[S.G.]

The cbox ol forum suggested we share this here:

We wish to de-network-activate the pdf and Google doc embedder plugins, and move them to being template-activated.

We tested this on the dev site, and all embedded code remains intact, and all code re-embeds as soon as the plugins are activated on any individual sub-site with an embedded pdf or Google doc.

The problem is that we have no way to find out which sites have embedded docs.
We could theoretically activate the plugin on every sub-site, but we have 1200, so that would be too labor intensive.

Any tips on how to navigate this transition? I thought of looking for a broken code-checker, and our developer is looking into the Beyond Multi-site plugin to bulk-activate plugins (probably the best bet, although it’s not a free plugin), but we welcome other tips or insights.

Here’s the original forum post:
https://commonsinabox.org/groups/openlab-help-support/forum/topic/advice-for-de-network-activating-plugins/#post-8725

Thanks!

[Ray]

Hi Syelle,

There are two ways:

1. Write a script that will run across all your sites to search each post for the code containing the PDF and Google Doc Embedder. If you have an in-house developer, that person could write a WP-CLI script to do this.

2. If you do not have access to a developer, the alternative is doing a manual search on each site’s admin dashboard’s “Posts” page. You’ll need to know the shortcode or syntax that each plugin uses so you’ll know what to search for. This is more labor-intensive, but if you have only a few sites on your network, you could give that a shot.

Hope that helps.

[S.G.]

Thanks for the advice, Ray! We have over 1,200 sites, so #1 is not an option, but I’ve sent your idea #2 to our developer.

We’ve more recently come to the realization that ultimately, we would really prefer to activate the two plugins on all sub-sites, so that is actually the more important task (as opposed to locating the sites that are currently emedding any documents; once we locate, how do we bulk-activate?). We only want users to have the option to deactivate both plugins; we do plan to have both plugins template-activated by default.

So, we are considering the Beyond Multisite plugin to do the bulk-activation. If you or anyone has ever used it, we would welcome feedback. https://codecanyon.net/item/beyond-multisite-utilities-for-wordpress-network-admins/19633352

[S.G.]

Thanks, Ray. We have over 1,200 sites, so #2 is not an option, but I’ll let our developer know about your first idea.

However, that solution would still leave us with the bigger problem: How to activate the plugins on all the sites we identify. Also, we may as well update the two plugins on all sites; we only want users to be able to deactivate them. The Beyond Multi-site plugin still looks like our best option for that–if you or anyone has experience with it, we welcome feedback.

[Ray]

I haven’t tried Beyond Multisite, but there are a few plugins out there that are similar like Multisite Plugin Manager (https://wordpress.org/plugins/multisite-plugin-manager/).

Try that one and see if it works for your site.

[S.G.]

Thanks! I’ll pass your plugin rec on to our developer–it’s free, so that makes it better than Beyond Multisite in one way. 🙂

[Author]

Posts