Managing multiple sites in one SiteBuilder

Questions:

• Why is this a good idea?
• How can this be done?
• What about developing new templates?
• What about the Search Engine?
• What about the host names for each site?
• What about the replication?
• What about testing new modules?

Why is this a good idea?

Managing several sites within one SiteBuilder simplifies administration and template reuse. In particular, adding new sites to an existing configuration becomes extremely simple since most settings including the replication, Search Engine etc. are already in place.

Administration becomes easier because there are fewer settings to manage. This eliminates typical errors such as copy-paste problems when an administrator manages several separate and nearly identical SiteBuilder configurations.

Template reuse makes it easier to share functionality between all or some sites. Even if templates are not reused, having all templates within one SiteBuilder makes it easier to copy templates between the sites since this can be done with the regular Copy wizard within the SiteBuilder Content Editor.

How can this be done?

The most popular way to implement multiple sites within one SiteBuilder is to create a top directory for each site.

Global site templates, intended to be reused between several sites, are kept in a top template directory. Local site templates are kept within each site directory respectively. The amount of template reuse

What about developing new templates?

New templates can be developed in a local site template directory. This will make sure that they do not affect any other site. When the new templates have been tested and approved, they can optionally be copied to for example the global template directory.

It is important to keep the templates documented and tidy to enjoy the advantages of sharing templates in a global template directory. Templates that lack good design and calling conventions are poorly suited to be shared because they might break other sites. Such templates should therefore be kept in local site template directories only.

What about the Search Engine?

It is recommended to keep the number of Search Engine configurations and query profiles to a minimum, mainly to simplify administration but also to minimise the number of open SQL database connections.

The solution is to share the same configuration and profiles for all sites and modify the query to use search expressions such as "path1", "path2" and "uri" to restrict the result set to each site respectively.

What about the host names for each site?

One SiteBuilder can be bound to several host names. Redirect patters can be used to redirect the user to the proper site directory for each host name respectively.

What about the replication?

This is one of the nicest advantages with sharing multiple sites within one SiteBuilder: the replication needs only to be configured once and for all.

What about testing new modules?

Module code is already shared between all SiteBuilder instances within the Roxen CMS server, so this is not any different when the sites are managed within only one SiteBuilder.

The difference is that the module configuration will also be shared between all sites. This is most often an advantage from a administrative point of view, since the number of settings are reduced.