14. The Hub Client WPMU DEV

In order to add The Hub Client to your site, it needs to be downloaded from our WPMU DEV plugins page, installed via WPMU DEV Dashboard or you can navigate to The Hub Client page, and click on Find out more about The Hub Client under White label The Hub.

To download the plugin file, click Download.

When the file has finished downloading, the plugin can be installed and activated on your desired site. It can even be installed on a domain-mapped subsite in a multisite, so you can truly brand the experience.  See Uploading a New Plugin for a detailed guide to adding a new plugin.

Once The Hub Client has been activated, you will be met with a welcome page, giving you an overview of the setup procedure and our exciting vision for the future.

Click Get Started to jump into the setup. You can also tick the Don’t show me this again box if you would like to skip the welcome page next time.

In The Hub Client, you can change the settings to suit your preferences. Before we get into the configuration, just a note that the live preview bar at the top will show you what the top-level menu will look like for your users on the front end.

You can also access the technical documents (these documents), for a complete guide to using The Hub Client, by clicking on View documentation.

The plugin settings allow you to adjust the following features:

• Site Brand Name and Logo
• Top-level menu color scheme
• Subsite (only for WordPress Multisites)
• Navigation items
• Client Page
• User & Roles
• Terms of Service URL and Privacy Policy URL
• Site Home URL
• Help Button
• Reset configuration

Site Brand Name and Logo

Brand Name

Allows you to display your brand name on your Hub login page. See how to select the Client Page here.

Logo

This feature allows you to choose a brand logo to display on the login page and on the top-level Hub menu. Ensure that the logo is less than 1MB and has either a transparent background or a background that matches the Navigation background color.

If you change your mind later and want to remove your logo, you can click Remove in the logo module.

Click Remove once again to confirm the removal of your logo or click Cancel to exit without making any changes.

Top-level menu color scheme

Navigation background

Enables you to select a custom background color for the top-level menu. The cursor can be manually dragged to achieve the desired color or you can type in a hex color code. As the color is adjusted, it will change in the live preview bar to give you a better sense of what the final menu will look like.

Navigation text

The navigation text feature controls the color of the text on the top-level menu to best suit your website.

Navigation text selected & hover

This setting allows you to customize the color of the text when an item is selected or when your mouse hovers over an item. If you don’t want the text to change color, you can set the navigation text selected & hover color to the same as the navigation text color.

Configuration

Subsite

(only for WordPress Multisites)

If The Hub Client is installed on a multisite, you can select a subsite on which the Hub will appear.

Type in the subsite you want to select and click Save changes.

Navigation items

Allows you to customize your Hub menu to include other pages that you may want to access easily or advertise. This is done by selecting which menu from your website you wish to add to the top-level menu, which can be customized by adjusting your site menus in Appearance>Menus. Any items from the selected menu will be added to the top-level menu, alongside the default items for the Hub.

Client Page

The Client Page is the selected page on which you would like The Hub to be displayed. It is also the page that will be used for the login.

By default, a page called hub will be created and will be selected as the Client Page. If you already have a page called hub, the page will take the name hub1 and so forth, numerically increasing. This page will be removed if you deactivate The Hub Client plugin or if you Reset your configuration. If you don’t want to use the default page, you can easily change this by clicking on hub > and selecting a different page on your site.

User & Roles

Click Manage to jump to the Users & Roles settings in The Hub. To learn more about how Users & Roles function in The Hub and The Hub Client plugin, read the Users & Roles section in this document.

Terms of Service URL and Privacy Policy URL

These settings allow you to set your own Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This can be done by simply clicking Add and linking each URL.

Remember to click Save Changes to save your new URL. To remove your URL and revert all changes back to their original state, click Reset.

Your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are important for when a new user is added and confirms your invitation. Upon their setup, they will be asked to agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy that you have set. However, the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy checkbox will only appear on your invitations once you have added URLs for both documents.

Site Home URL

This feature allows you to customize the link used for the back button on your client login page.

To do this, simply click Add which will open the configuration module.

Enter your custom URL in the https://example.com field and provide a custom title in the Site home URL title field. The custom title that you choose is the text that will be used for the back button and the custom URL is the page to which users will be directed when they click the button.

If you want the back button to open the custom URL in a new tab, tick the Open in new tab box. Remember to click Save Changes to keep your configurations and if you ever want to revert your changes back to the default state, you can click Reset. If no customizations are made, the back button will direct visitors to the default home page of that site.

Help Button

Wanting to provide some of your own help resources? This allows you to add a floating help bubble on your Hub page that, when clicked, will direct the user to a URL of your choice. To open this module, click Add.

Enter the URL for your help page and click Save Changes. If you want to start fresh, you can always click Reset to revert the settings for this module back to its original state.

If you leave this configuration blank, the help button will not show up on your Hub page. However, once a valid URL has been added, it will look a little something like this:

By default, the help page will be opened in a new tab.

Reset configuration

To reset your settings to their default values, click Reset.

When asked to confirm the reset, click Reset to proceed with reverting your settings or click Cancel to exit.

The Hub offers several features to make your life easier and your site management more efficient. In order to make use of these features, a site needs to be added to the Hub. For a detailed description of how to connect a new site to the Hub, read Add a Site to Hub 2.0.

Each site can be controlled through the different modules available. If you would like more information on how to use these modules for a site, we recommend reading Managing a Website in Hub 2.0.

Among many effective site management tools, the Hub also allows you to control domains and DNS records. Detailed guides to managing domains and DNS records can be found at Domains and DNS from the WPMU DEV Technical Documents.

Users & Roles

You can jump to your Users & Roles settings in The Hub by clicking Manage under the User & Roles module within The Hub Client plugin settings.

In The Hub

The Hub is a central site director that allows for delegation to multiple users. These users can be added to the Hub with customized site access, allowing you to distribute site permissions to multiple colleagues or clients.

Depending on whether you are already a present user of the Hub or you are a user who has been added to the Hub under certain permissions, the experience will be different.

Already a present user? Great, the Hub will function as-is for you.

If you are a new user, the accessibility of all the features will be dependent on the permissions given to you by the admin. See Users for more information about Users & Roles in the Hub.

The DNS feature in the Hub will only be available to the team owner. This means that the DNS tab will not be visible to other users, regardless of which roles they are given. If you would like a refresh of exactly what other features a custom user can access, we recommend reading Create a custom user role.

In The Hub Client Plugin

Users & Roles can be configured inside The Hub, rather than inside The Hub Client Plugin. If you attempt to access Users & Roles from the plugin side with an older version of The Hub Client, you will be redirected to the Users & Roles settings in The Hub. This is done to protect the safety of your sites that are connected to The Hub, with regards to the user roles that surround gaining access to your connected sites.

Two-Factor Authentication

Users can also enable two-factor authentication for added security.

After accepting the invitation, the new user can access the Hub with the permissions granted by the admin. Click on the Account icon in the top right-hand corner to access the dropdown menu. From there, click on Two Factor Authentication to open the authentication configuration module.

Two-factor authentication can now be set up by the user. For more information on this setup process, visit the Two-Factor Authentication documents.

Single Sign-On

If you’re wanting to manage your websites more efficiently without needing to constantly sign into your admin area, Single Sign-on is a gamechanger. This is supported on The Hub Client as well as The Hub. Simply enable Single Sign-on in your WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin Settings to allow Single Sign-on for yourself and the rest of your team.

Visibility for User-Created Sites

What happens if an added user creates a site and connects it to the Hub? If a new site is created by a user, it will not be visible under their My Sites list at first. This is because the user has been granted permissions based on the initial list of sites, which changes when a new site is created. The new site will be visible under the admin’s My Sites section and access to the new site can be given by managing the user’s permissions, as discussed in Managing Existing Users. 

Once the user’s site permissions have been updated by the admin, the new site will be visible under the user’s My Sites section.

Once you have configured The Hub Client plugin settings, the Hub can be accessed by viewing the selected Client Page on the front end. To select a page where you want the Hub to appear, adjust the plugin settings as specified here.

Enter your WPMU DEV credentials to log into the Hub. Alternatively, you can use your Team user credentials if you are a user added to the Hub by the admin. Tick the Remember me box to skip the login process next time.