I have another idea for a website ... and am just wondering how best I might accomplish it.

I have tons of webspace & bandwidth & databases available .. so that is not an issue ... and I have a resellers hosting account (but am not a reseller), so I can create as many separate accounts as I want/need.

I want to have one main site ... call it http://www.abcde.com

But want 10 or 12 subdomains under it ... each with info, news etc. specific to that province or territory. They would be called (example) http://www.1.abcde.com, http://www.2.abcde.com etc. Each of the subdomain sites ... I envision them "feeding" current area news to the main site. And the main site would have links to each of the subdomain sites.

All sites would use the same theme, have the same "bells & whistles" (aka modules) and would be the same version of Xoops. Each subdomain would have its own "co-ordinator" of each sites submitters etc. And the only ones who would need to become members would be the submitters of news or articles etc.

So ... in your opinion ... would my best option be to set the main site & each of the "sub sites" up in their own accounts with their own web space & databases etc??

Or ... do you think going with Mithrandirs MultiSites be a better option.

How would you handle this??

Thanks for any and all input & suggestions

Take care
Peter

I tried the one domain/multiple-subdomains approach without multi-site. It worked fairly well as far as consistency goes, but I had a lot of problems logging in as an administrator from one subdomain to another. I gave up the idea for a variety of reasons. Didn't know about multi site at the time.

If you are 'controlling' who the admin users are, you should choose the domain/sub-domain option that will make the most sense to your visitors.

Seperate web accounts with seperate XOOPS installations will keep things easier to manage imho.

As the owner of the reseller account you will be able to get into each sites control panel and simply add your approved users with their privelidges to the database of each site that they will have control over.

Then use a module that pulls RSS feeds for the main site, and use modules with RSS options to publish the content from the child sites.

xhld0 module works well for pulling RSS info, and there are many Content modules that provide RSS syndication.

Get the main site up and going with all of the content modules and the RSS feed modules, and copy the root directory and paste it into the child domains (edit the main files for each child domain). Export the database from the main site and import it into the child sites.

You are now master adminsitrator of all of the sites.
When you add an admin to one of the sites, simply export the xoops_user tables and import it into all of the other sites.

The way I look at it is, the Reseller Account is your new 'admin area' for a cascading web pyramid.

(the same 'model' applies whether you do seperate domains or sub domains...and from my experience of the multi-site hack, the method in which you are sharing published information will need to be accomplished in the same way if you want it to remain seperate amongst the child sites. The multi-site 'hack' is focused more on having multiple sites sharing the same tables from the DB, whether it be the users or the forums...whatever, the point is that it becomes shared amongst ALL of the child sites. I got the impression you are looking for seperate with one master that includes info from all.)

Happy xoopsing

Thanks for your responses gestroud and adrock ... they are appreciated.

gestroud - if I go with the multiple accounts type of setup ... I am planning to have different admin logins for each site for myself Thats not going to be a problem ... I hope

adrock - your impression is correct ... if I am understanding your thoughts correctly I think your description on how you would accomplish setting up each child site is a little more complex than I am comfortable with. I will likely just set up the main site with all the modules I will want ... and then put a copy of that installation onto each child site and do a "clean install" to each. No doubt it will take longer than how you suggest ... but its a process I am most comfortable with.

Thanks for reminding me about the xhld0 module. I had looked at it for another site ... but it was not what I needed there and I had basically forgotten about it until you mentioned it.

The one thing I like most about the idea of having separate installations and separate databases is .... if one screws up it doesn't mess up the whole group of them. Hopefully. The only thing I am a wee bit concerned about is ... they will all be on the same web server. But ... not much I can do about that

Thanks again for your time and sharing your thoughts.

Peter

Did not intend to make it sound 'complicated'
I think we mean the same thing...get one site up and working, and duplicate the install w/selected modules etc to each of the 'kids'

I have had 10 XOOPS installations running in one domain sharing 1 database, and it has never posed a problem for me.

Just be sure to set the table prefix during the install.
I used a prefix that described the site (used the same name as the sub-domain entry) so that when I did any database stuff, it was clear what went where...and to make sure that any 'funky' modules would not get confused in the rather large database with multiple instances of the same module

Let us know how it turns out!

Happy Xoopsing!