By lwatkins on

I am looking at developing a parent website with a bunch of subwebs (or could do folders if necessary). Most of the content would be duplicated on each subweb, with the exception of a few things like name, phone number, and about me page. I would like someone else to be able to enter their contact info, but want the rest of the site to replicate the content etc. Is this something that could be done fairly easy in Drupal? And if so can you explain in a briefly a rough outline of the steps, or guide me to a location where I can find the answer.

Thanks!

Leisa

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

vm’s picture

vm commented

you can certainly use Drupal's multisite functionality to create multiple site. However, to get content on each site, you may consider the aggregator modules available, simple feed and aggregator to be precise and feed the content to each site. Double check SEO though, I believe there is a penalty for duplicate content with regards to search listings in Google.

lwatkins’s picture

lwatkins commented

Thanks! I have been worried about the duplicate penalty. But I don't know if I have much a choice.

Perhaps there is a better way to do this. I am wanting to set-up an affiliate program so that each affiliate would have the same info displayed, but with their contact info. How then would I handle that?

vm’s picture

vm commented

Could you explain your overall model/idea? I'm not undertanding how affliate information would constitute duplicate content with what you have just stated.

lwatkins’s picture

lwatkins commented

Here's what I want:

I have someone who is an affiliate and has registered their own domain name to promote the products and services we offer.

I have been using shtml now and switching.

Currently I have been duplicating the entire website and updating the content that changes with each person. The images are an include file from my site.

The things such as about me, phone number, etc. I also change the banner on the site to match their domain name. I create a subdomain my site, and set the DNS settings to point to their site, which is a subdomain of mine.

I want to make things easier and basically have them input the information, upload their banner, and the rest of the content be pulled from my primary domain.

Thanks for your help!

Leisa

vm’s picture

vm commented

yes. matter of fact at that stage, it would probably be best to use the multisite feature of Drupal with a shared database. More informtion on multisites is strew about the forum, there is a few handbook pages on it as well. Trials and error with Multisites with regards to set up, but it works well for those who choose to go this route. Having the tables prefixed for each client in the same database would allow you to share the tables necessary between subdomains.

My best advise is to set up a dev site and begin experimentation with Drupal to better understand how to bend it to frame your idea with it and do some bechmarking with regards to which direction will best suit you, and your server. I say this, so you don't paint yourself too far into a corner before launching something that A) could be done better in your opinion B) will bring your server to a screeching halt C) you holler at me for A) and B) : )

lwatkins’s picture

lwatkins commented

Thanks for your help. This is a project I plan on developing during the next few months. What I am doing now works, but is to time consuming. I can keep that going while I get the other one in place.

Now I know what terminology to use when doing my research and learning - Multisite and shared databases.

I appreciate it.

Leisa