WP Multiste-blog farm-child blogs not created

I’ve set up a WP Multisite network with s2member. Intention was to make it possible for subscribers to create their own blog on demand (i.e. automated) and use the network wide activated s2member to protect content on their child blogs. However, when testing the setup, only parts of the setup work as intended.
– wp-signup.php works fine – no error messages
– subscriber recieves activation email – but activation link (and URL) does not work
– the child blog is entered in database (cpanel-myphp admin) – child blog does not show in wp dashboard

I’ve contacted the webhost support (HostGator). This is their reply after looking into the issue:

It appears that the issue with the links not working when the account is created is because the DNS records for the
new subdomain are not automatically create. Unfortunately I am unsure if the plugin supports creating these however it does not appear that wordpress in general will make the needed changes to your DNS records. For each new account a new subdomain will need to be created, which can be done inside your cpanel.

Once the subdomain has been created then the URL generated should work, unfortunately it will not work until the DNS record is added. If anything needs to be changed according to any suggestions from theme we will be more than happy to make any needed changes.

Do you have any suggestions how to solve this?

Hi Georg.

This seems to be a WordPress problem, since it’s the one creating the blogs… Have you tried asking in the WordPress forums about it?

I’m surprised HostGator doesn’t know with more certainty about this, I’m sure you’re not the first one to set up and WP multisite network with them.

About account activation, WordPress doesn’t have this, unless its added in multisite… I know BuddyPress adds that step, are you using it? If so, could you try deactivating it and testing if the blog creation problem goes away?

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

I’ll be happy to review your installation, as you mentioned in a private email to support. Please submit a Dashboard/FTP login for me here: s2Member® » Private Contact Form

Details received privately via email.
~ I’m reviewing your installation now. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for your patience.

I’ve been reviewing your installation over the past two days. From what I can tell things were looking good on your installation of WordPress. However, I noticed today that s2Member is no longer an active plugin on this Multsite Network, so that makes it difficult to continue our review process for you.

– wp-signup.php works fine – no error messages
– subscriber recieves activation email – but activation link (and URL) does not work
– the child blog is entered in database (cpanel-myphp admin) – child blog does not show in wp dashboard

Regarding the sub-domain issue. This sounds to me like your domain at HostGator does not have DNS entries for these sub-domains. If sub-domains are being created dynamically on the site by WordPress, you will need a wildcard DNS record for your primary domain, so that all sub-domains point to your WordPress® installation.

Please see this article: http://codex.wordpress.org/Before_You_Create_A_Network#Domain-based
See also: http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network

Jason, Thank you for your time and effort.

I wanted to start over again with a fresh wp install, That’s why s2 disappeared. I figured I don’t need it until i know the site works as I want it to.

I’ve tried different options and my conclusion is:
The reason why a user is not able to create a child blog has something to do with how the server is configured.
As far as I can see, a visitor can create a new account (wich will be activated when user clicks activation link in email automatically). The new user can either fill in the form to create a new site as part of the signup process, or the user can create the site later via wp-signup.php.

The new site have separate tables in database, prefix wp_, and both user and site entries are visible in Network Admin Dashboard (Users/Sites/). However, neither site nor dashboard links resolve. That is – the child blog is created but not accessible by its own URL.

I’ve read a lot about .htaccess, modrewrite and symlinks since last week. I don’t understand entirely how this works, but I’m sure the “childblog.101hobbies.com” requests are not pointed to the wrdp1_ (main database) and the subdomain site data wp_ (subdomain database entries) the way I undertsand wildcard subdomain is supposed to work.

I also understand this an issue I have to take to HostGator. I just thought you wanted to know.

Another topic, when the site works, is the use of s2clean theme. I would really like to use s2clean for this site but have a couple of questions:

1-will s2clean theme run into compatibility (or other technical) problems with future wp or other software developments? Meaning, how long will it be safe to use s2clean?

2-I was able to create subdir childblogs on the previous wp installation w/s2clean on child blogs. But child blogs had only access to the default or other template set by Superadmin. Is this an intended limitation or is there some setting or theme customizing option I missed?

3-I intended to use s2member, quickcache and s2clean, because of the option to strengthen security with the “define MULTISTE_FARM TRUE” to wp-config (as explained in s2member documentation). In which way will use of a different theme change the security of my site?

Thanks for the follow-up.

1-will s2clean theme run into compatibility (or other technical) problems with future wp or other software developments? Meaning, how long will it be safe to use s2clean?

I don’t foresee any major issues with the s2Clean anytime soon. However, this theme has been formally discontinued. It’s still available with your s2Member.com account, but we’re no longer supporting this theme officially (e.g. if incompatibilities occur in future versions of WP), we are not planning to fix them.

2-I was able to create subdir childblogs on the previous wp installation w/s2clean on child blogs. But child blogs had only access to the default or other template set by Superadmin. Is this an intended limitation or is there some setting or theme customizing option I missed?

From the Network Admin panel of your Dashboard, under Themes, you can allow permission to each theme you’ve uploaded to your site, by clicking “Network Enable”. That is, you might have 100 themes available, but each of those themes must be made available to child blog owners by clicking “Network Enable”.

3-I intended to use s2member, quickcache and s2clean, because of the option to strengthen security with the “define MULTISTE_FARM TRUE” to wp-config (as explained in s2member documentation). In which way will use of a different theme change the security of my site?

Switching to a different theme, one which might make configurable options available to site owners of a child blog on your Network, and that might reference FTP instructions, /wp-config.php file changes, or other features made possible by a theme which depends on the site owner actually having file structure access via FTP, could cause some confusion. That’s the biggest issue that I’ve seen. Child blog owners will NOT have access to the files that make up your WordPress installation, only you as the SuperAdmin have that ability. Thus, you won’t want to confuse your child blog owners by having themes that provide features/instructions that require file access to WP.

If you find themes which do not expose things like this, you should be fine using those.

I would just suggest that you carefully review them prior to making them available across the Network. For instance, you wouldn’t want a theme to provide a child blog owner with the ability to customize code through a configuration panel in the Dashboard, that might ultimately execute PHP code provided by the site owner. That would introduce a security issue on your Network. Looks for calls to PHP function exec() in the code provided by each theme. Taking note of how they are used in the code. This would part of a good review process.

Hi Jason,

Thank you for clarifying the child site security issues. It was most helpful.

I also got a reply from HostGator:

There is a known issue in the current version of cPanel that causes a problem when a wildcard subdomain is created. When you created the wildcard subdomain for 101hobbies.com cPanel also created the subdomain webdisk.* which is preventing your subdomains from working properly. To correct this the webdisk.* record must be removed. We have at this time removed the record, this change will take a short while to propagate across the internet but then your subdomains should work properly.

I’ve tested the signup and child blog creation. It works just as I wanted it to. Thought you wanted to know.

Now I can finally move forward with installing s2member and get my site up.

Thank you again for your support

Georg Inderdal

Thanks for the follow-up.

Yes, we VERY much appreciate it when you come back and update on us things. That helps us, and it helps others. Thank you very much for that. I’m glad to hear you got that sorted out.