How to Setup and Use Avada in a Multisite Environment

The last couple of years have been exciting for our flagship Avada theme. Its elegant mix of responsive design, simple customization options and powerful built-in features have led over 125,000 satisfied customers to make it their WordPress theme of choice.

That powerful combination packs even more of a punch when deployed across a network of sites. In fact, more information on getting Avada up and running using WordPress Multisite is one of the most common topic requests we receive for the blog.

This article tackles that very subject. We’ll take you through the basics of installing and configuring a local WordPress Multisite network and using Avada as the main theme on each of your sites.

Naturally, all of that flexibility and power comes at a cost. The requirements for Multisite in terms of hosting resources and technical knowledge are higher than they would be for a single site setup.
Server side settings will have to be adjusted and DNS configuration is certain to rear its head at some point. It’s also likely that you’ll need to upgrade from shared hosting if your network reaches any kind of significant size.

Further points to consider are the risk of:

Given the potential number of scenarios for matching Multisite to your live setup, we’ll limit ourselves in this article to installing Multisite locally. This is a sensible way of easing into the overall options and taking Avada for a spin in a safe environment.

Let’s get started!

The benefits of having a local WordPress development environment are legion. We’ve recently taken a deep dive into the subject here on Theme Fusion with detailed guides for how to set them up on both PCs and Macs.

Rather than rehash the basic setups here, we’ll assume you have a single-site WordPress install running locally from the outset on either MAMP or XAMPP. There are a couple of considerations to bear in mind before we get going, mostly to do with the eventual domain structure we will use. Let’s get them out of the way to begin with.

Before installing Multisite, we highly recommend taking the time to go through WordPress’ excellent Before You Create a Network page in detail. Depending on the peculiarities of your local setup, there are a number of potential gotchas it can help you avoid.

Multisite allows two basic types of domain structure:

Which one you go for is a matter of preference. Those on shared hosting may experience problems with the subdomain option due to wildcard restrictions. You will also want to consider the SEO implications of the two different approaches. However, from the point of view of WordPress itself, they are essentially the same.

It’s unfortunately outside the scope of this article, but it’s still worth noting that you also have the option of mapping a full domain to either of the options above. Those interested in exploring further should start by looking at the WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin.

In our example, we’ll be selecting subdomains and installing locally.

A quick look at the Restrictions section of Before You Create a Network shows me I’ll need to create a virtual host to avoid running into problems using either localhost or 127.0.0.1 on my machine.

With that in mind, I’ve set up the following on my local install of MAMP:

If you’re following along, check out either of these tutorials for full instructions on how to set this up on your own machine:

Okay, our domain decision is made. Now we need to do some prep work.

Our first task is double-checking that Pretty Permalinks are enabled on your install. This requires the mod_rewrite module to be enabled in Apache. On MAMP and XAMPP that should be by default. If you run into difficulties here, begin your troubleshooting at WordPress’ Using Permalinks page.

The second task is to deactivate any active plugins you might have on your base install.
With those precautions out of the way, we’re ready to enable Multisite.

Enabling Multisite is as straightforward as editing one key PHP file.

Simply open up wp-config.php and add the following lines above the text reading /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */:

To make sure your change was picked up, refresh the admin screen and look for the Network Setup item in your Tools menu. If it’s visible, the change has registered and Multisite is enabled.

Now let’s install our network by going to Tools > Network Setup. Here, we’re faced with the domain choice previously mentioned. I’m going for the subdomain option shown in the image below.

You’ll also be required to name your network and enter an email address for the person responsible for administering the entire network.

With all the information entered, click Install.

All being well, WordPress will now generate some custom code that you need to add to your wp-config.php and .htaccess files. Both these files should be in the root folder of your install. You may need to show hidden files (PC | Mac) to see the .htaccess file.

Find both files, enter the changes and log back into WordPress. You should now be looking at your familiar dashboard, but with one crucial difference in the top left corner – the My Sites tab.

Next we need to visit Network Admin > Dashboard to add some new sites to our setup.

Suddenly being able to switch between multiple dashboards may take some getting used to, but you’ll soon get the hang of it.

From here, it’s merely a question of entering our site details. In my case, I have two subdomains to set up so I simply step through the screens twice.

A quick trip to our All Sites overview shows the new sites are added to the network and ready to be viewed.

It’s now time to bring Avada into the picture.

In Multisite, the network administrator is the only user who can install themes and make them available for individual sites. You have two options here; allow a theme for just one site, or enable it for the entire network. In our case, we’ll do the latter with Avada.

Navigate to the Themes > Add New screen and install Avada as you would on a single-site install.

If you now return to the Themes overview you’ll see a new option next to each theme: the Network Enable/Disable link. Enable this for Avada. This will automatically add it as an option for every site on the network.

Now we’ll go into the admin dashboard of an individual site – in my case site1.mymultisite.local – and activate the Avada theme. Begin by selecting the site dashboard from the All Sites list.

After you’ve activated the theme, you’ll be prompted to install the standard Fusion Core, Layer Slider and Slider Revolution plugins. You’ll also be able to load any of Avada’s standard install demos via the familiar theme interface.

In my case, I’ve gone for the Avada Agency Demo to test the install. A quick trip to Visit Site via the top menu and everything appears to be in order. Avada is now officially working in a Multisite environment!

Avada is perfect for multisite environments for several reasons. The Avada demo importer allows you to quickly deploy a professional design to each of the sites in your multisite environment. One click of a button on each site will import the demo of your choice. This is a huge time saver and gives you the perfect jump start on designing your site.

The overall performance of Avada is extremely good and can easily achieve in the 90’s through Google page speed and GT Metrix tests. This is very important for your overall site ranking and for your viewer’s experience when using your website. We recommend using W3 Total Cache to optimize your site. Using W3TC or other cache plugin is always recommended no matter which theme you prefer to use. ThemeFusion offers full support for using W3TC with Avada.

Avada is also consistently updated and maintained for overall improvements. Among other things, this ensures that the theme will always be ready for new versions of WordPress or popular plugin updates.

These are just a few reasons why Avada is a great fit for a multisite environment and why over 125,000 satisfied customers have made it their WordPress theme of choice.

We’ve covered a lot of ground here, and hopefully shown that getting your Avada theme up and running in Multisite is relatively straightforward.

Let’s briefly review the steps we took:

It’s admittedly no five-minute sequence, but still a small set of steps to gain access to the sort of functionality that a few years ago would have been the exclusive preserve of large firms with dedicated IT departments.

Let us know how you get on with your own local installs in the comments section, and share your experiences of leveraging the power of Avada with WordPress Multisite.