Thread

I am about to take on a MSM project, but I am a bit concerned about addon capabilities. This may be a bit too vague without mentioning specific addons. If so, let me know.

There are a number of addons in my installation that do not support MSM. Does this simply mean that they will need to be installed separately with separate configurations, or does this mean that they are virtually useless to the second site?

Yea, with modules that don’t support MSM it just means that the module will only work on the primary site (not on any of the sub sites). If you look on devot-ee you’ll see in the sidebar on modules whether they work with MSM or not.

Hope that helps!

Thanks that answers my question perfectly! No MSM for me. :(

As someone who has coded quite a few add-ons, I’d like to clarify the ‘MSM compatible’ flag.

Quite a few add-ons aren’t affected at all by MSM installations because they work on the site you’re currently on. Most accessories, plugins and fieldtypes for example are MSM compatible, but aren’t listed as such.

For other add-ons like extensions and modules it depends on what functionality they’re adding to EE. Most extensions just add some extra functionality, but if they’re listed as ‘non-MSM compatible’ they will add this functionality to all sites with the same settings. Same thing goes for modules… At the moment you can’t install an add-on for a single site, but some add-ons have it built-in by the developer to enable/disable it for specific sites.

– Wouter

As someone who has coded quite a few add-ons, I’d like to clarify the ‘MSM compatible’ flag.

Quite a few add-ons aren’t affected at all by MSM installations because they work on the site you’re currently on. Most accessories, plugins and fieldtypes for example are MSM compatible, but aren’t listed as such.

For other add-ons like extensions and modules it depends on what functionality they’re adding to EE. Most extensions just add some extra functionality, but if they’re listed as ‘non-MSM compatible’ they will add this functionality to all sites with the same settings. Same thing goes for modules… At the moment you can’t install an add-on for a single site, but some add-ons have it built-in by the developer to enable/disable it for specific sites.

– Wouter

This seems like an awesome answer, but I am a bit confused.

I shouldn’t worry about most accessories, plugins, and fieldtypes.

Some extensions and modules are listed as MSM compatible. no worries here

Some extensions and modules are not listed as MSM compatible. Are you saying these will work on both sites the same as a single site? If so, this virtually means that non-msm compatible means no separate config settings???

I promise, I am trying to understand 😊 I may be way off base with what I took from your help above.

I shouldn’t worry about most accessories, plugins, and fieldtypes.

Most of those add-ons only store or manipulate data that they are handed and do not access the database at all. Te only time when MSM compatibility comes into play is when you have to store something in or fetch something from the database that is site-specific.

Some extensions and modules are not listed as MSM compatible. Are you saying these will work on both sites the same as a single site? If so, this virtually means that non-msm compatible means no separate config settings???

Basically the same as above… it depends on the purpose of the add-on if you should worry about the MSM compatibility. If you are not not referencing any site-specific data in de database (like entry data) or do not need site-specific settings because the settings will work for every site, you can use it just fine.