Before we immerse ourselves in more advanced configuration options and the operational aspects of WP Ultimo let us take a look at the dashboard.
Like many WordPress plugins, WP Ultimo creates a network-level menu entry titled ‘WP Ultimo’ with a number of children entries underneath.
Network Dashboard Widgets
WP Ultimo 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.
First Steps
This widget predominantly appears on a fresh installation of WP Ultimo such as ours and reminds the network administrator to complete additional tasks.
Summary
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.
Activity Stream
This widget reports on events across WP Ultimo 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.
Right Now
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.
News and Discussions
This widget fetches and displays the latest WP Ultimo news. It is advantageous to keep an eye on this widget for information about updates, critical bugs, and security fixes.
WP Ultimo Dashboard
Where the network-level dashboard presents holistic information about the network the WP Ultimo dashboard located at the top-level of the WP Ultimo menu presents information about the service.
Welcome Tour
On a fresh installation of WP Ultimo a brief welcome tour is displayed familiarizing the network administrator with the dashboard and its new functions. Customers of WP Ultimo 1.x will notice the dashboard as a new addition as well as more intuitive navigation and options.
Documentation
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 WP Ultimo as well as ancillary information designed to be helpful to the network administrator.
The documentation link is prevalent on most WP Ultimo 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.
Monthly Recurring Revenue Growth
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.
Date-range Support
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.