Thread

Hi there,
I love Expression Engine and am seriously considering it for new project.
I have a couple of questions about what EE can do:

Can I have a main domain, with many subdomains that are only accessible to members? That is, do variables/EE tags that determine whether someone is a member/logged in member, extend to and work in subdomains?

If that is so, I’m assume I could provide a members only subscription access to subdomains via the built in payment gateway?

Thanks,
Grazlewacky

Hello Grazlewacky,

I am glad to hear you love ExpressionEngine! We love it too.

The best way to handle the main site + multiple domains is to use MSM. That would allow you do allow you to restrict access to the subdomains based on group membership.

Your assumption is correct, subscription access to subdomains via the built in gate way would work.

Is there anything else I can help with?

Cheers,

Hi Shane,
Thanks for your help with this.
Just one thing regarding MSM…If I have one main domain, and then over 50 subdomains to that main domain,(which really would be extensions of the main site and core to my project), would I have to purchase a new license per every subdomain as per http://expressionengine.com/downloads/details/multiple_site_manager/

Thanks

Hello Grey,

Yes, using MSM and 50 domains, which are basically separate websites, you would need a license for each one.

You could try to do this without MSM, but it would be pretty complicated.

Does that help?

Cheers,

Hi Shane,
Thanks for getting back to me on that. Yes, that helps..but,:cheese:

I just can’t afford to buy a license for every single subdomain - I may very well have more than a 100! Though I can appreciate why EE needs to charge a license fee after a certain point.

The fact of the matter is I don’t really need any content management on subdomains. The only reason I was interested in in MSM is that it allows member session management across domains. This is still someting I really need to sort out…

So, in the context that I haven’t ever set up EE for member groups or payment gateways (I use EE for my own website and a couple of others, and love it), and I am not a backend developer (exactly why I use EE!) - I had a couple of (possibly stupid) detailed questions. I know I could plough through the forums for days and probably glean some stuff, but it seems so much quicker to ask. I very much appreciate the excellent support we get from EE staff, so apologies and thanks in advance…

As I understand it, global sessions can be created that allow access to subdomains once in place as per:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4590343/can-a-php-session-span-through-sub-domains

It seems to me the main issues for this project are:
1) Creating global sessions (across main and subdomains) for members, and
2) Having different global sessions depending on member group.
E.g. Subscribers = access all subdomains
one offs = access one sub domain
non-subscribing members = email signups, no subdomain access
    ...the first two member groups mentioned being oprtions/distinguishable in the payment process

3) Redirecting from a subdomain to login page when no global session or correct global session in place (e.g. email signups are members but not subscribers so no access to the subdomains).

I have created an image for the above scenarios that will hopefully help explain the idea - please see attached.

Am I making sense? Is this currently in the capacities of the members module and payment gateway?
What would I have to do to get such a scenario set up?

Thanks again,
G

Hi Grazlewacky,

Implementing what you want without MSM may be possible, but would require a certain level of PHP knowledge to implement.

There are some examples of using EE to run several sub-domains without MSM, but it can become unwieldy rather quickly. That still doesn’t address your session issue.

Just to make sure you are perfectly clear on the costs associated with MSM, they are:
1 ExpressionEngine license, $299.95
1 MSM license, 3 total sites, $199.95
Additional MSM sites, $49.95 per site

The total cost for 50 initial sites would be $2847.55

I’m not suggesting that’s cheap, but I didn’t want you to think that each site required a full-cost EE license.

Cheers,

Hi Dan and Shane,
Thanks for the help so far. Yes, it was clear about the costs for MSM, thanks. I’m afraid it’s just too cost prohibitve for me.

I’ve had a rethink of the previous approach and think I’ve come up with something simpler. Essentially: only one member group - with the hope that when a member logs in, they then have access to all subdomains.

Please see image attached. I think the idea of passing a session/member/some other randomly (daily?) generated ID via a link is probably not such a secure way of doing things, but it’s something I understand so I’m going with it for the time being. Any comments are very welcome!

It seems to me that this approach is then very unobstrusive to a normal EE setup. I really don’t need to imitate a MSM approach as my subdomains need no CMS. It just requires that when a member logs in a global session of some kind is created that will/can generate an ID that is accessible to the subdomain (so it can know what to check for in incoming links).

Just two insy weeny questions:
1)Am I making hard sense? I am not a backend dev, but I do need to build this. Dan mentioned a “session issue” - wasn’t entirely sure what that was…

2)In EE, how can I create a global session or similar upon login?

I definitely appreciate any help. Once I have an idea of an approach that I can pull off, I will plough a head into a build.

Best regards,
G

Hi Grazlewacky,

You can use something like Cookie Plus that could be read from the sub-domains. Without the sub-domains trick, there wouldn’t be a way to track the user logins.

Are there any other questions I can help you with?

Cheers,