So many questions.....

[Dredd]

Hello everyone,

This board really rocks, and I hope that a super newbie like me will get to learn alot of things reading all the threads......

I would like to have a website that would have about 25 subdomains, but each of these subdomains would be a separate site in itself. I was trying to find out if I could have a CMS that would give me this opportunity.

My main site would be the base for the subdommains that would represent one city in the world, each with their forum, chat room, and other features.

So far, nobody in other forums are helping!

I would love to hear from you guys............

BTW I may give a shot with Jaguar, if their servers are as good as this forum, I will be delighted!

Take care!

Dredd

[Vin DSL]

Yep, no problem, as long as you want to keep them seperate. The 'problem' will be if you try to tie the sql db's together, or use a single login, et cetera.

Anyway, setting up seperate sites in seperate subdomains is no problem at all. Examples:

• http://www.lenon.com/
• http://alpha.lenon.com/
• http://beta.lenon.com/
• http://civic.lenon.com/

[Dredd]

Thanks Vin, I'm so new in this that I will sound like a "power newbie" at times......

So, I will need multiple sql databases?

I guess I better sign up with Jaguar...........others are only supplying one!

Thanks again!

BTW Your sites are way cool

[Ron]

I'm just a guy who doesn't know what the hell I'm talking about, but I'd consider looking for software that will allow you to have a single copy execute, and a single database. In time (if not immediately), managing 25+ copies of the software and 25+ databases will prove to be your downfall.

Using phpbb, my absolute guess is that in your subdirectories for your subdomains, you could have soft links for the software directories and a different configuration file specifying a different table prefix.

I don't know if phpNuke will allow this approach to work, I have never looked at phpnuke code.

If you will require registration to access your forums, maybe you might set up a CMS system to allow certain visitors to see certain forums and not others... if not, maybe the link that they use to find the forum could show just the forum for the city, while the others would still be available, just not expanded or not currently visible.

For example:

http://forum.jaguarpc.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=4

Will show just this forum, while all the others are still available.

There are probably many ways to approach this in a better manner than having N databases and/or N copies of software running.

[Spathiphyllum]

Originally posted by Vin DSL
Examples:

• http://alpha.lenon.com/

Checked it out and noticed the drop down playlist for Winamp... Groove? Trance? cool...
If Shoutcast goes down, I'll know where to go.

[Vin DSL]

Originally posted by Dredd
So, I will need multiple sql databases?

I guess I better sign up with Jaguar...........others are only supplying one!

Yep, the 'new' GigaDeal offers unlimited MySQL db's. You can't beat it, unless someone is offering infinite db's...!

[Vin DSL]

Originally posted by Spathiphyllum

Checked it out and noticed the drop down playlist for Winamp... Groove? Trance? cool...
If Shoutcast goes down, I'll know where to go.

Yeah, I'm a 'trancer'!

I have that radio block on my production site too, http://www.lenon.com . It's a hack I did of the 'CDC Radio block'. Ppl are starting to clamor for it, so I'll release it soon. I've just been so distraught with the Nuke Cops fiasco, I haven't felt like producing much the last week or so.

Oh, well, as Shakespeare said, "What wound did ever heal but my degrees?" I'll get over it...

[Spathiphyllum]

Originally posted by Dredd
...and I hope that a super newbie like me will get to learn alot of things reading all the threads...

Yeah, we'll corrupt you in no time.

[Oldfrog]

Okay, I'm pretty new here myself so if I am out to lunch somebody slap me and tell me to go back to my beer. A couple of things in this thread really jumped out at me. First off, 25 subdomains....

each with their forum, chat room, and other features

....the term Chat Rooms really jumped out. If I were setting this up, or trying to, I would want Jag himself to give me the okay on 25 chatrooms on a shared server.

Also, while the 25 subdomains won't be a problem, it seems like it would be good to know if each one will have its own distinct domain name. If so, isn't it true that there would be a one time setup fee for each of the last 20?

Also, 25 subs would average at about 40mb each out of a gigadeal. I don't know enough about either SQL of forum software to answer this or hold an opinion, but is that enough to support the forums and 'other features'?

[Connie]

Originally posted by Oldfrog
Okay, I'm pretty new here myself so if I am out to lunch somebody slap me and tell me to go back to my beer. A couple of things in this thread really jumped out at me. First off, 25 subdomains........the term Chat Rooms really jumped out. If I were setting this up, or trying to, I would want Jag himself to give me the okay on 25 chatrooms on a shared server.

Hey Oldfrog,
The Chat rooms kinda jumped out at me too. I think you have given some good adivse about Jag aproving that many on a shared server. Also there are some questions about the program used for the chat rooms.

If you haven't had that beer yet now would be a good time.

[Galen]

For the chat rooms, I would STRONGLY suggest using a phpBB add-on chat system. This will not run constantly in the background and will be integrated into each board. I have this mod installed on my phpBB forum and it works GREAT!

I very strongly urge you to go with that for your chat solution.


On the matter of databases. It's entirely possible to use one SQL db for all 25 forums by having different prefixes for the tables. For instance, in the same db you could have

board1_sometablename
board1_sometablename2
board1_sometablename3
board2_sometablename
board2_sometablename2
board2_sometablename3

etc, etc, etc...

I don't know how STABLE it would be to put 25 forums on one db though. I might suggest, however, using this method to have, say 1 db for every 5 forums, for example. That shouldn't be a problem at all (but like Oldfrog said, somebody please just slap me if I'm talking out of ignorance here).

Good luck!

[Ron]

Originally posted by Galen
On the matter of databases. It's entirely possible to use one SQL db for all 25 forums by having different prefixes for the tables.

Didn't I say exactly that?

Originally posted by Ron
Using phpbb, my absolute guess is that in your subdirectories for your subdomains, you could have soft links for the software directories and a different configuration file specifying a different table prefix.

[Oldfrog]

Interesting mod, Galen. I like the idea that it only allows registered forum users to enter but I have a question. I think it was in one of Vin's posts that he talked about PHP chats not updating in real time and needing a screen refresh to see the latest responses, entries, etc. Does yours behave like that or update like the Java rooms that I'm accustomed to?

[jason]

Dredd,

Since you are a self-proclaimed newbie, I'd expect you aren't going to be doing any of your own programming. Do you have any idea of what software you'll be using?

I'm a programmer, and most of the sites that I've worked on have used custom-built software. One of the things that is easy to do with some simple scripting, a dedicated IP address, and "DNS wildcarding" turned on is to generate a custom page depending on what subdomain was requested. DNS wildcards allow anything.yourdomain.com to resolve, even if you haven't set up a specific subdomain for the request. If a specific subdomain isn't set up, the address will automatically resolve to your primary site. With a bit of script you can determine which subdomain was requested and customize the view based on that. If the requested subdomain doesn't match anything you've set up you could just display a default page or a message indicating that the request was invalid.

I don't know what, if any, CMS software will allow you to do something like this, but IMHO, this is probably the best way to set your site up. That way you'll only have one set of scripts to maintain and an unlimited number of potential subdomains.

--Jason