1. WPMU DEV Dashboard Plugin
This guide explains how the WPMU DEV Dashboard simplifies many aspects of site and network management. Use the index on the left to quickly locate usage guidance on specific features.
The WPMU DEV Dashboard is available to all WPMU DEV members, including free Hub users, and those who may have just purchased one or more standalone hosting plans.
If you haven’t installed the Dashboard plugin on your site yet, visit the WPMU DEV Dashboard page where you can download it. Then upload the plugin to your site and activate it.
Upon activation or when certain features are configured, this plugin may add cookies to the user’s browser, store personal information in your database, or integrate with 3rd-party applications. You may need to disclose this information to your site visitors. For details, see Our Plugins in our privacy policy documentation.
1.1 Logging In
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardOnce installed and activated, go to WPMU DEV in your admin sidebar menu where you’ll be prompted to log into the WPMU DEV Dashboard.
Depending on the preferred Login Method that you have set in your WPMU DEV account, log in with your WPMU DEV account email address and password, or log in with your Google account.
If you try logging in with either method that is not set up as your preferred method in your WPMU DEV account, a notice will display to remind you of which one you have set up.
- Enable SSO – Single Sign-on is a feature that enables you to access your wp-admin directly from your Hub without having to enter your login credentials every time. This box is checked by default when you connect a new site, but you can uncheck it if you do not need this feature at this time.
You’ll see this screen for a few moments while the system does its thing to connect your site to your WPMU DEV account and log you in.
Once that’s done, you’ll see this confirmation screen and can begin managing all the WPMU DEV goodness right from your WordPress admin.
Click the Install Plugins button to be redirected to the Plugins screen in your WPMU DEV Dashboard where you can install, activate and manage all your WPMU DEV plugins.
Click the View Site in the Hub button to be redirected to the site’s Overview screen in your Hub. If this is the first time you connect this site to your Hub, the Quick Setup wizard will automatically launch there so you can get everything set up in just a few clicks.
1.2 Dashboard
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardThe WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin creates a new WPMU DEV menu item in your site’s Admin menu. To access the dashboard, hover over WPMU DEV, then click Dashboard.
The Dashboard overview gives you quick info on how many of WPMU DEV’s pro plugins you have active on your site, how many have updates available, and how many support tickets you currently have active in the support forums.
Above the main overview section, you’ll see some handy icons that appear on every screen in the WPMU DEV Dashboard to give you quick access to important resources.
Click the 1st icon to go directly to your Hub at https://wpmudev.com/hub2/
Click the 2nd icon to go directly to the usage documentation for the WPMU DEV Dashboard screen you’re currently viewing (this document).
Click the 3rd icon to go directly to the Support screen in your WPMU DEV Dashboard.
Click the 4th icon if you ever need to logout of the WPMU DEV Dashboard installed on your site.
Beneath the overview section, you’ll find the following subsections:
- Plugins
- Services
- Support
- Analytics
- White Label
- Resources
Plugins
The Plugins overview lists the most recently activated pro plugins. Click the plugin name or the gear icon next to it to go directly to that plugin’s main page in your admin. Click the View All or Add Plugins buttons to get redirected to the WPMU DEV Dashboard > Plugins screen where you can manage all your WPMU DEV plugins.
Services
The Services overview shows you at a glance which services have been enabled in your WPMU DEV Hub for your site. Click the service name or the gear icon next to it to go directly to that service’s configuration screen in your Hub. For more on the Hub, see the Hub documentation here.
Support
The Support overview lists the most recently active support topics in which you’ve participated in the WPMU DEV community support forums. Click the title of any topic or the eye icon next to it to go directly to that topic in the forums. Click the View All button to be redirected to the Support screen in your WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin where all your support topics are linked.
Click the Get Support button to open a new support topic. Click the Grant Support Access link if you need to enable access to your site admin for our support superheroes to help you with an issue in your site.
Analytics
The Analytics module allows you to gain insights from your site data directly from the Dashboard. If there is not enough data yet, you will see a note asking you to check back soon.
If enough data has been collected, you will be able to clearly view a summary of your analytics. Click View Full Report to access your analytics information in more detail.
White Label
The White Label feature enables you to remove all WPMU DEV branding from our plugins so that you can make it your own with your branding. The White Label overview will display the status of the tool, such as whether it is currently active or you still need to activate it. Click Configure or the gear icon to navigate to the White Label settings.
Resources
The Resources overview lists and provides links to handy resources found on the WPMU DEV website. Click any resource title or the caret next to it to be redirected to the corresponding page at https://wpmudev.com/
1.3 Plugins
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardThe heart of the Dashboard is the plugin manager, which allows you to research, install, and manage all your plugins from one screen. Search WPMU DEV’s library of premium plugins, review their features, and install with one click.
At the top of the screen is an overview section that shows you the total number of active WPMU DEV Pro plugins, how many of those pro plugins have updates available, and how many plugins are active in total on your site.
The All Plugins section lists all available WPMU DEV pro plugins, and shows you at a glance which ones are active on your site, which have updates available.
Use the Bulk Action feature to update, activate, install, deactivate, or delete multiple plugins at the same time.
The plugin manager makes managing individual plugins easy with several options under the gear icon. For inactive plugins or those with updates, you’ll see options available to activate, delete or update or with a handy link to pop open the latest version’s changelog so you can see exactly what has changed in the plugin before updating.
Clicking the Update or Changelog options will pop open a modal with details about what has changed in the latest version, along with tabs showing a general overview of the plugin and its features. There’s also a link at the bottom of this modal to view the full plugin details on its dedicated page at https://wpmudev.com/
Active and up-to-date plugins will instead show options to configure or deactivate. Click the Configure button to open a plugin’s dashboard, make the necessary changes, and then return to the manager and move on to the next plugin.
WPMU DEV pro plugins that are not yet installed on your site will appear in an Available section at the bottom of the All Plugins list where you can install any with a click. There is also a link at the bottom of that screen to refresh the list of plugins if available updates aren’t showing for you yet.
If any Pro plugins are not included in your particular WPMU DEV membership, you’ll see a prompt to Upgrade your membership before you can install them.
Syncing Updates with your Hub
The Updates feature in the Hub automatically checks for updates only once every 12 hours. So if you manually update some plugins in your site’s wp-admin, it is possible that the data may become out of sync in your Hub.
To remedy this issue, all you need to do is visit the Dashboard > Updates screen in your site admin at ../wp-admin/update-core.php, or click the Check Again link at the bottom of any screen of the WPMU DEV Dashboard in your site admin. Then refresh your Hub to view the synced updates data.
1.4 Support
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardThe WPMU DEV Dashboard’s Support tab is your first stop when seeking solutions to any issue, from minor nuisances to show stoppers.
1.4.1 My Tickets
Link to chapter 4Your complete support history in one place! Create a new support ticket, view open tickets, review resolved issues, and view feedback from WPMU DEV support Superheroes and other members.
Click the title of any ticket, or the caret icon next to it, to go directly to that ticket in the support forums at https://wpmudev.com/forums/
Sort through your existing support tickets using the handy category tabs.
Click the New Ticket button to be redirected to the support page at WPMU DEV where you can create a new ticket in the support forums, or click The Hub button to go directly to your Hub where you can manage pretty much everything for your site in one place.
Support tickets may be inaccessible from the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin, depending on the selected ticket visibility setting in The Hub. In this case, to create a new support ticket or to view existing tickets, go to The Hub.
1.4.2 Granting Support Access
Link to chapter 4In those instances when you need hands on WPMU DEV support, you can grant WPMU DEV support Superheroes temporary access to your site’s admin section by clicking the Grant Support Access button.
When access is granted a random 64-character access token is generated that is only good for 96 hours (5 days) and saved in your Database. This token is sent to the WPMU DEV API over an SSL encrypted connection to prevent eavesdropping, and stored on our secure servers. This access token is in no way related to your password, and can only be used from our closed WPMU DEV API system for temporary access to this site.
Only current WPMU DEV support staff can use this token to login as your user account by submitting a special form that only they have access to. This will give them 1 hour of admin access to this site before their login cookie expires. Every support staff login during the 5 day period is logged locally and you can view the details on this page.
You may at any time revoke this access which invalidates the token and it will no longer be usable. If you have special security concerns and you would like to disable the support access tab and functionality completely and permanently for whatever reason, you may do so by adding this line to your wp-config.php file:
define('WPMUDEV_DISABLE_REMOTE_ACCESS', true);
1.4.3 System Information
Link to chapter 4The WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin pulls together key information regarding your site’s unique system information. Simply click the System Information button and your site’s PHP, MYSQL, WordPress, Server and HTTP Request data will be displayed in a convenient tabbed format.
Advanced developers can use the data to monitor and troubleshoot their sites, and having the system information readily available greatly enhances the efficiency with which WPMU DEV Superheroes can address your support needs.
1.5 Analytics
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardThe WPMU DEV Dashboard includes basic analytics that doesn’t require any setup, third party integration or extra plugins. No more hunting down and adding tracking codes.
When activated, you’ll see a few additional options for how analytics data should display in your WordPress admin.
- User Role – Select the minimum user role who can view the analytics data on the WordPress Dashboard screen in your admin.
- Metric Types – Select the data that should display in the widget in the WordPress admin.
The data is displayed in your WordPress admin dashboard, in The Hub and Hub Reports. Note that if you see gaps in the graphs, that would be because those are days on which there were no visits, so there’s no data gathered to display.
Note that when activated in a multisite installation, analytics data will be presented for the entire multisite.
Every site has a unique analytics tracking ID
It’s important to note that if you migrate or clone a site to a new hosting instance, the new site would have a different tracking ID than the site it was migrated or cloned from, and it would have its own analytics data.
Possible issue when cloning a site
If you clone a site while this feature is active, it is possible that Analytics data from the original site might display on the cloned site. See the Troubleshooting chapter in our Cloning Sites doc for how to fix if that happens.
Possible issue with GTMetrix performance report
If you use the performance reporting features from GTMetrix.com, you may notice the analytics tracking pixel used by this feature can get flagged in their Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) recommendation.
This tracking pixel is output by the stats.wpmucdn.com/analytics.js script on your site, and is a dynamically generated image that should not be cached or served from a CDN.
So you can either ignore that asset in that recommendation, or add the following to the CDN Hostnames field in your GTMetrix account settings to eliminate that asset from that recommendation, and improve your overall score by 4-5 points:
*.wpmudev.com
Allowing users to reject statistics cookies
The Dashboard plugin analytics sets statistics cookies. See our Cookie Declaration document for details.
These cookies are used to collect statistical data on how the users interact with your website. This includes the count of page visits, the average time on page, the bounce rate, and other metrics. These cookies don’t include any information that can identify your users.
You can allow your website visitors to reject the Dashboard analytics statistics cookies. To achieve this, you need to install and activate the WP Consent API and the Complianz – GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent plugins on your website.
Check out the Complianz plugin documentation to learn more about configuring and using it on your website.
Once you have everything set up, you should see a cookie consent notice on the front-end that allows your website visitors to Accept or Reject the cookies set by your site. They can also customize their cookies preferences by clicking the View preferences button.
If a user clicks the Reject button or customizes the cookies preferences to block the Statistics cookies, the Dashboard analytics plugin won’t collect any statistical data. As a result, the user’s visit won’t show in the Dashboard analytics.
1.6 White Label
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardThe WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin gives you the ability to white label– remove all WPMU DEV branding– and replace it with your or your client’s branding. Click Activate to begin.
Please note this feature is only available on our Standard, Plus and Premium memberships plans.
When the White Label feature is active, the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin will be hidden from the WordPress admin menu’s Plugin page.
The White Label page has four configuration settings:
- WPMU DEV Branding – remove/replace the WPMU DEV logo from our plugins entirely.
- Footer Text – remove/replace the default WPMU DEV footer text from all plugin screens.
- Admin Menu Labels – adjust the WordPress Admin menu labels to suit your needs.
- Documentation, Tutorials & What’s New Modal – remove the documentation button, the tutorial links from the top of WPMU DEV plugin settings screens, and the What’s New modal windows that appear with every major update.
Check out our complete suite of white label features including Branda Pro WordPress white labeler for WordPress, the included white label analytics in the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin, and WPMU DEV custom client and developer reports in the Hub.
WPMU DEV Branding
The WPMU DEV Branding option enables you to remove the WPMU DEV logo from your WPMU DEV plugins entirely, and replace the plugin images that appear on the dashboard with your own logo.
- Default – When set to default, the WPMU DEV images display without customizations
- Custom – Click the custom button and use the image uploader to upload a custom logo or image. When this option is selected on a multisite installation, an additional option will be available to allow subsite admins to override the image you upload here.
- Link Logo – Enter the URL to a custom image hosted elsewhere.
The custom logo maximum height and width should be 192px and 172px. This Logo will appear only in the dashboard section of each WPMU DEV plugin you have installed that supports this feature.
If you activate the Custom option without adding a graphic it will leave the hero space blank in your WPMU DEV plugins.
Read more about the White Label Plugin release on the WPMU DEV blog.
Note that this same image will also be used on the Login Lockout and 404 Detection lockout screens on the frontend of your site if you have those features configured in the Defender plugin.
Footer Text
The Footer Text module allows you to remove or replace the default, “Made with ♥︎ by WPMU DEV” footer text across all WPMU DEV plugin screens.
To activate the Footer Text module, click Custom and enter your custom footer into the field provided. Leave the field empty to hide the footer completely.
The Footer Text module supports the following HTML tags: <a>, <strong>, <b>, and <i>. With these tags at your disposal, you can style footer text and add custom links.
WPMU DEV Plugin Labels
The WPMU DEV Plugin Labels module allows you to adjust the WPMU DEV plugin names and icons as they appear in the WordPress Admin menu.
To activate the module, click Custom.
Each plugin can be customized individually. To rename a plugin, enter your custom plugin name text into the field provided. To change the plugin icon, click Dashicon, Upload Icon, or Link Icon and select your preferred icon, or else click None if you’d prefer that the plugin have no icon.
For more advanced customization and white labeling of the WordPress Admin interface, use Branda Pro.
Documentation, Tutorials, and What’s New Modal
WPMU DEV plugins include a Documentation button that links to the specific document for configuration options and settings, and some plugins also include quick links to useful tutorials on the WPMU DEV website. Relatedly, when plugins are updated, new features are highlighted in a What’s New modal. These features are great for end-users and are shown by default, but agency owners may want to direct clients to your team for support instead.
To hide Documentation, Tutorials, and What’s New modal features across WPMU DEV plugins, click Hide.
Deactivate White Label
To deactivate the White Label module, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Deactivate. This will save and turn off all white label features you have configured. Next time you activate the White Label module, your settings will be configured for use.
1.7 Settings
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardThe WPMU DEV Dashboard Settings tab is where you manage your API key, enable automatic updates, control Dashboard access and enable Single Sign-On (SSO).
1.7.1 General
Link to chapter 7Automatic Updates
Toggle on Automatic Updates to ensure your WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin is always updated to the latest version and API connectivity is maintained.
Single Sign-on
Toggle on Single Sign-on so you can access your site from both The Hub and Hosting with one click, eliminating the need for a separate login.
If you have granted access to the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin on a site to additional admin users there, and one of those admin users enables the SSO Login feature from the Dashboard plugin, anyone who accesses the site via SSO will be logged-in as that additional admin instead of you.
This can be especially important to know if you have enabled the SSO Login capability in any Team Member custom role.
1.7.2 Translations
Link to chapter 7Set Translation
Choose the default language to be used for all WPMU DEV pro plugins you have installed. By default, this is set to whichever language you have selected as your default language in your WordPress admin under Settings > General, but you can change that here.
Updates
This option enables you to update old translations or have WPMU DEV automatically download and install translation updates for you. The number of available translation updates will vary depending on the language selected above and the number of plugin translations available for that language.
Once enabled, click the Update Translations button to get all available language files updated.
1.7.3 Permissions
Link to chapter 7By default, only the administrator user who authenticated the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin can view and access it in the wp-admin sidebar menu and Plugins screen. However, additional administrator users can be provided access as well.
To give permission to additional admin users, click Add User.
Then, either search for the admin user by their username, or click the plus icon next to their name in the list of all admins.
Click Save to save your changes.
Transfer of Permissions
As mentioned earlier, the WPMU DEV Dashboard is only accessible to the admin (or super admin) user who authenticated the plugin. But if that user accidentally loses the admin/super admin role, the permission automatically gets transferred to the next admin or super admin.
If there are no allowed users listed, the currently logged-in user becomes the admin/super admin. When the plugin is activated, the user who activated it will be added to the allowed list. If there are multiple admins, the currently logged-in admin takes priority.
This feature of the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin can be used to recover access to the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin when it doesn’t appear on their Dashboard and there are multiple admins on the site.
1.7.4 API Key
Link to chapter 7The API key is unique to your WPMU DEV account and is what ensures the secure connection between your site and everything WPMU DEV.
Sometimes, however, it may be necessary to reset your API key if things ever get out of sync for any reason. Click the Manage API Key button to go to your WPMU DEV Account page where you can reset the key.
Resetting your API key will log you out of the WPMU DEV Dashboard on all your sites, and you would need to log back in again to each one individually. Please keep that in mind before choosing to proceed with a reset. You may want to contact support first before proceeding.
1.7.5 Data & Settings
Link to chapter 7Uninstallation
Choose what should happen to your settings and data when the plugin is installed. Note that these settings will impact the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin only, and won’t affect your other WPMU DEV plugins or sites.
Reset Settings
Click Reset Settings to immediately revert all WPMU DEV Dashboard settings to their default state, leaving your data intact. Note that this can be helpful when troubleshooting that may occur after plugin settings are changed.
1.8 Get Support
Copy chapter anchor to clipboardIf you still have questions or need assistance after reading this document, please don’t hesitate to contact our support superheroes using the available options under the Support tab in your Hub or via the Support tab in your WPMU DEV Dashboard.
