Will AffiliateWP work on a Multisite Installation?

Absolutely! AffiliateWP can be set up so that all sites on the network share the same affiliate data.

1
Set up a WordPress Multisite.
2
Add the constant below to your wp-config.php file. A good place would be where you were instructed earlier in the multisite installation, just above the /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */ line:

define( 'AFFILIATE_WP_NETWORK_WIDE', true );

3
Navigate to My Sites → Network Admin → Plugins and click Network Activate under the AffiliateWP plugin name. AffiliateWP will now be network activated, and will appear in each sub-site's WP admin interface.

Since AffiliateWP shares its database tables across all sites on the network there's a few things to note:

  • Whenever a visit is created on any sub-site, it will show on the Affiliates → Visits page of all sites on the network. 
  • Whenever a referral is created on any sub-site, it will be shown on the Affiliates → Referrals page of all sites on the network.
  • Whenever an affiliate registers on any sub-site, they are an affiliate on all sites. They can then append their referral ID or username to any other sub-site URL and earn a commission if the customer purchases. 
  • An affiliate has an affiliate area on all sub-sites.
  • Creatives are shared across all sub-sites.
  • Settings are individual to each sub-site and not shared between them, since these are saved in the wp_options table. This means that each sub-site can have different settings. Don't forget to enable your chosen integration on each sub-site to generate referrals for that site.

If a customer clicks on an affiliate's referral link and then visits a different sub-site on the network and then purchases, does the original affiliate earn commission?

Yes, but if your multisite network is set up to use sub-domains (instead of sub-directories), you'll need to enable the Cookie Sharing setting on the Affiliates → Settings → General page. 

What if I'm moving an existing, standalone AffiliateWP site into a multisite sub-site?  Can I retain all of my affiliates and activity to share across all sub-sites on the network?

Yes, you can with a few extra steps if you are comfortable removing and renaming tables in your site's MySQL database. 

When AffiliateWP is on a single, standalone site it creates a site-specific database.  When you move it to a network installation, new network-wide tables are created to be shared across all sub-sites when AFFILIATE_WP_NETWORK_WIDE is set to true (as seen above in Step 2).  The tables it creates are prefixed with affiliate_wp* and are empty. 

To correct this:

1. Delete the empty tables.

2. Re-name the old tables belonging to the previously standalone site to begin with the same prefix of affiliate_wp*.  Refresh, and now you can see all affiliate data from any sub-site on the network.

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