Thread

Hello, I am a freelancer and I am curious about the MSM and have a few questions.

First Question:
Where does the original site reside on?  In other words, if my personal site is “mydomain.com”, is that where I should install the original MSM site? Then for my clients branch off of that same host but other domain names? So for example, would the folder structure look like this?

-system (sydtem folder outside the domain name folders for security)
-mydomain.com (my personal website for the original MSM)
-client_1.com (1st client)
-client_2.com (2nd client)
-client_3.com (3rd client)
etc…

Second Question:
Are each sites data located in the same database or separate database?

Third Question:
How are the template files for each site structured?  Are they merged in the same directory or separate folders?

It’s a bit confusing because if I have 3 client sites and let’s say I’m not working with one of the clients any longer, how difficult is it going to be to separate his data from my MSM?

Sorry for the long post :/

Moved up to Pre-Sales.

The MSM may not be used to host Sites for different clients.  Each client requires their own license and installation.  From license:

Unless you have been granted prior, written consent from EllisLab, Inc., you may not:

Use the Software as the basis of a hosted blogging service, or to provide hosting services to others.

I wanted to address that prior to the technical questions since you may not have those any more as the MSM is not a good fit for that particular style of roll-out.  Please do let us know if you still want the tech side addressed.

Thanks!

Ok, so basically the MSM is to host your own websites? So if I had 3 or so projects under my wing than that would be suitable for MSM.  Separate clients would require separate licenses especially for the reason of mixed data?

Hi, Danny - Absolutely.

A few things to consider:

1.  Sites can not be merged into or split out of an MSM installation
2.  Membership is installation wide
3.  One database is used

So using the MSM for a company with say, 3 restaurants they own - and a Site per restaurant is perfect, because those are likely bonuses - content cross-referencing, shared membership.  But different clients won’t want shared membership, and may need to move their sites/scale at different paces.

Make sense?

Ok, makes total sense now. Thank you!

My pleasure, Danny!  If anything else comes up, please let us know in a new thread. =)