Multiple sites / domains one install

I am investigating the use of revolution on a multi site setup.

I think I have worked out how revolution could handle this if all the domains where pointed to the same folder on the server using contexts and changing the index.php file but what i am interested in doing is the following setup.
[table][tr][td]Site[/td][td]Folder[/td][td]Users[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]site1[/td][td]/home/site1/html[/td][td]Admin,user1,user2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]site2[/td][td]/home/site2/html[/td][td]Admin, user3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]site3[/td][td]/home/site3/html[/td][td]Admin,user1,user4[/td][/tr][/table] etc

What I would like to be able to is set revolution up so that the core is installed once on the server and then that each site as it’s own management and front end.

Is it possible to setup one admin for all sites or would each site need a different account.

I would like to be able to setup up certain snippets that would be available to all the sites rather than having to install each snippet multiple times on each site and also have individual snippets on indivdual sites where needed.

Is this all possible and if so could someone give me some pointers on how to do it.

I know Revolution is not production ready but I want to look at it all now so that I am ready when it is.

Quote from: peteedley at Mar 25, 2009, 06:57 AM

What I would like to be able to is set revolution up so that the core is installed once on the server and then that each site as it’s own management and front end.

Is it possible to setup one admin for all sites or would each site need a different account.

It’s not clear what you want. You definitely *can’t* have one admin for all sites and have each site with its own "management" since the administration is done in the Manager.  You *can* administer multple front ends in one Manager and you could restrict other manager users so they could only work on one of those sites. The key question is, how many Manager directories do you want, how many core directories, and how many MODx databases. Once you decide that, we can give you more advice about how to do it. OpenGeek can certainly explain this in more detail than I can.

I would like to be able to setup up certain snippets that would be available to all the sites rather than having to install each snippet multiple times on each site and also have individual snippets on indivdual sites where needed.

If all the sites are sharing the same database, they can share their snippets. If not, you’d need multiple installs of the snippets, although some snippet *files* (e.g. class files, readme.txt files, etc.) could go in the core and you could have a single core.

OK Quote from: BobRay at Mar 25, 2009, 02:58 PM

It’s not clear what you want.

That is probably because some extent I don’t know exactly what i want I am investigating if it would be worth switching to revolution when it becomes RC, So I will try and explain with an example.

eg. I currently have 4 sites setup on one VPS one of these sites is my own and the others are for friends, I want to be able to have one install of the core for easy upgrading when new versions come out. I need to be able to administer all the sites to make major changes and solve problems (preferabley from one account rather than seperate accounts, but from what you say this may not be possible). But my four friends would like to be able to have control over their site in the form of adding/deleteing/updateing pages. Some of these sites will have snippets that are used across all sites and so I would like to have these held central again for easy updates. But some will have snippets that only they use and so these could be held on that site only but could easliy be held central as well.

Now this could be achieved by parking all the domains to my domain and use contexts with changes to the index file to invoke a given context based on the domain name in http_request. But I would like to also have each domain setup as a seperate domain within my CPANEL for easy email control. Which would then mean that each domain would point to it’s own seprate folder on the server and not to the folder that contains the modx revo.

hope that helps you understand what I am after, I am not sure of the best way to achieve this and that is why I am trying to research it.

You *can* administer multple front ends in one Manager and you could restrict other manager users so they could only work on one of those sites. The key question is, how many Manager directories do you want

I think the answer to this is one for each domain

, how many core directories,

one

and how many MODx databases.

how ever many it needs

Quote from: peteedley at Mar 25, 2009, 04:06 PM

eg. I currently have 4 sites setup on one VPS one of these sites is my own and the others are for friends, I want to be able to have one install of the core for easy upgrading when new versions come out. I need to be able to administer all the sites to make major changes and solve problems (preferabley from one account rather than seperate accounts, but from what you say this may not be possible). But my four friends would like to be able to have control over their site in the form of adding/deleteing/updateing pages. Some of these sites will have snippets that are used across all sites and so I would like to have these held central again for easy updates. But some will have snippets that only they use and so these could be held on that site only but could easliy be held central as well.

For now, the Content Elements (i.e. Templates, TVs, Chunks, Snippets and Plugins) would be shared by all contexts in a single database, which we’ll refer to as a MODx configuration. In future releases (after 2.0), we will provide a way to secure Content Elements with access permissions. In the meantime, an alternative to having to share these would be to develop a MODx User extension that would allow you to login to and administer several MODx configurations. I have a prototype that uses an external web service to login as remote users on our internal Revolution sites that could be a good starting point.

Quote from: peteedley at Mar 25, 2009, 04:06 PM

Now this could be achieved by parking all the domains to my domain and use contexts with changes to the index file to invoke a given context based on the domain name in http_request. But I would like to also have each domain setup as a seperate domain within my CPANEL for easy email control. Which would then mean that each domain would point to it’s own seprate folder on the server and not to the folder that contains the modx revo.

That’s perfectly fine, you’ll have an index in each folder that initializes the appropriate context representing a particular site. Same difference as using a single index file with a case statement that checks the MODX_HTTP_HOST to decide which context to initialize, or using a plugin (though a plugin is a little less efficient since it would initialize the main web context and then switch to another).

Quote from: peteedley at Mar 25, 2009, 04:06 PM

You *can* administer multple front ends in one Manager and you could restrict other manager users so they could only work on one of those sites. The key question is, how many Manager directories do you want

I think the answer to this is one for each domain

Actually, you can only have one manager per MODx configuration, so this depends on which approach you choose; either one configuration/manager with contexts secured per friend, or one configuration/manager per site with the ability for you to authenticate in each site as a user from your main site.

Quote from: peteedley at Mar 25, 2009, 04:06 PM

, how many core directories,

one

Yep, just one core can support both of these approaches. We manage many configurations with shared cores directly with SVN and it works very well.

I was wondering, in a multi domain/folder setup, what happens with physical files like a PDF, MP3, AVI, and the template html/css files. Can they be stored in the folders outside the core installation or do they have to be in a sub folder to the core?

For example if the admin for Domain1.com wanted to upload MP3 podcasts he might not want the admin for Domain2.net seeing or accessing those files. Do we setup a folder structure in the external folders or does the Core handle where those files get stored and how to keep them private?

Physical files can always be stored anywhere you want. They can even be stored on a different physical server; image servers have been around for a long time. As long as your links to them are correct there’s no limitations there.

Actually, you can only have one manager per MODx configuration, so this depends on which approach you choose; either one configuration/manager with contexts secured per friend, or one configuration/manager per site with the ability for you to authenticate in each site as a user from your main site.

I wonder if it would make sense for the OP to have 4 configurations sharing the same core. The shared snippets could be stored as files in that core and "included" with a core path prefix. In that scenario, would Setup have to run 4 times for an upgrade?

Quote from: BobRay at Aug 23, 2009, 07:20 PM

Actually, you can only have one manager per MODx configuration, so this depends on which approach you choose; either one configuration/manager with contexts secured per friend, or one configuration/manager per site with the ability for you to authenticate in each site as a user from your main site.

I wonder if it would make sense for the OP to have 4 configurations sharing the same core. The shared snippets could be stored as files in that core and "included" with a core path prefix. In that scenario, would Setup have to run 4 times for an upgrade?

Yes, it would still have to be executed for and applied to each database specified in the configuration.