understanding the wp ultimo dashboard
Before we immerse ourselves in more advanced configuration options and the operational aspects of Multisite Ultimate let us take a look at the dashboard.
Like many WordPress plugins, Multisite Ultimate creates a network-level menu entry titled ‘Multisite Ultimate’ with a number of children entries underneath.
Multisite Ultimate injects a few useful widgets into the network-level dashboard. This dashboard is found by navigating to My Sites > Network Admin > Dashboard. The widgets are designed to provide easy access to information and common operations for the network administrator.
This widget predominantly appears on a fresh installation of Multisite Ultimate such as ours and reminds the network administrator to complete additional tasks.
The summary widget reports on the number of signups and their revenue for the day. The MRR (monthly recurring revenue) indicates a projected total across customers with revenue-generating memberships.
This widget reports on events across Multisite Ultimate for which there is a variety to report on. Events could include aspects such as signups, cancellations, creations, and deletions of sites and other activities.
Please refer to the events section of the documentation for a more detailed description.
This utility widget displays a short summary of users and sites in the network. Handy shortcuts at the top allow for one-click access to create new sites or users.
This widget fetches and displays the latest Multisite Ultimate news. It is advantageous to keep an eye on this widget for information about updates, critical bugs, and security fixes.
Where the network-level dashboard presents holistic information about the network the Multisite Ultimate dashboard located at the top-level of the Multisite Ultimate menu presents information about the service.
On a fresh installation of Multisite Ultimate a brief welcome tour is displayed familiarizing the network administrator with the dashboard and its new functions. Customers of Multisite Ultimate 1.x will notice the dashboard as a new addition as well as more intuitive navigation and options.
At the top of the dashboard lies the ‘Documentation’ link. The documentation (this documentation) contains a wealth of information regarding the installation, operation, support, and maintenance of Multisite Ultimate as well as ancillary information designed to be helpful to the network administrator.
The documentation link is prevalent on most Multisite Ultimate pages providing contextual help when called upon. Thus when working with sites, for example, the documentation link will provide help related to the creation and management of network sites.
Leading from the network-level widget the MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) displays a monthly breakdown of revenue over a 12-month calendar period.
New revenue is tracked in blue color while cancellations are reflected in red color.
Depending on the number of customers, activity, and type of information statistics soon become overwhelming, difficult to find, and difficult to interpret.
The date-range support built into the dashboard allows the network administrator to focus on only the information and information period required.
The date range governs the period of the information displayed by the widgets directly below.
These widgets display a range of information with respect to the network such as signups, cancellations, and demographics.