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I'm considering using Genesis as the basis for a multisite network with multiple child theme offerings. My question revolves around how Genesis would be deployed across the network.
Having used Genesis in a single site environment, I know that Genesis has to be activated first before a child theme can be utilized. Does "Network Activating" Genesis in multisite perform that initial activiation across the network leaving the client to only select the child theme they want (one step client process), or will the user have to activate Genesis and then their preferred child theme when they first set up their site (two step process)?
http://thirdscribe.comGenesis child themes perform a check to make sure Genesis is installed before they activate. As long as the framework is network activated, the child themes will activate with no problem.
However, keep in mind that individual clients can't make changes to the child theme's stylesheet - if you want them to be able to make changes beyond what's in the Genesis theme settings, you'll need to give them some kind of custom CSS plugin (or they can use the Jetpack module if you're activating Jetpack on the network). I'm working on an all-Genesis multisite myself and learning this the hard way! 🙂
Andrea Whitmer, Owner/Developer, Nuts and Bolts Media
I provide development and training services for designers • Find me on Twitter and Google+Thanks, Andrea! That will work out perfectly, then.
I don't want clients to make any CSS changes, so that works out well, too.
So let's say we want all sites on the network to use 1 specific pro theme, say Metro Pro. But we want to run different instances (ie. different functions.php and stylesheet.css). What would we need to change inside the theme folder to get WordPress to recognize:
Site 1 --> Metro Pro (version 1)
Site 2 --> Metro Pro (version 2)
etc...There must be a way to do this?
What I would do (and will likely do on my own multisite install) is install a plugin to give them a custom stylesheet and functions file, then hide Appearance > Editor so no one is making changes the the main child theme files. Alternately, depending on how many sites you'll have, you could upload the theme multiple times (renaming the folder for each person as you go) and activating the theme only for that specific person. So everyone would have his/her own Metro Pro installation and could alter it as s/he saw fit.
Andrea Whitmer, Owner/Developer, Nuts and Bolts Media
I provide development and training services for designers • Find me on Twitter and Google+Andrea, I was indeed able to rename the theme and got multiple versions running at this time. Right now, only the Super Admin can access the Themes Editor. What plug in do you know of that I can give access of the styelsheet for each individual site?
Just spent the last day testing out multisite. Seems to work well.
If you're going to let users have Jetpack, it has a custom CSS editor built in. There is also a plugin called My Custom CSS you could activate. Personally, the more I think about it, I may give them all Genesis Extender since that would let them use custom functions as well.
Andrea Whitmer, Owner/Developer, Nuts and Bolts Media
I provide development and training services for designers • Find me on Twitter and Google+I just checked out Genesis Extender. So this give users ability to tweak CSS based on the Edit page? Nice. So many googies, so little time to test! Let us know what you end up doing. I would be interested to know.
And some info for you since you are looking at multisite. I just tested cpanel's Park Domain and email addresses will work for your sites too.
Andrea, I have not tested using Jetpack to let users tweak CSS. Since Jetpack would be tied one specific users, it may not be a good idea to let other users have access to this plugin. In fact, it may not be wise to even activate plugins that require user mapping. Hmmm...
Andrea, any update on what method you ended up using for site-by-site css edits? I'm in the process of creating a network based on the genesis framework and I'm stuck on this one. Leaning towards the My Custom CSS plugin; however, having just read your genesis extender suggestion, which I own already, I'm now curious about how well that could work.
Cheers,
TylerHi Tyler,
I still haven't set up my multisite install completely - other projects keep getting in the way - but I'm leaning toward Extender since I've already got it. I need to email Cobalt Apps to see if there are any known issues with it on multisite, but I'm guessing I would have heard about it if there were. Let me know if you try it out!
Andrea Whitmer, Owner/Developer, Nuts and Bolts Media
I provide development and training services for designers • Find me on Twitter and Google+
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