Site Cloning, as in sub-sites

Hi, I am new to ModX. I’ve read several threads in this forum re: sub-sites, especially the thread about the core HACK that allows sub-domains to work off of the same core files. I also read that there was to be implementation of ’context’ with the 1.0 release. However, I still haven’t been able to figure out if the following scenario will be possible, even with the 1.0 release:

One person or company can operate their site, www.site1.com.

Through site1.com, the owner can provide clients or users with their own sites, site2.com, site3.com, etc.

- site2.com would have its own users, its own unique data (unable to see other users data as well), and have its own theme.
- and the same for all other sites, site3.com, etc.
- all sub-sites running off of the original core files of site1.com
- all sub-sites having the site1.com snippets available to them, etc.
- all sub-sites accessed by their own unique domain names but using the same file structure

Will this ever be possible? With 1.0?

Thanks very much
Philip Smith

Quote from: psmith at Nov 11, 2006, 10:32 PM

One person or company can operate their site, www.site1.com.

Through site1.com, the owner can provide clients or users with their own sites, site2.com, site3.com, etc.

- site2.com would have its own users, its own unique data (unable to see other users data as well), and have its own theme.
- and the same for all other sites, site3.com, etc.

Yes, yes, definitely yes, and yes...though I may need to make some changes to allow better isolation of users in the local MODx database. Just a matter of organizing the site content and user groups/permissions around each site context. However, the data would be in a single, centralized data source.

Quote from: psmith at Nov 11, 2006, 10:32 PM

- all sub-sites running off of the original core files of site1.com

Yes, in the future, the MODx core can exist outside of the web document root, so it could even be used in various ways; one core with a central manager and multiple domains (or subdomains in separate physical directories), OR one core with multiple managers and domains (one manager and web context per domain), etc. However, keep in mind that a single core equals a single database, so you would be running all of these sites from one database, and as the number of contexts grow, so will the burden on both the single database, as well as the single set of core files, because all requests from all sites will be utilizing the same database and file-system resources.

Quote from: psmith at Nov 11, 2006, 10:32 PM

- all sub-sites having the site1.com snippets available to them, etc.

Yes, all the various MODx elements (snippets, chunks, etc.) can be global to all contexts or limited to a certain set.

Quote from: psmith at Nov 11, 2006, 10:32 PM

- all sub-sites accessed by their own unique domain names but using the same file structure

Sort of, except each site would need a contextual entry point different from the others (i.e. an index.php in a unique location). They could all share the same assets directory if need be, but again, sometimes redundancy in such things can improve scalability, as I described above. Lots of factors to consider when planning the kinds of projects you are describing...

Thank you very much for that info.

I’ve looked the the roadmaps available but I wasn’t able to locate where the sub-site or multiple context stuff was going to come into play. Is it still planned for the 1.0 Modx release? And if so, did 1.0 ever get a planned release date yet?

Quote from: psmith at Nov 12, 2006, 12:31 PM

I’ve looked the the roadmaps available but I wasn’t able to locate where the sub-site or multiple context stuff was going to come into play. Is it still planned for the 1.0 Modx release? And if so, did 1.0 ever get a planned release date yet?

Right; the roadmaps definitely need to be updated. I think we’ve had most of our contributing resources so focused on the delivery of 0.9.5 that we’ve let a lot of the marketing site slip over the past few months. There are efforts underway as we speak to get that updated, as well as to make updated documentation for 0.9.5 available.

MODx 1.0 is under development (and has been in parallel for almost a year now), but as this project is not yet a profitable business entity, we cannot really set schedules for release. They would be at best loose predictions as all of our contributors are volunteer and our product decisions often have to be based on what does actually get contributed and when.

I can say with some confidence that it will not be this year, and will more likely be finalized towards the middle of next year. Of course, a great influx of donations or other significant funding might be able to speed that schedule up...

Quote from: psmith at Nov 12, 2006, 01:37 PM

Understandable, of course. So in searching for 1.0 release date I came across a post in April saying 3-6 months pessimistically. Which would have put things back in October Are we still months away?

Again, as with that prediction, too many factors to consider; and that prediction BTW, is why I don’t give predictions anymore.

I’d love to give you a more accurate date, but yes, we are still months away from having the full 1.0 feature set in the product, again, unless someone specifically decides to fund a feature from it. Then perhaps we can find a path to accelerate release with certain features.

Maybe borrow best practices from Drupal’s multi-site capabilities.

I’ve never actually used it, but found it very intriquing.

With the right configurations, you can not only run sites separately, but could also share tables between them, such as allowing member access across the sites, or sharing important and large static tables such as zipcode or geotargeting data, list of banned IP’s, etc.