#wp-network

[speedycyclenacho-blog]

Changing header image in WordPress twentyseventeen theme with a plugin

I’m setting up a blog network using WordPress multi-user / multi-site a.k.a. WordPress network. Each new blog should be looking good from the start and the current header image is a real blotch.

There are a number of approaches to solve this:

Create a child theme

Make changes in the current theme, by editing the code in the relevant files / Replace the bad-looking standard picture in the folder.

Create a plugin

Edit the functions.php file

I had a good time suffering. Mentally. I knew instantly that a plugin would be best for me. But how to make it happen?

The solution that works for plugin, child theme and functions.php is to work with a filter in twenty seventeen.

In inc/custom_header.php the following function is written, to apply custom-header:

add_theme_support( 'custom-header', apply_filters('twentyseventeen_custom_header_args', array(

'default-image'      => get_parent_theme_file_uri( '/assets/images/header.jpg' ), 'width'              => 2000, 'height'             => 1200, 'flex-height'        => true, 'video'              => true, 'wp-head-callback'   => 'twentyseventeen_header_style', ) ) );

The interesting part with this is the apply_filters(’twentyseventeen_custom_header_args’, ...). It means there is a filter added for the header arguments. Let’s use that!

function  my_function_that_changes_header_options ($args) { $args ['default-image'] = ''; // Sets the default-image to nothing. return $settings; }

add_filter('twentyseventeen_custom_header_args','my_function_that_changes_header_options');

Before figuring out above, I was struggling with unregister_default_headers and register_default_headers. What these functions do are to add or remove what is seen in the admin interface. You can unregister the header.jpg image, so that it won’t be visible in the customization area, but it won’t change the header.jpg. Likewise, you can add an additional image in the customization area, but it won’t change the header.jpg.

[speedycyclenacho-blog]

Wordpress network admin panel for new subsite doesn’t work (and no theme on new site)

I installed the latest Wordpress (late 2016). Activated network, by following this guide. Worked a bit on the main site, and then added a second site to the network /site2. 

Problems started. Once I tried to access the new blog, the public front, there was no theme. Once I tried to access the back-end, site2/wp-admin, I got a 500 internal error, a.k.a. too many redirects. I spent an evening and a complete morning trying to fix the error. Almost went on to do a fresh installation. Although, I wanted to avoid that because if it worked, it would just be magic. 

Some stuff I did:

Activated specific logs and increased the log level warning in Apache

Re-checked the wp-config. 

Re-checked virtualhost configuration, my sites-enabled / default

Checked if the databases were created as they should for the sub-site (Wordpress adds a suffix, table_name_n, where n is the site id (or at least some kind of increment).

Changed the theme and went from static front page to blog front page. (somewhere on the internet, it was stated that the theme could be an issue, but honestly, how could it be?)

Thought I re-checked the .htaccess, to secure it contained the content available in the network configuration page at my wp-install.

Thought is the keyword. I did indeed check it and paste what should be included, but I was editing the wrong file. 

How did I solve it, or rather, how did I arrive at the solution?

Besides almost going crazy and doing all of the above stuff hundreds of time to secure it was in order I decided to follow the wp guide again. 

Step 1: wp-config.php - everything was in order

Step 2: .htaccess, discoverd the issue... once done, everything worked like a charm.

Learning: secure the basic. follow the process. be strict in checking the steps.