By DR V on

Good afternoon all.

I am working on a multi-site Durpal project where the client creates a new site quite often. I am planning on creating an administrative module to provide a quick and easy way of cloning sites under a multi-site Drupal setup, and in a user-friendly manner. I have provided a list of possibilities and specifications below to give a better idea of what this suggests.

Clone Settings:

  • Default database settings (here the user can specify the default host, DB name, DB table prefix, etc.)
  • Default Themes (the user can select which themes they want to add to cloned sites).
  • Modules (the user can select which modules they want for cloned sites; and they should also be able to select which are enabled and not)

Site Cloning

  • The module will create a new folder within the sites folder of the existing site's root Drupal directory.
  • Once the folder is created, the settings.php file for the site selected for cloning will be copied to the new site folder created in the step above.
  • Depending on the users input, the settings.php file will be updated, and the modules and themes of the selected site to clone will be copied into the new site's folder.

Cloned Site Setup:

The following steps will provide for the user with options to configure the new cloned site

  • Ability to set location for the new site.
  • Ability to set database settings
  • Ability to choose themes to use for the new site.
  • Ability to choose modules to use for the new site as well as which are enabled.

I would appreciate any feedback; and if there are any other developers that would like to join me in this project just let me know. Also, if there are similar projects

V

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

kitt’s picture

kitt commented

Isn't this mostly what an install profile does? Sets up the default modules, content, etc.?

Kitt.

DR V’s picture

DR V commented

Install profiles will be used for the configuration and implementation. However, this is to be a module. Currently there is no module to create a new site for each user upon sign up; nor is there a way to copy an existing site from within the administration pages. This module would copy all necessary files and folders to a new site folder that would be specified by the admin. This would also open up the ability to create multiple sites at one time, all with the same configurations and look, and based upon an existing "templated" site. This would drastically reduce time for admins that need to create a multi-site Drupal configuration where many sites are to be the same (e.g. e-zines).

ideviate’s picture

ideviate commented

actually i am looking sth like this. can u submit a snapshot so that we can try it?

Drupal to rule them all :) www.universideliyiz.biz

meecect’s picture

meecect commented

I'd like to help out. I find myself going through so many repetitive motions getting additional sites up. I thing profiles fall short because they really stop at the install point. If you knew exactly what you were going to deploy at the beginning, it would be fine. In reality, you continue to tweak a site and add modules and features. At any time in this process, it would be nice to use as a clone for future site deployments.

I would also say that certain module and site settings should be clonable. For example, create a files directory under site folder, add these roles, set these permissions, etc.

cookiesunshinex’s picture

cookiesunshinex commented

This sounds interesting. I'm creating a community portal/guide and we are going to scale it to other cities. It would be great it we could clone the original site in which we have put alot of work and effort into. All the sites will be exactly the same with different content. We've built the framework and haven't put that much content into it yet.

I wonder if it is possible to dump the mysql database of the first install, and then import the 1st database to the 2nd database without destroying the 2nd install.

Paul Armstrong’s picture

Paul Armstrong commented

hi there

we've a client very interested in this type of functionality.

could you give me an idea of how far you've gotten? have you a prototype version we could use for demo purposes?

assuming the engagement with the client is taken up we'd be more than happy to help out with any additional development required to get this module over the line.

cheers

bbzed’s picture

bbzed commented

Im also very interested in this module, is it still in the works?

darshisen’s picture

darshisen commented

Any news on the development of this tool?

PipSqueak’s picture

PipSqueak commented

I create sites very often with the same configurations. This is a module I've been looking for! Any updates?

kdes’s picture

kdes commented

this script seems to do some of the things required here:

http://groups.drupal.org/node/19598#comment-67784

Is anyone here still following this and will something this sort ever see the light of the day ?

kdes’s picture

kdes commented

for anyone thats still interested this module might help http://drupal.org/project/densite