.domain.com
    sub-site 1: country.domain.com/service1/
    sub-site 2: country-domain.com/service2/

    Adding multi-language support with WPML, I end-up with this structure:

    germany.domain.com/service1/en/….
    germany.domain.com/service1/ge/….

    Whereas any other URL coming from the main site would be:

    germany.domain.com/en/subfolder/…

    It is a bit messy, but I guess there is not solution for that.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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