To start with WordPress Network sites, one requires to have more knowledge of database structure and WordPress admin, especially for website builders. A standard WordPress database has 11 default tables. After setting up the multisite, you will see that the database looks different from a single site and has additional global tables added to it.
If you are new to WordPress development or lack the knowledge of multisite setup, please refer to this link first: Install & Configure WPMU.
We’ll discuss each of the multi-site certain tables. In this article, we will look at the database changes that appear after you move a single site to multisite. the following screenshot is about the difference in both Single and Multi-Site Database table structure.
Single-site vs Multi-site DB Structure
The following tables are created after setting up the network installation.
wp_site: This table shows brief information about your network, such as ID and path.
wp_sitemeta: This will show the complete information about your networks, like site name, admin email, admin user ID, etc.
wp_blogs: Table contains information about each network separately like site blog registered date and time, last modification date, whether the blog is public or private, etc.
wp_blog_versions: This table contains the current WordPress version and date and time of the last upgrade for each site. So, WordPress gets to know which sites need the upgrade.
wp_signups: This table will store information about registered users of the multisite. Until you allow the registration of users in your network, it will not be activated.
Once a user registers a blog column domain, path, title, meta will not be empty.
wp_registration_log: This table contains information about admin who registers a new subsite after it has been activated.
When a new site is created in the network, the individual site created with its blog_id will have a table name as a prefix. It creates multiple copies of database tables. However, it doesn’t create another copy of wp_users and wp_usermeta as these are all stored in the main table.
For example, you can see in the following screenshot:
I am sure you get a better understanding of multisite database structure. Now, you can retrieve, manipulate or move data with a lot of ease. Do share your views and suggestions in the comment section below.
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