By m.e. on

What would be the most efficient way to set up 5 subdomains, each of them showing the same content and having the same users, but each showing a separate theme for demo purposes? Here's what I was thinking:

example.com (not Drupal)

-codebase.example.com (Drupal & my 5 theme choices go here?)

-sub1.example.com
.
.
.
-sub5.example.com

The main domain, example.com, is not (currently) a Drupal site.

I thought I'd create codebase.example.com and install Drupal there...

...and my differently-themed subdomains will be sub1.example.com through sub5.example.com...

...all with the same content and users, for demo purposes. This way my users can test some sample content under several themes, and choose the one they like best (for a site that is hosted elsewhere). So this is essentially a temporary setup for sandbox space.

My hosting account uses cPanel and allows me to set up subdomains easily. (Do I need to do anything special during that process to make this work?)

Any other tips, how to get started, etc.? I've read the documentation and some forum posts, but the info is all scattered around and not very well organized. (Also, most of it seems geared toward showing different content on the multisites.) Oh - and I'm not an Apache expert.

Thanks for the help!

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

jastraat’s picture

jastraat commented

Wouldn't it be easier to just allow the users to switch between the different themes on the same site...? E.g. http://drupal.org/project/switchtheme

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http://fraggles.artsci.wustl.edu (Drupal user documentation and development blog)

m.e.’s picture

m.e. commented

It certainly would be! Thanks, jastraat, I think I'll give that a shot.

Chuck1’s picture

Chuck1 commented

You can also use the settings.php ...

sites/sub1.example.com
sites/sub2.example.com
sites/sub3.example.com

In the settings.php for the each domains you can use the same database settings (for the content) and a different site name with an different theme.

$conf = array(
'site_name' => 'sub1.example.com',
'theme_default' => 'theme for sub1',
'anonymous' => 'Guest',
);

AshokanKid’s picture

AshokanKid commented

I was just performing this same thing a month or so ago and found this great step by step set of instructions; http://drupal.org/node/167639

And another here; http://drupal.org/node/348619

But honestly, in the end I found this to be more confusing since I would play with a theme and then wonder where my hacks were affecting which site and then decided that since my host allows unlimited domains / sub-domains, it was just as easy to set up unique folders for each Drupal instance.

Multi-site set-ups do indeed allow one to sandbox a handful of sites / themes / domains / subdomains all simultaneously and then to update only ONE Drupal instance in the event of sitewide upgrades. You can also allow each user to select their own theme as has already been suggested.

The multi-site set-up is really pretty cool though., :-)

AK

Gastonia’s picture

Gastonia commented

I liked your idea about sub domains. My hosting provide also allows sub domains as different folders. Are you saying you setup an entirely new Drupal install into the folder sub1.example.com points to just referenced the same database?