Shared Hosting, Multi Domain, Confused on what to use
I have read a lot of the sites about using a multisite for Drupal but I am still confused on what this means, or if it will fit my needs.
Currently I am trying to use a shared hosting account on godaddy.com for all of my domains;
I thought I was going to use the Domain Access Module @ project/domain but if I am reading that right all of my domains would have the same content but due to my current setup as seen below they already have the same content and I do not want that.
I then found, subdomain module @ project/subdomain but that seems that I would be showing the main domain the account is tied to, I do not want that to happen.
I have all of the domains linked to the root folder of the main domain something like this;
hostdomain.com on folder /
example1.com on folder /
example2.com on folder /
example3.com on folder /
According to Godaddy I should have them all in their own folders like this each with its own install of Drupal (ie no multisite);
hostdmain.com on folder /
example1.com on folder /example1
example2.com on folder /example2
example3.com on folder /example3
BUT before I do that I want to make sure that Drupals multidomain function is not an option because if it is an option I want to use it for easier management and updating and ect.
My Experience
I have the same situation -- two different Drupal sites with Go Daddy deluxe (multi-domain) hosting.
What I have done is simply have two different Drupal installations.
So yes, I have to maintain them separately, even though they do have similar updates and/or even content at times (it's actually a distributor/source company thing), but there seems to be no easy or better way to do it, and if you've ever had to administer more than one computer -- or child even -- it really isn't that hard to do.
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Using the domain module does not necessarily mean all sites have the same content-- you can use any of the various access control modules/methods to segment content into different domains.
Multisite, on the other hand, merely allows you to use one drupal codebase for all your sites-- they are essentially separate sites which will need to administered and managed separately (users are not shared, module installations and configurations are not shared, content cannot be shared, content types and taxonomy are not shared, etc). The only thing they will share is the core code base and any modules/themes you install to /sites/all/modules or /sites/all/themes. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing-- on the pro side it means you only have to upgrade drupal core once. On the con side it means you have to upgrade drupal core for all sites at once.
If you describe more about the use case (ie not so much about directory structures) you're trying to implement I can probably provide more specific advice.
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Thank you. You have described
Thank you. You have described much better than I could have, exactly what I want to do.
Please tell me more about:
"Multisite, on the other hand, merely allows you to use one drupal codebase for all your sites-- they are essentially separate sites which will need to administered and managed separately (users are not shared, module installations and configurations are not shared, content cannot be shared, content types and taxonomy are not shared, etc). The only thing they will share is the core code base and any modules/themes you install to /sites/all/modules or /sites/all/themes. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing-- on the pro side it means you only have to upgrade drupal core once. On the con side it means you have to upgrade drupal core for all sites at once."
I would have liked to share accounts but that is not important. I do want everything else exactly as you have described it!!
I however am not sure what you mean by use case; but if I had to guess I would answer by saying I have multiple domains on my deluxe hosting account and I have many of them installed in the root folder so when I load my main site or any other site I always get the main. The main site is for where I work so it has to stay the same I have some other sites I am working on for myself and one for my sisters wedding I would like to have all of these use the same code base drupal install so I can update all at once and do not have to install multiple times (which will hopefully cut down on my chances to make a mistake in security or something).
None of these sites currently get any kind of traffic only the few (very limited) number of people that know about them locally (family and co-workers). I would go into more detail but I would be bringing up too many questions before I have even got my first problem figured out. Thank you.
Thanks for the start in direction but.....
I have started to look up and try to implement the multisite options but I am more confused on what I actually need.
Which of these is better if I have the shared hosting (deluxe with all domains pointing to the root folder) and I want different content on each site:
http://drupal.org/node/120647
http://drupal.org/node/53705
http://drupal.org/node/348619 (<---- Says setup in 5 min, I like fast)
To be honest I just feel a little intimidated and I do not want to lose what little content I have already started as the main site is for work so I have to show physically see able progress (even if it is not much)
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From what I can see, those three links all point to different pages about the same thing-- standard drupal multisite which is nothing more than a way to share a single copy of drupal code across multiple completely independent sites (why you would or would not want to do that I mention in my previous comment). How to implement a multisite setup will somewhat depend on what things your shared host allows (usually not access to httpd.conf which means you'll probably need to use symbolic links) and they're all different.
I'm not sure if it's "better" -- its really up to you. I like to use this for dev sites because it makes it easy to upgrade drupal whenever an update is released. I don't like it on production, because all sites will be upgraded at once (however, if you 'practice' this upgrade prior to doing it in production, theoretically it should be a non-issue).
And the best insurance against loss is a current backup-- always backup your site and db prior to any experimentation and/or changes and you don't have to worry about losing anything.
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Don't be a Help Vampire - read and abide the forum guidelines.
If you find my assistance useful, please pay it forward to your fellow drupalers.
See my example -
See my post 3/4 down the page here - http://drupal.org/node/327190
I have a combo of subdomains and other domains running off of 1 drupal install.
You create folders for all the example sites inside the hostdomain/sites/ folder. And then each example.com needs its own settings.php file too.