Thread

Hi everybody, this is my first post here and I hope is the right section for my questions.
I never used EE before, but I intend to use it for some sites . I want to known if is possible to build these sites according to the following:

I have 3 sites:
- site 1 on domain 1
- site 2 on domain 2
- site 3 on domain 3

The content is added by 4 or 5 persons and is based on news and articles in specific area, not necessary different and not necessary the same. I want to be able to post the content in a single central place, maybe another site (site 0), and when the content is added I have to check something that will make the content available on the checked sites.

For example I have an article that is suitable for site 1 and site 3, but not for site 2. When I add the article I want to select “site 1” and “site 3” and the content become posted on these sites and NOT on “site 2”.

Thank you and sorry if I made mistakes, I’m not an english native.

I think I’ll leave this here for now- and shift it down to ‘How to’ if we start getting more technical.  (Which we can.)

Two broad ways to approach the general structure of handling multiple domains on a single install- first is to use the Multiple site manager- it’s an additional purchase (more info), and is used to handle the EllisLab collection of sites.  If you split things up into three sites- one for each domain, then you’ll have a separate control panel for each of the sites as well as separation of content.  However- content entered on one site can be displayed on the other sites by making use of the site parameter in tags- or embedding templates from one site in another.

So- the trick will be figuring out how to ‘tag’ an entry as to which sites it should show up in.  Might could do it via status, or category perhaps?  I think it would depend a bit on how it all needs to work.

There’s also an old style method that uses subdomains and htaccess to run multiple sites- this keeps everything under a single site/single cp area for everything, but breaks up the display.  (Handy for multi-language sites where a single entry w/custom fields is used for all languages, but which fields display differ according to subdomain.)

So- it’s going to be doable, but the first big decision is which approach works best for you.  Then I’d get the sites setup and start thinking about how to indicate which entries show where.

Make sense?

First of all thank you for your response. It’s ok to start more technical, even if is my first site based on EE. I’m not yet comfortable with EE, but my deadline is close, so I’ll have to learn on the fly everything (but I learn fast 😊 ). Anyway, at this time EE seem to be a good choice for my project.

For now there are 3 sites, but in the future will be more than 3. The content on all sites is based on news, articles, interviews, photos, audio and video files, everything arranged in categories and with some specific keywords. There will be ads, too. Is a lot of extra work to put the same content on 3 sites. In the future will be 6 or 7 sites, so the extra work can became huge and need more and more attention. Not to mention that a central management of the content is a big advantage in terms of flexibility, performance (more content in less time) and later editing, if necessary.

The sites are multi-language, at least some of them. And is more complicate than that. For example, if I have 4 languages on site 1, an article need to be displayed in language 1 and 2, but not on language 3 and 4 (of course, it will be displayed on all 4 languages for some site-related content, but not for everything). The selection of language need to be made at the posting time for every site and need to be added after the translation of the basic article, at different times and, if possible, using different accounts. The idea is to have the basic content as soon as possible and to add later the translated version of every language. The translated versions will be made by different persons in different countries, hence the request of different accounts. But only if is possible.

And that’s not all. I want to be able to add (or remove) in the future a site with the same features, and made this in the central management area. Hope that the Multiple Site Manager make this possible.

Might could do it via status, or category perhaps

I don’t understand what status mean. As I said, I learn EE on the fly.
————-

Two more questions:

1. Syndication
Is possible to make the content of some of my sites available for other sites (other than my sites) in a simple manner to be displayed in a box? This is not the same thing with RSS, but maybe RSS can be used.

2. Convert other site
Is possible to redesign a site in EE, but to preserve the content already added? My client want this and I think the database is MySQL.

Thank you again.

There’s also an old style method that uses subdomains and htaccess to run multiple sites

I think this approach is better. It can be done like this:

site 0 subdomain 1 = site 1 language 1
site 0 subdomain 2 = site 1 language 2
site 0 subdomain 3 = site 1 language 3
site 0 subdomain 4 = site 2 language 1
site 0 subdomain 5 = site 2 language 2
...

And the editing, translating and approving of the content can be done on site 0. All I have to do now is to find the solution to put the content in the specific part of every site. Is correct?

In truth- this is a complicated site.  Multi-language is no problem- take a look at the wiki category on languages.  Most tend to make one entry- and use different custom fields for each language.  Then my preference- run each language as a subdomain- specify the language for the subdomain as a global in path.php- flip out the fields shown based on the language.

Running multiple sites with multiple languages…  I think would be done the same way.  Which is a long way of saying- yep, I agree with your general approach.  However, the MSM adds an extra layer of complexity, since you want to specify which sites an entry is shown on from one main ‘control’.  That’s the bit that may take some playing with.  Categories might make a good option- or perhaps the search parameter.  I kind of like the idea of the search parameter- and a list of languages in a custom field.

But yep- it’s a complicated project for a first one in EE.  I suspect you may have to play around with it a bit to come up with the best structure for the particular site(s).