Author Topic: Help getting my head around a Multi-site Installation (Read 1020 times)

hwickline · January 14, 2011, 01:25:04 pm

Hello everyone,

I'm working with a client that currently uses a CiviCRM installation and a Drupal install (orgsite.org) on getting a new site built for them to run a large campaign they're leading (with a bunch of other organizations as partners). For ease of use, it makes sense to us to have campaignsite.org connected to the same CiviCRM installation.

To be clear, I'm not the tech guy on this-- I'm actually just writing the RFP that we'll use to hire the developer to build the site for us, and I'd like to know more about how difficult this is, what I should be considering, what's the best set-up for what we're trying to do.

I've searched the forums for multi-site install, but I'm wondering you could put me towards resources/ explanations of how it works.

Thanks!

Donald Lobo · January 14, 2011, 02:03:51 pm

Not a lot of docs out there on multi-site. here is one install doc:

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC33/Multi+Site+Installation

I'd consider that part of the project to still be alpha/beta quality. There will be some amount of development work required to meet your "yet unknown" needs if i had to guess

That said, there are a few groups starting to use multi-site, so the quality should improve.

lobo

hwickline · January 16, 2011, 09:02:36 am

Thanks very much lobo,

I appreciate the response. Anyone out there have personal experience setting up a multi-site install? I'd love to hear about pitfalls/ things to watch out for as we move toward hiring someone to develop this for us.

Thanks again,

Heath

myles · January 21, 2011, 02:35:23 am

I'm in the process of addressing the same question - we have a long established drupal / civicrm installation that has grown overly complex over the years and is 'clunky' - not a nice experience.

So we are splitting up the functions of the site and creating smaller - very focused sites.

We work with volunteers and want the volunteers from one activity / site to be a potential resource to another activity.

Hence many Drupal sites one civiCRM installation.

Thanks for the reference Lobo - and particularly for the multi-site access control which I had thought would be the block.

the one thing I can't see in all this is how to deal with the Drupal integration settings.

Our drupal install was set up for the possibility of multi-sites, and therefore the db has a prefix that can be changed for every site. siteone_; sitetwo_; and so on...

The Drupal integration settings in civiCRM specify the drupal user table: with a default of 'user'

But in multisite drupal installations there are prefixes on the tables to separate out the sites so that 'user' becomes 'siteone_user' - and 'sitetwo_user' - fine at the moment with a one-to-one civicrm-drupal relationship we just edit the default to include the prefix... but do we not need to specify the user table for each site in the relationship with N drupal sites to one civicrm database?

So the question - What do we put in the user table of the integration settings?

Donald Lobo · January 21, 2011, 06:55:37 am

In your proposed model, if you want all N drupal site to share one civicrm DB, then the N drupal sites will need to share the same user table. i.e. all the users go in the same table for the drupal site also

lobo

myles · January 21, 2011, 08:20:35 am

Thanks, I see - whilst this is not a civicrm question does anyone know if you can have one user table and distinct content in drupal installations? - I guess they must be able to, else wouldn't all sites be the same?

I shall have to experiment!

myles · January 22, 2011, 03:12:43 am

Story so far...

Need N Drupal sites to 1 civiCRM database

Different content, menu structures etc on each drupal site.

Configuration of civiCRM allows only for one drupal users table... and it makes sense to be sharing the users across the drupal sites since there must be come commonality for you to want to address them as one constituency - right?

I have found the following article very helpful -

http://drupal.org/node/201673

CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

News:

Author Topic: Help getting my head around a Multi-site Installation (Read 1020 times)

hwickline

Help getting my head around a Multi-site Installation

Donald Lobo

Re: Help getting my head around a Multi-site Installation

hwickline

Re: Help getting my head around a Multi-site Installation

myles

Drupal User table in Integration settings in civiCRM Admin?

Donald Lobo

Re: Help getting my head around a Multi-site Installation

myles

Re: drupal users

myles

article: sharing users across drupal sites (allowing one user table for civiCRM)