Welcome to the WP Hive forum!
Recently Wordpress announced that Wordpress MU (WPMU) is going to merge with Wordpress. See http://ocaoimh.ie/2009/06/04/wordpress-mu-merge-gpl-and-support/. Will this be the end of WP-Hive?
On a positive note, the need for WP-Hive is validated if Wordpress is integrating the same idea in the core Wordpress installation.
I have been thinking about this question since the announcement a few weeks ago. Let me tell you, it's not easy to make a call right now, and things are still up in the air.
While there is no official timeline for the merge yet, it appears that it is being targeted for the WP 3.0 release. Based on WP's past release schedule, I'm going to take a guess and say that it will be within a year, but probably closer to 6 months. There is a very good chance that this version will effectively make WP Hive obsolete then.
The real question right now is whether or not the new version will be worth releasing in the interim. I've invested a lot of time and resources already in this project, and there's a lot to do still to get it finished. I have a chance to spend a considerable amount of time during early July to finish writing it, if there is enough support for me to do it.
I'll make a blog post within the next few days about this. If enough people want me to continue writing it, and can commit to supporting it, then yes, I will. If not then it will likely just remain as-is, waiting for the release of WP 3.0.
Hi Ikailo,
I'm a new member to your site - just a few minutes ago. After reading much of the information here, it sounds like WP-Hive might be the best thing for my situation. I'm excited to find what I've been looking for.
The question here about its future viability is of concern to me, of course, if I decide to go down this path.
Several thoughts...
All I've heard about WPMU is how difficult it is to install and maintain. Even if the two organizations merge, might it still be a long time before they have a version that would be useful to "the dirty masses?"
Secondly, even if, say in 9 months they come out with a pretty good product that does what WP-hive does, do you think that you would be able to still use the same MySQL database as well as the individual sites with their unique themes, etc.?
So, have you made a decision about where you think you're going to go with WP-Hive?
Final question, I have a situation that I would like to try with this. I saw something discussed similar to this idea, but I have a different slightly different scenario and different motives. I don't think there was a definitive resolution on the question I saw earlier about this situation.
What I'd like to do is create a big "sandbox" to test multiple vendor's themes on one common set of data. I'd like to leave this set-up intact, probably permanently. I want my readers to get to taste the look and feel of the themes that I have on display (like Hybrid, Thesis and WP-ReMix, as well as a dozen or so others.) I probably would point to sub-directories of a main site, or I could set up sub-domains instead.
I'm not interested in having multiple domains getting Google love. In fact, I only want my primary site to have that happen. I think there is a way to keep the Google bots from going to the secondary sites.
Any thoughts on all this?
Thanks!
Dang that was long! Sorry!
The official word is that Yes, I will continue to work on WP Hive until a better product is part of the WordPress core.
Now for the better news.
WP Hive v1.0 is clearly taking too long to complete, and I likely made a bad decision a while ago trying to fit all the new features into a single release.
There are two things that everyone is asking for. The first is for subdirectory support. The second is to fix the auto-add functionality (specifically for short domain names and multiple similar domain names). In the essence of time, I will be releasing an interim version (v0.5) that will address both of these issues. Expect it to come out "soon" (As in a multiple of days, not months). The pre-alpha has been coded and I'm in debugging mode now.
WP Hive uses all the WP standards when comes to the database, so I foresee no issues when migrating WP Hive to a later version of WordPress, be it v3.0 etc.. Some clear instructions or a small script will take care of that, but we'll cross that hurdle when it comes.
With regards to the sandbox environment, I'm not sure I understand your requirement perfectly, but if you're only looking to only switch themes while maintaining the same data, you may want to look into a plugin specifically for theme switching.
Hi Ikailo,
Thanks for your reply. I'm glad that you will continue development and support. Like I said, my gut feeling is that it will be quite a while before WP puts together their solution after the merger.
I checked out the Theme Switcher plug-in. The reason that the switcher plug-in won't work is that my alternative themes are for visitors who will not have admin panel access. I just want to link the home pages to each other so they can click and go try out another theme. These visitors will most likely be very unsophisticated users, for the most part.
So, I think your approach will solve my problem.
I have a couple more questions. Which way would be the best way to go:
* install my single-site WP now, get started developing my site for the main theme and install WP-Hive later after the new release, or
* install WP now and also install WP-Hive now, then upgrade later with the newer version when it comes out?
I have no immediate need yet for the switching capability, and won't need it for another month or so. So I am leaning toward not installing WP-Hive until I actually need it.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Ed
Probably better to install it when you actually need it. There is a good chance a new version will be out in late August.
Regardless, I'm a big fan of seamless upgrades / migrations, so count on not having any issues if you install now and want to upgrade when the new version is released.
I'm a complete newbie, so I may have misunderstood something. I've been doing a LOT of reading on the web and my understanding to now has been that there is a major difference between what WP-Hive does and WPMU does,which makes the question about WP-Hive becoming obsolete not make sense.
Is it not the case that WP-Hive allows a single admin to manage multiple blogs within a single dashboard/admin interface.
WPMU allows multiple blogs each with their own owner/administrator with the only common feature being accessing the same themes directory and optionally the same plugins directory.
If that distinction holds, then the need for WP-Hive will only grow.
I've just got three sites and managing just these three by having to login-logout-login has driven me to searching for a solution that looks like it is WP-Hive.
Am I wrong?
The other thing that lead me here is that all of the instructions for creating multiple blogs with WPMU involve creating symlinks this and htaccess that. Some of the instructions seem to directly contradict one another.
WP-Hive -- I've been reading your support forum -- has a consistent install and remarkably understandable answers to first-timer questions. Such that I think even I can pull it off!
If I succeed I promise I will support the development with a donation.
see below --- cannot figure out the ticks
Is it not the case that WP-Hive allows a single admin to manage multiple blogs within a single dashboard/admin interface?
WPMU allows multiple blogs each with their own owner/administrator with the only common feature being accessing the same themes directory and optionally the same plugins directory.
If that distinction holds, then the need for WP-Hive will only grow.
------------------------
Great question!!
Is that the main distinction between Hive and MU? If so, then I agree, Hive will Survive. (And I will gladly pay for Premium.)
Following from that question, and apologies for pushing this thread off topic a bit . . . since you, ikailo, brought up VMB Virtual Multiblog, in another thread . . . is the main distinction between Hive and VMB that VMB allows each blog to maintain its own wp-config.php file? (I'm unclear what the pros and cons are about that so far...)
Secondly, that VMB, like MU, requires separate logins at each blog to make changes, but HIVE has just one interface to log into ALL blogs?
Are those 3 VMB/MU/HIVE distinctions correct?
In MU, one administrator has control over all the sites whereas in both VMB and WP Hive, all the sites act independently of each other, as though they were separate installs.
I don't know a lot about VMB as it's not my product, but as far as I know it works best with Apache / Linux. I believe it also requires more configuration on the server side (eg, replacing wp-config, editing files, etc..) to work.
WP Hive is:
- Server / OS agnostic
- Plugin architecture and easy to install (and will be even easier in the future).
- Compatible with the latest releases of Wordpress
- Compatible with almost all third party plugins
Hopefully WP-Hive will survive the availability of MU. There are two distinct markets for the apps and some hosts (Godaddy for one, I understand) only allow the installation of MU on dedicated servers.
MU is for those who want to run blog farms of major proportions. A user like me, who wants no more than six to 12 blogs, should be comfortable with WP-Hive. Now if my server (at a host that does not allow MU installs) will just cooperate, I'll be on my way with WP-Hive.
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