Mass Managing Your WordPress Plugins With Pro Sites and Multisite Plugin Manager
Our Pro Sites plugin gives you the power to build the next Edublogs.org or WordPress.com with premium upgrades and subscriptions for your Multisite users. And when paired with Multisite Plugin Manager, you can take your network to the next level and mass manage your network’s plugins in a single click.
With these two plugins installed, you can choose which plugins should be included on every site and activate them on the spot. You can also toggle whether a particular plugin should no longer be free to all users and deactivate it on all sites, then set it as a premium upgrade.
This plugin combination also comes in handy if a plugin in your network is outdated and no longer maintained, giving you the power to mass deactivate it across all sites in your network to prevent any future issues.
In this post, we’ll look at Pro Sites and how you can use it with Multisite Plugin Manager to manage plugins that you want to include in your network as free or premium upgrades. I’ll also show you how you can mass activate and deactivate plugins in your network in one click.
What is Pro Sites?
If you’re new to Pro Sites and have never used it before, let’s catch you up on what this heavy duty plugin can do for your Multisite network.
Pro Sites is designed to make quick work of creating a tiered subscription service in your WordPress Multisite network. Users can sign up for a paid membership and have limits to their account’s capabilities until they upgrade to a bigger, better subscription level.
You can create the next WordPress.com with Pro Sites.
It’s also designed for heavy duty projects so you don’t have to worry about whether or not it can scale for your project.
It was first developed for Edublogs – our sister site – which is one of the largest, most profitable Multisite networks, and hosts over three million blogs including leading universities.
It’s also the plugin used on WPMU DEV to manage over 375,000 members. Even though Pro Sites can handle massive projects, you don’t need to have a huge blogging network planned to use Pro Sites. For example, you can integrate Events+ to create an events site where users need to upgrade their plan in order to post their concert, seminar or theater production.
You can also use our Jobs and Experts plugin with Pro Sites to create a membership site where businesses can upgrade their subscription to find and hire qualified professionals for their projects. Creating a classifieds site like Craigslist isn’t out of reach either. You can also install our Classifieds plugin to let members upgrade to post more ads.
If you want to create free and paid subscription plans for your network, then you’re only limited by your imagination and you can monetize your network with Pro Sites.
You can create pricing tables with Pro Sites.
It also integrates well with BuddyPress so you create a blogging network or social community. It’s packed with professional features without being bloated.
You can create stunning pricing tables and includes four major payment methods including PayPal Express, PayPal Pro, manual payments and Stripe.
There are many core features available to help grow your business and site:
Automates sign ups and subscriptions
Handles refunds and cancelations
Built-in advertising
Automated Email Notifications
Free Trials and Coupons
One-time setup fees and recurring subscriptions
Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking
Front-end checkout
Unlimited free and paid access levels
Powerful statistics
Track subscriptions
Custom payment screens
Complete custom branding
Manual payments and subscription adjustments
Individual site modifications
Includes 24 currencies, EU VAT and Taxamo Integration
and nearly too many more features to count
Enhanced integration with Domain Mapping, Pretty Plugins and Multisite Theme Manager are included so you can really bring your network to the next level. There are also so many options when it comes to creating subscription plans and you can limit just about anything in order to sell it as a premium upgrade.
There are so many readily available options for you to include in one of your subscriptions such as:
Display ads or ad-free
BuddyPress group creation and messaging
Limit publishing and post types
Pay to blog
Post, page and upload quotas
Premium plugins and themes
Offer premium support
Upgrade admin menu links
Unfilter HTML
Post Throttling
Premium widgets
Restrict XML-RPC
Bulk upgrades
and tons more
Even though there are certain plugins that you won’t be able to include as an upgrade right out of the box, there’s a way around that.
Getting Started
Install and network activate Multisite Plugin Manager, then install and activate the Pro Sites plugin. Also, install any plugins you want to include as a premium upgrade, but don’t activate them network-wide.
Go to Pro Sites > Modules in the super admin dashboard and be sure that the Premium Plugins option is not checked, then click Save Changes if you made an adjustment. This module is incompatible with Multisite Plugin Manager since you get the same options, plus more in the plugin manager.
Mass Managing Your Network’s Plugins
Now go to Plugins > Plugin Management in your super admin dashboard. Under the User Control column, select an option from the drop down boxes for each plugin you want to manage.
You can toggle access to plugins for your entire network.
When you’re done, click the Update Options button to save your changes.
Each option has a different use:
None – No one can activate or deactivate the plugin but the super admin
Pro Sites – The plugin is available for Pro Sites users only
All Users – All users have the option to activate or deactivate the plugin
Auto-Activate (All Users) – The plugin is automatically activated for all users for new sites
You can also activate or deactivate a plugin across all sites in the network at once. Click the Activate All link beside a listed plugin to activate the plugin on all sites and click the Deactivate All link to deactivate a listed plugin from all sites in the network.
You can also mass activate and deactivate plugins in one click.
Now you can manage the plugins that are available for your subscriptions on the Pro Sites > Premium Plugins page.
Conclusion
Managing the plugins across your entire network can be a hassle, especially when you decide you no longer want to support a plugin and include it in your network. Now you know how to mass activate and decativate plugins across all sites to make managing your network quicker and easier.
How do you manage plugins in your network? How do you use Pro Sites or how would you want to use it for your network? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.
