Hi there,
I am new to Drupal and have decided to try it out for something I am trying to do. I am looking to have the following:
mydomain.com ------ Main site with articles, blog
forums.mydomain.com ------ Forum
socialnetwork.mydomain.com ------ Social network
ecommerce.mydomain.com ------ Store
I want the theme to be consistent across all, and the when a user logs in or out of one he is logged in or out of all. I would also like the ability to register/login with facebook/twitter etc. (also with registering/logging in to all) and for their user profile to be consistent across all (so they can collect user points etc)..
I have seen posts where people are using one instance of Drupal for this with one database.. But I don't know if this is because this is the best way to do this or if they have a specific reason for doing it this way? I don't necessarily need this - I can use multiple instances of Drupal, or multiple databases, or I can use single instances etc - whatever is going to be best regarding simplicity of design, maintenance etc.
If anyone can give me some pointers on the best way to achieve what I am looking to do structurally that would be great (maybe the single instance of Drupal way is best and that's why I see this so much in search results?). Or if you can point me in the right direction for some resources? Ideally I'd just like to know why one way would be better than another,
Thanks in advance,
Johnny
Comments
Where do you intend to host?
Sounds like a ridiculous question, but it could matter how this is handled. If it is on a server where you have complete control the point is moot. At the other end of the spectrum are virtual hosting accounts loaded with CMS managed sites; it does then become an issue--especially when they are fairly popular sites.
Here's why. Those virtual unlimited accounts are not so unlimited when you consider that it is a common practice to throttle accounts who hog CPU cycles. Every access made to a database requires CPU cycles and when one account uses more than their fair share it results with the other sites residing on the server to perform slower, which is why CPU hogs are throttled.
It's something to consider.
Hosting can be upgraded as I go along
I will be starting out on a shared host,
I understand that this will be overwhelmed fairly quickly as the site grows - but I hope that will be the case and will upgrade accordingly..
I have just found this:
http://www.slideshare.net/jvandyk/multisite-van-dyk-walkah-presentation
As usual, after I have annoyed people on here, I find a good answer! It seems to answer my questions though, assuming by using this method Distributed registration/login/logout would be possible with facebook or twitter etc?
Do you know if this is possible?
Sounds like a case for Domain Access
Domain Access isn't without caveats, but this seems like a good use case. Same user base, all one database, content types can be broken out according to the domain (many more things you can do).
Easily served on a VPS. For example, the 19.95 a month Linode. This lets you be as CPU/Database intensive as you like.
Multisite works
Using Multisite works very well on a shared host (I was on Bluehost and now have a VPS at Myhosting). You can share the user tables. It takes 5 minutes to set up a new subdomain. Domain access is way too complicated for what you're trying to do.
This post contains the process using cPanel: http://groups.drupal.org/node/118109#comment-381984. (Remember to delete the subdomain folder after you create it!)
If you're on D7, here's the post for the sharing user tables: http://groups.drupal.org/node/248943#comment-809638
Susan (joyseeker)
Multisite or Domain Access..
OK,
Thanks for your replies all, it is appreciated!
so it looks like I will go with multisite most probably.
The only reason I can see to go with Domain Access would be if I needed to aggregate content on one of the sites (maybe content from each site on the front page of the main domain for instance). Is this possible with Domain Access?
From what I have read it looks like maybe this can only work the other way around - ie the main site can push content to the slaves but can it pull content from them?
Can anyone answer if I use one of the connect with Facebook/Twitter modules will this register/log me in to all sites using Multisite? what about Domain Access?
number 2 above is imperative for in my case...
Thanks for any advice.. :)
Johnny
Multisite it is..
OK,
I have done some extensive reading on this and the consensus seems to be:
Domain Access if sites are sharing content across sites.
Multisite if sites share common features, but not content.
my setup may share some content - but this would be very minimal (front page of main site showing blog/review updates) so not enough to justify Domain Access.
so multisite it is.
Now, I just need to know: If I use one of the connect with Facebook/Twitter modules will this register/log me in to all sites using Multisite?
so:
log in using drupalforfacebook to example.com ------> browse to forums.example.com or socialnetwork.example.com = already logged in?
my gut feeling is that it should work,
does anyone know for certain?
Thanks,
Johnny