WordPress Multisite (using subdomains) + Shibboleth authentication

The WordPress Shibboleth plugin advertises WPMU support but does not seem to work with a WP 3.x Multisite/Network installation. Below is a patch to version 1.4 of the Shibboleth plugin and basic setup details needed to support sitewide Shibboleth authentication.

Before we begin, I assume you’re already familiar with installing and configuring Shibboleth, WordPress, and the WordPress Shibboleth plugin. If you haven’t already set up WordPress or a Shibboleth SP, either bribe someone who has or find a carafe of coffee and come back in a day or two.

Download the patch (wp-shibboleth-1.4-multisite.patch.zip)

What’s in the patch?

  • Support for WP Multisite/Network with subdomains. I didn’t try this with a subdirectory implementation and don’t expect it to work.
  • A setting to specify the common email domain for users’ email addresses as a combination of their shibboleth username + “@” + the common email domain
  • Fixes for localization/gettext support.
  • HTML markup fixes on the admin control panel page

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