By ceardach on

The goal is to create a network of sites that are similar in their base configuration, yet share one user group. The idea is to support 3 to 6 sites in this network.

What we're looking for is:

  • Same configuration, modules, etc. Maybe some will have some modules turned on, while others off, but they'll all have the option to enable a module (but not add their own).
  • One user base. If a user registers as "JoeBlow" on one site, they can also login as "JoeBlow" on the other site. We'd prefer it if the user didn't have to login with "JoeBlow@example.com".
  • Individual user control per site. One maintainer may have "JoeBlow" with PermissionLevelA, while on another site, "JoeBlow" may have PermissionLevelB. Each site maintainer will not have access to another site's permission levels (this is most important!)
  • To have one "main" site which will receive particular content from all other sites on the network as a teaser, then either link to the original site for the full content, or have the node's content also appear in their site. Specifically, each site on the network can post press releases. We want those press releases to automatically appear in the main site's press release section - but not appear on other sites in the network.

I know that Drupal allows for shared core files. Would this ability to share core files also enable the ability to share a user base?

Would it be best to have individual databases, or one database with prefixes? If using one database, how would I go about adding a new site to the database?

As for the press releases, I was thinking I could create a database query from scratch that will access all the individual sites and simply list teasers with links to their sites. Is that possible? Since our network is small, adding another database to the query could be done manually whenever a new site is added.

Thoughts, suggestions, concepts, theories, links... all of it is welcome. Thank you.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x, Drupal 5.x