Author: Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

Mailbag: Multisite Files
Another mailbag! This one is a few people… No, this is the one most people ask me. I understand why.

@jbenton @Krogsgard Basically read everything @Ipstenu has written (including when she suggests to not use it).

— Andrew Nacin (@nacin) December 20, 2013

I really do understand it’s intent, it’s goals, and I try to keep up with it. I use it daily. When I write plugins for it, I spend hours trying to decide how to properly support it. I may even write in checks on the ones that don’t work on Multisite to auto-fail when you activate and prevent you from using them. I will argue till the cows come home that Multisite is for multiple separate sites. But that said, there’s also an exception to every single rule.

Let’s get to the letter! Kevin in Canada has a Multisite with a uploaded files conflict:

The site is setup as default /files for the upload dir. Problem is, my client already has a directory in the root called /files. It cannot be changed as it houses software exe’s and needs to remain as /files. I need to set the upload path to /media for the images and not mess the site up. I read your blog post about this issue but wondering if you could clarify the steps. Right now, software download requests are redirected to the homepage!

The steps are, alas, complicated because the situation is complicated. The blog post Kevin’s referring to is called Dumping ms-files. If you’ve installed WordPress as of WP 3.5, this is the new default anyway. That would mean that Kevin has an old Multisite.

The ‘easiest’ option would be to start over with Multisite, use a fresh install of 3.9 and go from there. Second to that? Well the dumping MS files stuff is not easy and it really can’t be easy. You can try trepmal’s directions but after that you’re getting into writing a little bit of your own custom directions, and that is going to be really complicated.

I’m not 100% clear on why these can’t be moved, so I’m guessing that the issue is the lost redirections. While I believe good URLs never change, I think that redirecting them is okay. These are .exe files, which means if, before the .htaccess rules for WordPress, you were to put in a rewrite rule and check ‘If you’re looking for /files/*.exe, go to /otherlocation/filename instead’ that might get around it, or even to say ‘if files and NOT exe.’ Maybe something like this:
```
# uploaded files
RewriteCond $1 !\.(exe)
RewriteRule ^files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 [L]
```
Mind you it’s weird. Either you had Multisite first, which would explain the /files/ for uploads, or you had the EXEs in /files/ first, which doesn’t explain how you got this far into it at all, since 3.5 came out in December 2012, and that would imply you built the Multisite in 2012 and have had this problem for at least 18 months, give or take, which is a long time to have a problem and do nothing about it.

If you started with WP 3.5 or later, you just make a /files/ folder and off you go, no code needed. If you started before that, you can follow the directs to undo MS files and then make a files folder and be done. Make sure not to forget about the .htaccess rules!
4 July, 2014
“Oh yeah. That’s a bug.”

“You’ve been saying you’re working on it for two years! How hard could it be?”

The post made my blood pressure rise a little. I was uncharitable, in my own mind, thinking Well if you know how to do it, why don’t you get off your whingy ass and do it? I was snippy, I was snide, I was … let’s face it, I was mean.

But I didn’t say it out loud. I stood up from the laptop and played a round of ping pong with a coworker who is a bazillion times my better (seriously, he’s great) and tried to learn to return spin-serves. I still can’t, but I understand them now. Then, refreshed, I went back and replied.

“I know it sounds really dismissive, but there are more things at play then just slapping a new coat of paint on the system. We have to take into account the following things [list]. On top of that, we have to do it all in a way that won’t crash the system and that’s backwards compatible!”

I looked at that for a moment and I sighed. No matter how I explained it, no matter which language I used to demonstrate the complications, the reply was still going to be ‘Don’t make an excuse, just fix it.’

There’s a weird truth about software and development that is the people writing or fixing the code generally don’t get fired up about it in a reactionary way. That’s not to say they’re not passionate, or that I never see them angry or excited, but that they’re sort of a Cool Hand Luke about a lot of things, including their job.

From 1997 to 2012, I worked at a bank. I tapped out just shy of 15 years, and through that time I went from desktop applications to operating systems to server based desktop applications (remote apps) to server deployment. I did a lot. I worked on everything, but I was never what you’d call ‘tech support.’ I did support for developers for about 5 years. At one point, when I was working on the OS side of things, my manager asked if I could help one of the senior VPs with an email issue. I agreed, went to his computer, looked at it, calmly minimized the app, fixed the resolution (yes), and was about to go when they screamed.

“You closed my email!”

I blinked a few times, clicked on maximize, and pointed out I had only minimized it.

My manager apologized for over-reacting, but suggested next time I maximize before I leave the desk. I did not point out that what I was doing was not in my job description at all, but I did agree he had a point and said that I would be sure to leave the PC the way I found it, except fixed. This lesson stayed with me. When I fix your site, I try to leave it the way YOU wanted it.

The next day I had a complaint land in my lap, from the Sr.VP, that I didn’t take the issue serious enough. This was tacked on to the heels of another incident that, at the time, I’d forgotten about, where a server went down, people flipped out and called me, and I said “Uh huh, I see what’s wrong. *type* There we go. All better, I’ll fill in the ticket. Sorry about that.”

What was this complaint? I was too cavalier.

I did argue that complaint, and ‘won’ as much as anyone can, because I noted you don’t want the panicking person to run around and scream when they fix your broken stuff, you want them to be calm and collected. At the same time, I did learn something important, and that is people need to feel that you do empathize with them and feel their pain. I’m much better at that now than I was in 2001, but in the last thirteen years, I’ve blown my site up enough to know that level of terror in a visceral way.

But for the person who is having the horrible, no good, very bad, day, there’s a lesson for you too! Sometimes when someone says “Yes, we know.” or “Yes, we’re fixing that.” they can sound far more calm and casual than you are, to the point where they seem dismissive, not because they are dismissive, but because of their experiences. It’s the same logic behind anyone who handles high-stress situations regularly: we get used to it, and we have managed to overcome our panic.

What does all this have to do with the time you asked for a change and we said “We’re working on it?” We’re calm because we are working on it. We sound dismissive because we’ve said many times we’re working on it. We know we don’t have an answer and how much that sucks, but we know (and you know in your heart) that yelling at people to fix it now has never, in the history of ever, actually made someone come to that genius moment faster. Even critical bugs, like Heartbleed, are things everyone tries to fix as soon as possible, but not in a rush or a panic. And if they’re not critical, then we’re generally not going to rush and fix it unless we’re certain we can do it in a way that is safe for everyone, sustainable, and we agree with it.

That sounds like a lot, and it also sounds like an excuse. It’s not. If someone replies “Yes, we’re working on it.” it’s okay for you to ask “Is there anything I can do to help?” It also means you may have to accept that some annoyances are going to stick around for a long time, because they’re complicated, or maybe they require a total rewrite. But as long as they’re communicating with you, they’re not ignore you.

2 July, 2014
Genesis Favicons Multistyle

For the longest time I used .htaccess to shunt my favicons to the right place based on the requesting domain. This basic logic worked well, but was starting to get weird and it didn’t always work depending on if I was using pagespeed to trim out leading domains or not, and of course when I tightened security it got weirder.

Now I’ve know you can use custom favicon in Genesis and that’s pretty simple. But … I have to make my life complicated. See I use Multisite and I don’t edit my themes. No, really, this theme? I only edited it to update it. I don’t edit them, I use custom CSS and functions to edit via hooks and filters, the way you’re supposed to.

So how do I override favicons for five sites on a Multisite? Why with an MU Plugin!

#2, shows a specific favicon, and does it for #3 and #4 before defaulting to the main site. I ‘hard code’ in the full URL to make sure I don’t mess it up and there isn’t any crazy cross site shenanigans. Obviously this will get a little long over time, and if I ever stop using Genesis for a site, I’ll instead hook into wp_head() and toss in the link for shortcut icon.

30 June, 2014
Mailbag: Multisite Caching

Dave has a question abtou Multisite and caching!

I asked about caching on multisite setups. I’ve got 10 of these, with between 10-50 sites added to each- and the content is static- never going to change it much. I have a feeling I could benefit from caching, you recommended server side. I could use some help here. I know your site says you’re maxed out time wise- I’m thinking I just need someone to help me with one site, and show me what to do. Or, if they want to set things up on all of them. Do you have any recommendations?

Thanks again for the help.

Dave

Caching! There are three main types: plugin, server, and proxy.

Plugin caching is WP Super Cache, or W3TC, and it’s letting WP make a static cache file on demand. Server caching is APC/Memecached and such, which lets the server make a dynamic cache. Proxy caching is Varnish and the like, which puts a cache before the WordPress server, kind of like a static file on another server.

Which one is best for Multisite with static content? Probably a proxy cache there. Though I’m going to go out on a limb and say if you’re not using WordPress for all it’s useful for, maybe you don’t need it at all. If you have a pretty static site, where you’re not changing content all that much, there’s nothing wrong with static HTML. But if you want to use WordPress (like you’re a WordPress only shop) then you have to consider the options. What is your site doing?

This is actually not a Multisite Question so much as a cache management question. The part that’s multisite specific is who to you let manage what aspect of the cache. I maintain a plugin called Varnish HTTP Purge, which is a pretty basic plugin that checks for common actions, like posting or commenting, and flushes your cache selectively on Varnish when those things happen. One of the Multisite specific issues with that code came up when I added in a new feature: Purge Cache.

That feature lets you press a button to flush the whole cache. Pretty cool, right? The problem was Multisite with Subfolders. See, the way the cache flushes is to say “Dump everything under domain.com!” which works fine with subdomain sites, as that will only flush domain.com and not foo.domain.com. On a subfolder, though, it’ll flush domain.com, domain.com/foo/ and domain.com/bar/ and everything else. That would suck! So the best thought I had was I should lock the flush down to Super Admins only on the main site on a subdomain setup. Normally I allow the site admin to flush their own cache, but this way only the Super Admin could make a full flush.

And that’s the crux of the issue with caching on Multisite. Do you want each admin to maintain their own cache? Do you want it to be something you control for everyone? W3 Total Cache can do that, by the way. You can do it both ways with that plugin, and only control what you want to control for the network. But what about if even I don’t want to do that? What if I want to be lazy and trust my tools? That’s when you look at the server itself and try to make it as brainless as possible. Decisions, not options, remember?

And that brings up another question. Why do I want to manage who flushes at all? In my Varnish example, it’s because careless flushing clears the whole cache, which means my server and site have to recache everything and it slows everyone down. Obviously I want to limit that as much as possible. The other reason is work. People who have a managed hosting site generally aren’t the most technical savvy users in the world. Some are, of course, but many are more likely the ones who don’t want to know about the crazy server stuff. This is great, but it means I want to make their life easier so I have to provide less support, then I want things that do their job and do it well, and that means taking options away and making decisions for them.

How would I cache a static Multisite network and fully control it as a network admin? Probably server side caching like Varnish or ZendAccelerator Memcache. If I can’t do that, I’d use W3TC and lock it down so only I, the super admin, in my fancy cape, can edit settings and purge the cache. And always, always, remember to only catch what should be caught in your cache. If you have a site that’s a store, account for that.

27 June, 2014
iPad Mini

I normally don’t review hardware. I like it, but given my one experience with serious electrical work (buy me a coffee, it involves a barn roof), I tend to not mess with it. So I’m purely a hardware consumer.

That means when things like the iPod came out, I was highly interested. A deck of cards and it has all my music? I’m in! Now I have an 8G iPhone (yes, the smallest one) and it’s perfect for what I need it for: a phone and a walkman. Don’t get me wrong, I have a couple games (Tetris, Bejeweled, and Dungeon Raid), but for the most part I use my smartphone to handle the phone and texting stuff, directions when I’m in a new place (which happens a lot now) and listening to baseball games.

I also have a laptop, which I use to code and write and … well you know what they’re for. Then I have an iPad. I’ve had one since they first came out as I’ve always had a mad crush on the idea of an Apple Tablet. Back in 2004, a whole decade ago, I wanted it for ebooks. Today, I use it for books, comics, surfing the web, Angry Birds (do do doot do!), email, and writing. Yes, I like writing stories on my iPad.

Recently, I started looking at the iPad Mini as a viable choice. It’s smaller, lighter, and still retina. At the time, my iPad was the ‘new’ iPad (3rd gen, with Retina), and it worked well, but always felt heavy and clunky in my purse. The main issue I had with the mini was how would reading comics feel.

Answer? Awesome. The retina display is somehow better on the mini, crisper and clearer without me having to crank the brightness up. It has good battery life (reading all day) and the apps are more responsive than my iPhone. There’s less lag jumping between them. This is due to the beefier processor, I know. I also got more disk space, so now I don’t have to download one manga at a time and delete it when I’m done. I like to re-read.

The only thing I don’t like is reading it in the sunlight, which I know is a common kvetch of the iThings. I love reading on my deck or patio, in the sun, so now I just sit with my head in the shade and it works out. Also, and this is a first world problem, my iPad is so crisp, my eyes get tired reading on it. Though that I’ve solved by changing the iBooks font and colors.

So why blog about this? Well my iPad also has an SSH app (iSSH) and a file editor (Diet Coda) and when you toss in WordPress and Chrome (with my normal profile saved), I can bring just my iPad to a WordCamp and be able to work or take notes. I joked I needed a svn/git app, but really I just use Coda, sync with DropBox, and pick up the files when I’m at my laptop. Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

25 June, 2014
The Wheel Is Fine
“I have an idea for a plugin!” he said to me. Everyone does, but I encouraged this question. “I want to make the media embeds in WordPress more responsive.” I paused. There are already a lot of those, like Responsive Video Shortcodes. So I asked what made his different. “I’m going to make NEW shortcodes!”

I see a lot of plugins. Many times I see plugins where people want to tweak a normal part of WordPress, like the gallery or the embeds. The problem I see is that instead of extending those, they decide it’s better to make a plugin that recreates all the shortcodes and embeds, but with a new name, so users have to remember to use (which is default to WordPres) or [youtube] (which is in Jetpack) or [someothervideotool] (which I made up for an example).

Now I’m guilty of this myself! I have a private plugin which is HTML5 video embeds and it gives the video in HTML5 format, which I could do in the default embed code, but it also plunks a link underneath that says “Can’t see the video? Click here.” And the Click Here goes right to the mp4 video. Because I have some rather dim people. But. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. I could instead filter that shortcode just to put my little blurb on the end! Doesn’t that seem smarter?

The first time I thought about this, I said “What I need is to filter and slap something on the end!”
```
function halfelf_oembed_filter($html, $url, $attr) {
    $html .= "<p>I am a monkey.</p>";
    return $html;
}
add_filter( 'embed_oembed_html', 'halfelf_oembed_filter', 10, 3 );
add_filter( 'video_embed_html', 'halfelf_oembed_filter', 10, 3 );
```
This puts “I am a monkey” below every embed, which is great for stuff like YouTube and Twitter. The second filter is for videos when you’re using Jetpack. And this works great, I could even wrap the HTML in something, like a div or js code, and enforce responsiveness. You can check the URLs, see if it’s youtube or whatever, and apply different settings per URL. Works nicely. I actually have my just div-wrapping for padding reasons.
```
    $html = "<div style='padding: 5px;'>".$html."</div>";
```
This works brilliantly, however … I’ll get to that in a second. Now, for my friend’s initial idea, once we banged on this, he said he was just going to use the other plugin, but embed-filtering was way easier than trying to over-ride the shortcodes and reinvent the wheel. It also makes it easier to upgrade.

But then there’s my problem with my site and the need for that “Hey, get the MP4 here!” message. You see, 90% of the videos I have on this particular site are locally uploaded, and since I always upload an mp4 and a webm (and sometimes an ogg), how do I parse it?

First of all, I’m using the Video Shortcode, so I know there’s a simple filter for wp_video_shortcode_override (it works roughly the same as img_caption_shortcode but that’s not what I want to use. I don’t want to replace everything, that’s my whole point here. I just want to make a link! In addition, I know I’m only going to want this when I have a video with a defined mp4, so why not just filter wp_video_shortcode instead?

So that’s what I did:
```
function halfelf_video_shortcode($html, $attr) {
	
	if ( !empty( $attr['mp4'] ) )
	{
		$html .= "<p>Can't see the whole video? Click <a href='".$attr&#91;'mp4'&#93;."'>here</a>.</p>";
	}
	
	return $html;
}
add_filter( 'wp_video_shortcode', 'halfelf_video_shortcode', 10, 2);
```
This slaps a link for my tech challenged friends on browsers that refuse to tolerate videos.
23 June, 2014

Author: Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

Mailbag: Multisite Files

“Oh yeah. That’s a bug.”

Genesis Favicons Multistyle

Mailbag: Multisite Caching

iPad Mini

The Wheel Is Fine