WP Multitenant Overview

Version 1.3.0

A multi tenant application is an architectural concept in which a single instance of a piece of software is configured to serve multiple customers, often times called tenants. In a multi tenant WordPress environment, each tenant would share the same core configuration, themes, plugins, and more, while keeping its data and uploads as a separate entity.

This project intends to offer anyone the ability to run a small handful, or hundreds of individual WordPress installations using one core set of configuration files, making maintenance and updates a breeze.

For WP Multi Tenant to function it should sit at the same level (or higher) then the domain paths. It would look similar to the following.

/path_to_server
    |__ domain.com
    |__ example.com
    |__ demo.com
    |__ wp-multitenant

Step 1: Multitenant Setup

The following are the steps to setup the wp-multitenant repo.

Clone Repo

• Clone repo into multitenant /path_to_server/wp-multitenant

Note: You can not limited to using wp-multitenant in the path. Set that to whatever you want but be sure to change it in the .env file as shown in the next section.

Env Vars

• Duplicate /config/env.example and name it .env
• Env vars that need updating are as follows:

Env Variable	Description
DB_USER	Set databse username
DB_PASSWORD	Set database password
DB_HOST	Set database host (may not be required, localhost is common)
ENV_CURRENT_ENV	Set development environment
ENV_BASE_SERVER	Set base server path (/path_to_server)
WP_ROOT_PATH	Path to cloned repo wp-multitenant

Note: If you cloned the repo into anything other than wp-multitenant change the reference in the WP_ROOT_PATH

Composer Install

• Duplicate composer.example.json and named it composer.json
• Open terminal and from /path_to_server/wp-multitenant run composer install

Note:

• If you have issues with your php version not satisfying requirements add a flag and run composer update--ignore-platform-reqs
• Additional information about working with composer can be found in the technical docs (coming soon)

Step 2: Installing WordPress

This repo includes a simple installation script that will build the folder and folder structure and the create necessary symlinks.

Install Script

• Duplicate /scripts/install.example.sh and name it install.sh
• Copy /scripts/install.sh to the root of the domain folder (ie: /path_to_server/example.com)
• Edit the copied install.sh file and change path_to_multitenant on lines 8, 10 and 12 to reflect your paths on various server setups
• From the domain folder run bash install.sh local

Note: when running the installer you are required to use local, dev or prod

Multisite

If you choose yes to setting up multisite there are a couple of manual items to update:

• Edit your .env file on the server, look for ENV_MULTISITE="false" and change this to ENV_MULTISITE="true"
• Vist the admin of your site, under Options go to Network Setup and follow the instructions there.
• Once the network is setup, edit the site-config.php of your install and uncomment the constants that are labeled for multisite (lines 44-49)

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Additional Information

Using Composer

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP and is used in wp-multitenant to manage versions of WordPress, themes, plugins, and more.

• composer install - install dependencies specified in the composer.lock file. If no lock file is found one will be created
• composer update - updated dependencies using versions specified in the composer.json file and generate a new lock file based

There are several options that can be used while running composer commands.

• --prefer-dist - update dependencies without being git tracked and without interactive questions
• --no-interaction - do not ask any interactive question

It is possible to use several different composer files, like the following example:

• COMPOSER=composer.dev.json composer update

Resources for composer:

• Composer documentation
• Working with repos
• Handling private repos
• WordPress packagist

Server Overview

On the server each domain would typically have their own folder. The WordPress Multi Tenant Repo would live at the same level as each domain folder allowing it to be access by any domain or subfolder inside a domain.

In the example below domain-one.com shows how a main domain would look once fully configured while domain-two.com provides an example of how one or more subfolders can be used for site installations.

Symlinks are denoted with ==>

domain-one.com
    |__ .htaccess ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/config/.htaccess-standard
    |__ index.php
    |__ site-config.php
    |__ wp ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/app/stable
    |__ wp-env.php ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/config/wp-env.php
    |__ wp-config.php
    |__ wp-content
    |  |__ mu-plugins ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/assets/mu-plugins
    |  |__ plugins ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/assets/plugins
    |  |__ themes ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/assets/themes
    |  |__ uploads


domain-two.com
    |__ site-folder
        |__ .htaccess ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/config/.htaccess-standard
        |__ index.php
        |__ site-config.php
        |__ wp ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/app/stable
        |__ wp-env.php ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/config/wp-env.php
        |__ wp-config.php
        |__ wp-content
        |  |__ mu-plugins ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/assets/mu-plugins
        |  |__ plugins ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/assets/plugins
        |  |__ themes ==> {server-path}/wp-multitenant/assets/themes
        |  |__ uploads

wordpress
    |__ app
    |  |__ stable
    |  |__ wp-config.php
    |__ assets
    |  |__ drop-ins
    |  |__ mu-plugins
    |  |__ plugins
    |  |__ themes
    |__ config
    |  |__ .env
    |  |__ .htaccess-standard
    |  |__ wp-constants.php
    |  |__ wp-env.php
    |  |__ wp-cli.yml
    |__ composer.dev.json
    |__ composer.json

Environment Variables

All environment variables can be found in /config/.env

Env Variable	Description
DB_USER	Set the databse username
DB_PASSWORD	Set the database password
DB_HOST	Set the database host
ENV_CURRENT_ENV	Set development environment
ENV_MULTISITE	Enables multisite for server
ENV_BASE_SERVER	Set base server path
WP_ROOT_PATH	Path to gitclone of wp-multitenant
WP_STABLE_PATH	Path to stable version of wp
WP_ASSETS_PATH	Path to wp themes and plugins
WP_CONFIG_PATH	Path to multi tenant configuration files

WordPress Constants

All global WordPress constants can be found in /wp-multitenant/config/wp-constants.php

Note: ** denotes items to not change this if in doubt

WordPress Constants	Description
DB_USER	Gets DB_USER from .env file
DB_PASSWORD	Gets DB_PASSWORD from .env file
DB_HOST	Gets DB_HOST from .env file
DB_CHARSET	Sets the database charset
DB_COLLATE	Sets the database collate type
WP_HOME	Sets URL in wp_options
WP_SITEURL	Sets URL in wp_options
WP_CONTENT_DIR	Sets path for wp-content folder
WP_CONTENT_URL	Sets URL for wp-content folder
WP_PLUGIN_DIR	Sets path for plugins folder
WP_PLUGIN_URL	Sets URL for plugins folder
WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR	Sets path for mu-plugins folder
WPMU_PLUGIN_URL	Sets URL for mu-plugins folder
WP_DEBUG	Sets debug options
WP_DEBUG_LOG	Sets option to create debug log
WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY	Sets option to display debug errors
WP_CACHE	Enables or disabled cache
WP_CACHE_KEY_SALT	Creates a unique cache key per site
WP_REDIS_DISABLED	Enables or disables redis
WP_REDIS_SELECTIVE_FLUSH	Allows individual site flushes
WP_REDIS_MAXTTL	Max TTL for redis
FORCE_SSL_ADMIN	Force HTTPS on admin
FORCE_SSL_LOGIN	Force HTTPS on login
AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED	Disable auto-update
DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT	Disable theme and plugin file edits
AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL	Sets the time for auto-save
WP_POST_REVISIONS	Sets maxiumum post revisions
EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS	Empty trash after X days
ADMIN_COOKIE_PATH	Sets admin cookie URL path
COOKIE_DOMAIN	Sets domain for cookies
COOKIEPATH	Sets general cookie path
SITECOOKIEPATH	Sets specific site cookie

Site Install Constants

All site specific constants can be found in site-config.php for each individual site installation.

PHP Constants	Description
DB_NAME	Sets the database name
CURRENT_DOMAIN	Sets the folder structure to the install
WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE	Allow Multiste (Multisite Only)
MULTISITE	Enable Multisite (Multisite Only)
SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL	Use Subdomains (Multisite Only)
DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE	Domain (Multisite Only)
PATH_CURRENT_SITE	Path to current (Multisite Only)
SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE	Site ID (Multisite Only)
BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE	Blog ID (Multisite Only)

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Credit

Thanks to Mark Jaquith for the base setup concept that helped bring this entire idea to life.