Author: Joseph Dickson

Multisite is a powerful feature that allows us to manage multiple blogs within a single WordPress installation. In this post I briefly describe how to post content from the main site to a sub-site.

// Check if WordPress is using multisite
if ( is_multisite() ) {

global $switched;

// Switch to another blog by ID number 1 for the first site
switch_to_blog( 1 );

// Get a WP_Query that loops in a post from the main site
get_template_part('template-parts/notice-wp-query');

// Switch back to current blog
restore_current_blog();

}

We can use any method you like to query a post from the main site. In this example I’m using WP_Query and Advanced Custom Fields to display a post using the notice category.

<?php
$current_post_ID = get_the_ID(); // the post's id is assigned to $current_post_ID


$args = array(
	'post_type'		=> 'post',
	'orderby'		=> 'date',
	'order'			=> 'DESC',
	'category_name'		=> 'notice',
);

// the query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
?>

<?php if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : ?>

	<!-- pagination here -->
<div id="notice" class="row">
	<div class="small-12 columns">
	<!-- the loop -->
	<?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?> 
		<article>
		<div class="notice">
		<?php
			if ( function_exists( 'get_field' ) ) {  

				echo '<a href="' . get_field( 'redirect_to_url' ) . '">'; 
					echo '<h1 class="entry-title"><span class="dashicons dashicons-warning"></span>' . get_the_title() .'</h1>';
					echo '<div class="notice-content">';
						echo the_content();
					echo '</div>';
				echo '</a>';
			} else {
				echo '<a href="' . get_permalink() . '">'; 
					echo '<h1 class="entry-title"><span class="dashicons dashicons-warning"></span>' . get_the_title() .'</h1>';
					echo '<div class="notice-content">';
						echo the_content();
					echo '</div>';
				echo '</a>';
			}

		?>
		</div>
		</article>

	<?php endwhile; ?>
	<!-- end of the loop -->
	</div>
</div>
	<!-- pagination here -->
<?php endif; ?>

<?php wp_reset_postdata();

Allowing the site to post a custom message that links to another page for additional information. When the post isn’t available the blue box below will simply not appear on the page. I built this feature a long time ago but didn’t really have a practical use of until March when the pandemic required notification banners above everything on my 100+ site multisite.