WordPoints 1.2.0 introduced support for multisite. When installed as a multisite network, WordPress offers two different options for activating a plugin. A plugin can be activated on each site separately, or it can be activated network-wide. WordPoints supports both of these options. It can be activated on single sites on the network, or it can be network activated for all sites.

There are some differences in how WordPoints behaves, depending on which way it is activated. When network activated, many of WordPoints’ settings and features are synchronous across all sites on the network. When activated on a single site on the network, the settings and features are separate for each of the network sites that WordPoints is active on. Below is a more detailed explanation of the differences. In general, WordPoints should be network active if you will be using it on all sites in the network. E.g., if you want your points types to be the same network-wide. You should activate WordPoints site-by-site if you only want to use it on a single site, or if you want the points for different sites kept completely separate.

What is global when network-active? #

The following things are global across all sites in the network when WordPoints is network activated.

• Points types — The same points types are available to all sites on the network.
• Settings — The plugin’s settings (excluded users, default points type) are edited in the network admin, and apply on all sites in the network.
• Points hooks — Points hooks are configured separately for each site as usual. However, network-wide points hooks are also available, and can be configured from the network admin.
• User points values — The number of points a user has is universal to all sites in the network.
• Points logs — The points logs can be displayed for all sites in the network. They can also be displayed separately for each site. Administrators can view the network logs in the network admin. The logs for a single site are viewed from that site’s admin panel.
• Extensions — Extensions are always installed network-wide on multisite. When WordPoints is network-activated extensions can be network-activated, or activated per site. When WordPoints is only active on individual sites, the extensions can only be activated per site.

What about large networks? #

There are some extra things you need to be aware of when network-activating WordPoints on a large network. By default, WordPress will identify itself as a large network if there are more than 10,000 active sites. That behavior can be altered though, so it is possible that some networks may have code installed that changes this.

If WordPoints detects that it is being network-activated on a large network, it may skip part of the installation, update, and uninstallation processes. This is done because these could be unreliable and not finish if attempted all in one go. If you are on a large network, you will see a notice about this on the administration panels, and you’ll need to complete the install/update process manually. Ideally, you would do this before installing/updating the plugin. A detailed explanation of how to do that isn’t included here because, if you are running a large network like this, you will probably be familiar with engineering your own install script when you need to network activate a plugin. If you need help or have questions, you are welcome to contact the plugin author.

Please note that the above only applies to network activation on a large network. If you are activating the plugin per-site, it will handle the install/update process for you.

Extensions #

There are also some available extensions that customize the behavior of WordPoints on multisite.