I'm about to embark on my first multisite project, and no doubt I'll be coming here a LOT for advice! I know I should ask major, detailed questions one at a time here, but I had a few quick ones to start with -- so I hope it's ok to group them all together here:
1). What's the best way to develop a test site for a multisite installation? I've been using DesktopServer for single-site installs, and it's been great. But apparently it doesn't support multisite development. I heard MAMP, does -- so I might switch to that. However, I may just use a live subdomain too, as I don't predict THAT many code changes. (Unless someone here thinks that's a really bad idea...)
So if I test on a live subdomain, and my test site is located at http://newsitename.myowndomain.com (I don’t have access to the ACTUAL “newsitename” domain yet), and I choose "sub-domains" for new sites in the multisite network, will they look like http://subsitename.newsitename.myowndomain.com? And when I ultimately point the newsitename.com domain to the new site, will it basically carry the same structure but without ".myowndomain" in it?
2). I’m learning that not all plugins work with multisite (I know all WPMUDEV plugins do). What happens when I really need one of these plugins and there’s no multisite alternative? I can still activate them on just ONE site in the network, without messing up the other sites, correct?
3). I’d like all the sites in the network to have MarketPress stores. I want site owners to be able to add products to their stores via the front end. Is this MarketPress Frontend plugin legit? It has only 10+ installs, so I’m a little wary. Also, if site owners are using a payment gateway such as Stripe (to take orders on site), does each site then need their own SSL certificate in order for this to work?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give answering these questions!