Setting up several sites in one installation #

This page is for website creators who build more than one site on one Exponential installation: several brands, regions, or a main site and microsites. Each site is one or more siteaccesses: a name, its settings in settings/siteaccess/<name>/, and a rule for which requests it answers (10.2 Siteaccesses and site addresses).

Contents #

1. Shapes of a multisite
2. Step by step: a second site
3. Settings per site in an extension
4. Links between the sites
5. Editors and the administration
6. Trade-offs

Shapes of a multisite #

The default site package, sevenx_multisite, is itself a multisite installation.

Step by step: a second site #

1. Content. Create a folder Site B under the root and note its node ID.

2. Siteaccess. Copy settings/siteaccess/site to settings/siteaccess/site_b and set in site_b/site.ini.append.php:

   [SiteSettings]
   SiteName=Site B
   SiteURL=www.site-b.example
   IndexPage=/content/view/full/<node id of Site B>
   DefaultPage=/content/view/full/<node id of Site B>
   
   [DesignSettings]
   SiteDesign=siteb
   AdditionalSiteDesignList[]
   AdditionalSiteDesignList[]=simple

   and in site_b/content.ini.append.php:

   [NodeSettings]
   RootNode=<node id of Site B>

3. Register and match it in settings/override/site.ini.append.php:

   [SiteAccessSettings]
   AvailableSiteAccessList[]=site_b
   RelatedSiteAccessList[]=site_b
   MatchOrder=host;uri
   HostMatchType=map
   HostMatchMapItems[]=www.site-b.example;site_b

   Keep the entries the installer wrote for the other siteaccesses; add yours. HostMatchMethod=start also lets a test host such as www.site-b.example.test.local reach the same siteaccess (Siteaccess by host prefix).

4. Web server and DNS. Add the host name to DNS, to the web server or Velocity, and to the certificate (Going live: hosts, HTTPS and siteaccesses).

5. Clear caches and check.

   php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-tag=ini --allow-root-user
   curl -sI https://www.site-b.example/ | head -1

6. Let the administration know the site: add site_b to [SiteSettings] SiteList[] of the admin siteaccess, so previews and links can use it.

Settings per site in an extension #

When each site is an extension (extension/site_b/), it can carry settings/override/ files that apply only while one of its own siteaccesses runs, plus settings/siteaccess/<name>/ per siteaccess. Clearing the INI cache clears it for every site (Per-site settings inside extensions). That keeps each site's design, settings and templates together in one Git repository.

Links between the sites #

A link in the content of site A to a page that lives in site B's folder must point to site B's host. The ezurlmultisite extension resolves such links (Links to content of another site).

Editors and the administration #

• One administration can serve every site; roles limited by subtree keep each team in its site's folder (Roles and policies).
• Several administration siteaccesses are possible when teams should not see each other's sites at all.

Trade-offs #

Write the trade-off into the plan (Planning multisite and multilingual projects).

Related pages #

• Building a multilingual site
• Structuring the content tree
• Multisite siteaccess cookbook (doc/eng-us/examples/cookbook/multisite-siteaccess.md)
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.