parked domain and mapping on shared host

Can you park another domain on your web account (some control panels call it a domain alias)? If so then yes you should be able to use domain mapping.

Yes, I can park many domains, and have done so with three. But I have no idea what I should put in the domainmapping plugin for my IP.

Ok, here’s what I’ve done, and it works:

(Note, my WP is installed at the root at mydomain.com and is setup for multisite and has the plugin WordPress MU Domain Mapping installed and activated.)

1) Parked my domain I wanted remapped to a child site, namely mychilddomain.com is parked, and is set to not redirect, and is set to the top-level root of my account, because WordPress will be handling the virtual forwarding via this plugin.

2) Create the site in Network Settings under Multisite, and it appears there (“siteurl and home” checked) as https://www.mydomain.com/mychilddomain/

3) If you edit the site settings, you can note the Site ID in the URL. You need this.

4) In Settings, Domains (part of this plugin), I created a “New Domain”, setting the Site ID and the domain (with www. in my case, as I desired it at the head), and left it checked as “Primary”, then save.

That’s it. I did NOT set anything under Settings>Domain Mapping. It seems to work fine, but is that normal/okay to not have anything set in Domain Mapping?

Thanks,
Derek

(PS: I provided the details above, not for you, Multisite Guru, but for future readers, and even myself should I need the notes in the future.)

That IP address field is only for reference in the user domain mapping tool. It does not affect the function of the plugin.

If you have users mapping domains to your install they should map to either a CNAME that you have set up or an IP address. (Those are the only two things their DNS registrar will accept.)

It seems to work fine, but is that normal/okay to not have anything set in Domain Mapping?

Yes, it’s fine to have all of the checkboxes unchecked. I would recommend turning on the permanent redirect for SEO reasons.

Thanks for your replies. In my case, I’m not going to allow users to setup anything with this tool, and I unchecked that option too (in Domain Mapping, as I recall, without looking as I type this). I do have some things checked, like permanent redirect, for the reasons you stated.

I just want to clarify: besides the checkboxes, if I have no IP or CNAME set in the Domain Mapping setting, is it okay? It seems to work fine, but wanted to make sure I’m not overlooking something. (And again, I won’t be allowing users to domain map ever, so that’s not a consideration.)

Thanks again!

if I have no IP or CNAME set in the Domain Mapping setting, is it okay?

That IP address field is only for reference in the user domain mapping tool. It does not affect the function of the plugin.

By ‘for reference’ I meant for the user’s reference so they know where to direct their domain when editing their DNS settings. That is the sole purpose of the field. The DM plugin does not use it for anything.

Okay, thanks again, and sorry I didn’t follow the first time. For the next upgrade, it might be worthwhile to add this text to that settings page, for future plugin users to understand. But great plugin!

I usually toy with my htaccess to get the results, but the multisite structure mystifies me a bit, as I’m new to playing with it. So this saved me quite a bit of time. Automatic should build your functionality into their multisite features.

Thanks again for your time!

Unfortunately, there is a message on that screen explaining the purpose of those fields:

The information you enter here will be shown to your users so they can configure their DNS correctly. It is for informational purposes only