With the HolidayCheck Blog Network, I used the new multiuser functionality WordPress included in Version 3.0. Since I am operating from a subdomain I had to go with the subdirectory install for the other blogs. Using the Domain Mapping Plugin for MU, I am able to run each blog on its own subdomain. The domains point to the root WordPress installation – the plugin takes care of the rest.
Before the blog network was available, I had to hack tweak the wp-config.php file a bit to determine which top level domain is requested and have it set the right database prefix and locale. Now this isn’t necessary anymore and I can maintain plugins, themes, users etc. centrally, which reduces the maintenance overhead a lot.

There are quite a few customizations for the various blogs run on the network. Since I had already set up a theme framework for the Polish and German blog, I used that and modulized it, to make it easily reusable. Each module is written in object oriented PHP5, to allow each child theme to extend and tweak a module to its needs. I put an emphasis on abstracting functionallity as much as possible, seriously cutting development time for new modules as a result.

Selected modules that I haven’t covered in other posts:

• Comment Moderation
  This module lets the admin activate the comment moderation functionality on a post-by-post basis
• AJAX Search
  It integrates the HolidayCheck quick search in a blog’s search result page. Additional content is being loaded via AJAX.
• Custom Header
  Improved version of the functionality I described in the blog section.
• Pagination
  Custom pagination based on the WP-Pagenavi Plugin.