Indexing sites on WP Multi Network

[Anonymous]

There are 2 problems here:

Problem #1
I have this plugin installed on a WP network of networks. I am a super-admin of one network and an admin of one site on a second network. One site on my network is using this plugin as well as the site on the second network where I only have admin access.

It seems that the two sites are sharing the same index table and that is causing problems. If I re-index site 1, there are no more results for site 2 in the index. And if I re-index site 2, there are no more results for site 1 in the index.

I cannot add the 2 blogs with the option “Blogs to index posts from” (in Index Table options) because they are not on the same network. Can you please resolve this problem? It seems as if each network needs its own index table.

Problem #2
Also, there is a security problem, in the same settings page as before (Index Table options -> Blogs to index posts from). In the Network where I am only an admin on one site, I can see all the other sites in that network, drag them over to the second column “Drag here the blogs you want to use!”. I shouldn’t be able to do this if I am not an admin of those sites or a network super-admin. In the screen shot I am admin of “Panama Cru” but not admin of the other sites on the left. I am not even a user on those sites.

[Ernest Marcinko]

Hi,

I will have to look at both of these issues in more details within our test servers. I am honestly not sure if I can make it work across network sites, as there are a few technical issues that cause compatibility problems. The plugin only supports the same network at the moment.

I noted these as issues to test, so we will try to replicate a multi-network environment durint tests. If there are no database related conflicts, then I believe both of these issues should be possible to resolve within one of the upcoming releases.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Just wondering if you have had any results testing these issues or if you can give a time frame so I can keep other people’s expectations realistic.

Thanks for you help on this.

May

[Ernest Marcinko]

Hi,

There is a bugfix release under testing, to be released on thursday, I have added these fixes/features to the nex one after. You can check some parts of the progress on this public board: https://trello.com/b/BUNOEob3/asp
The expected release date of that is 4th of July. Unless there is a major issue, it should be doable.

[Anonymous]

You cannot access this content.

[Ernest Marcinko]

Hi May,

Indeed this fix was pushed to the 4.17 release, as other, more critical bugfixes/tests had to be pushed first. The release date on the 4.17 update is 1st of november – I can see that happening, some more of the features had already been finished.

While we are at it, something that I cannot wrap my head around is the “network of networks” term. Does native WordPress supports connected multisite networs of some sort? I was under the impression that each network has to be a separate installation.
I did a bit of research at the time, but I could not find anything. I was hoping to do some more research, once I get to this issue – but if you can help me, that would be great.
Is there a specific configuration I need to enable this feature? Are there any resources I can read on the WordPress website for the official documentation? That would help me tremendously to understand the issue – as implementing secondary index tables would be a major rework, and probably extremely difficult as well. I am hoping to do a different solution if possible.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for replying quickly. I realize this could be a major rework. If it isn’t possible than I would just like to know soon so I can research other options.

We use the plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-multi-network/ for a multi-network platform. Hope that helps.

May

[Ernest Marcinko]

Thank you May.

Oh, so it is not a core, but a 3rd party feature then. In that case, I am not sure if we will be able to support this. The plugin only has a few hundred users, and have not been updated for over a year. I am all in for supporting 3rd party software, but this may take a huge amount of time for a very little potential user base.

I am very sorry to say this, if this was a core feature within WordPress, then I would definitely make sure to support in it’s full extent, but in this case that is probably not going to happen.

[Anonymous]

OK I understand :(. Will have to start looking for a new solution.

I do want to point out that in the original post Problem #2 is not a multi-network problem. It happens inside one network. I encourage you to test this security issue out.

All the best,
May

[Ernest Marcinko]

That is definitely going to be patched 🙂

[Author]

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