Would Drupal be a suitable solution?
Hello
Ild like to ask please ask for some advice if Drupal would be suitable for me?
We do about a hundred websites a year and in the past we have used either custom coding or Joomla for all our sites. I find that Joomla is a bit bloated for small sites of up to ten pages, and custom making cms back offices for sites of 15 to 30 pages is a little slow
I also notice that nearly every site we do has proberbly no more than a few of a selection of maybe 40 functions, things like galleries, members areas, video uploads, download areas, etc etc
I am researching to find out with Drupal it might be possible to have a multisite configuration so that all the sites we make are running from one admin area each with a client login for the admin area of the particular domain, and making a very simplified admin area for them (which does not show any more advanced and slightly confusing admin tools)
Im wondering if it would be possible to from the master admin to control which functions the clients see within their admin area, so that if they only needed a gallery admin and text edotpor they only see that, while if on another site teh client needed ten functions it coudl be enabled so that they see admin tools for those too?
I woudl also like to ask if any one else has tried or doen this type of instalation and whether it is possible?
Aside from the question of how possible it is (and we would proberbly hire an expert to set it up if it was as we are not familiar with Drupal ) the questions Im not sure on are
if having a selection of about 40 pugin type functions (ie galleries, member areas, etc etc ) which coudl be enabled on any seperate client admin area woudl slow down all the sites and make un workable?
I am considering the upside of doing sites in this way, easier and standardised development, just one main admin area to maintain, easier upgrades to new features for client sites. Im wondering what additional benefits there might be if its even possibel to do how I envisage?
Also Il dlike to knwo what likely problems such a solution might create ? The main ones I see are that if there is a problem with the main admin panel we have problems big time(!) and also for some sites we may have less flxibility in design
Cna any one giev me advice if using Drupal as a development platform in teh way I have in mind is possibel and what upsides and downsides of doing sites in tis way might be ? Or perphaps someone has done sites in thsi way before an dcan sehd some light on benefits and problems encountered ?
There's a few ways to
There's a few ways to approach this with drupal.
First, you could use a traditional multisite setup. However, that's merely separate sites run from a single code base. The tradeoffs are pretty much the same as with any shared sw solution-- what you gain in efficiency for managing multiple sites once, you lose in flexibility and fault tolerance. Also, multisite installations are essentially completely separate unless you play some games with the db and sharing of tables which always makes me a little nervous.
Second, you could look at the http://drupal.org/project/domain module(s) which seems to be geared somewhat toward your exact scenario. I've not tried it yet, so I have nothing to add other than merely pointing it out.
A third option could be the http://drupal.org/project/og module(s). I'm not sure how or if this could work with different domains however.
And finally, the last option that comes to mind is the http://groups.drupal.org/aegir-hosting-system. Again, I've not used it but it looks like it might be aimed at your use case.
As for whether or not it's possible-- since Bryght / Raincity Studios are already doing it on a commercial scale, the answer would seem to be yes. ;-)
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and a fifth option...
is like the reseller path, but maybe contact acquia as a partner prospect? no i'm not shilling, no affiliation, just sounds like they're hosted platform would solve your mundane issues (upgrades, module consistency across sites etc)
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