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Documentation, reference material and tutorials for CRM-NG SMTP Email: setup guides for every mail service, troubleshooting, and one article per error message.

Using CRM-NG SMTP on a WordPress multisite

Updated

By Duane GarnerChief Executive Officer (CEO)
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How CRM-NG SMTP behaves on a multisite network, where its settings live, who can change them, and how to share one setup across sites.

This article explains how CRM-NG SMTP works on a WordPress multisite network. It is for network administrators and site administrators on a network.

Activating on a network

You can activate CRM-NG SMTP in two ways:

  • Network Activate from Network Admin → Plugins. The plugin runs on every site in the network.
  • Activate on individual sites from each site's Plugins page, if the network allows site administrators to manage plugins.

Either way, each site gets its own CRM-NG SMTP menu.

Per-site settings (the default)

By default, every site in the network has its own CRM-NG SMTP settings. Each site can use a different sender, a different mailer and different credentials. This suits networks where each site belongs to a different brand or client.

Per-site means:

  • Each site's settings are stored in that site's own crmng_smtp option.
  • Each site keeps its own email log, debug events and reports.
  • A site administrator (anyone with the manage_options capability on that site) can change that site's settings at CRM-NG SMTP → Settings.
  • Uninstall clean-up, if you turn it on, also runs site by site.

One setup for the whole network

Many networks want every site to send the same way, through one account, without each site administrator filling in the form. There are two ways to get there.

All sites in a network share one wp-config.php file, so settings you define there apply to every site at once, and nobody can change them from the admin screens.

define( 'CRMNG_SMTP_ON', true );
define( 'CRMNG_SMTP_MAIL_FROM', 'noreply@yournetwork.com' );
define( 'CRMNG_SMTP_MAIL_FROM_FORCE', true );
define( 'CRMNG_SMTP_MAIL_FROM_NAME', 'Your Network' );
define( 'CRMNG_SMTP_MAILER', 'sendinblue' );
define( 'CRMNG_SMTP_SENDINBLUE_API_KEY', 'your-key-here' );

Fields set by a constant show as locked on the settings screen. You can set only some values as constants (for example the mailer and its key) and let each site set its own sender name. The full list of constants and how they work is in Securing settings with wp-config constants.

This is also the safest place for API keys, because they are not stored in the database.

Option 2: network-wide mode

CRM-NG SMTP can also keep a single set of settings for the whole network, stored on the main site. When this mode is on:

  • Every site reads the main site's settings.
  • Changing the settings, running Tools → Import and pressing the hand-over buttons need the manage_network_options capability, which normally means a Super Admin.
  • Site administrators can no longer change mail settings for their own site.

This version of CRM-NG SMTP has no switch on its screens to turn network-wide mode on. Use the constants in option 1 if you want one shared setup. If your network already had network-wide mode turned on, it keeps working, and an import never changes it.

Testing on a network

Send a test from each site that matters, at CRM-NG SMTP → Tools → Email Test. Even with shared settings, each site may use a different From Email domain, and each domain needs its own SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. See Adding DNS records.

Hand-over and imports on a network

If another mail plugin was configured network-wide on the main site, CRM-NG SMTP notices this on every site and starts in standby. Follow Switching from another mail plugin (hand-over) on each site where you want CRM-NG SMTP to take over.

Conflicts on a network

If a conflicting mail plugin is network-activated, the conflict notice says so. Deactivate it from Network Admin → Plugins, not from a single site. See Testing for plugin and theme conflicts.

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