Multiple Site Management with ExpressionEngine

Presentation for Environments for Humans’ 2011 Engine Summit. Discusses use of ExpressionEngine’s Multiple Site Manager expansion.

Transcript

1. Some rights reserved Multiple Site Management Engine Summit June 7, 2011 Environments for Humans XJUI ExpressionEngine
2. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit  Web Designer Writer Instructor http://emilylewisdesign.com Author, Microformats Made Simple http://microformatsmadesimple.com Contributing author, HTML5 Cookbook http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920016038 Email: emily@emilylewisdesign.com Blog: http://ablognotlimited.com Twitter: @emilylewis
3. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Today, you’ll learn  • What Multiple Site Manager is • Benefits of MSM • Use cases for MSM • How to install MSM and create new sites  DIBMMFOHFT XJUI ^
4. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Multiple Site Manager • Allows you to create and maintain multiple sites from a single EE install • Expansion from EllisLab introduced in v1.6 and available for v2+ • Available with non-commercial ($79.95) and commercial ($199.95) EE licenses 
5. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit The Rules • The EE/MSM license holder has to own all sites • All sites have to reside on the same server • Sub-domain/domain directories have to be able to access the main EE install directory 
6. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit The Benefits • Content, templates and members can be shared across all sites • Each site has its own system preferences and specialty templates • Fast and easy site duplication, with options for selective duplication • Extensions, modules and plug-ins can be shared across sites, with site-specific settings* • Money-saving 
7. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit The Problems • Installation-wide updates affect all sites. • If something goes wrong with an installation-wide asset, it can affect all the sites. • Be aware of extensions • Test carefully for scalability • Make sure you check licensing • Does it have site-specific settings or only global? • No automated way of exporting a site out of MSM  DIBMMFOHFT
8. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit The Details  • Members • Member groups • Add-ons • Find and replace Installation-wide resources Site-specific resources • Member group preferences • Specialty templates • Themes • Member profile templates
9. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Do you ... • Want a centralized install for multiple sites? • Want a single control panel as a Super Admin, but still limit site access to other member groups? • Need to establish consistency in branding with shared templates for different sites? • Want to share content across sites and reduce redundancy? • Want to have independent forums, but with a shared member base? 
10. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Global offices  JO UIFXJME
11. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Academic schools  JO UIFXJME EE Podcast Episode #34: MSM Sites with John Rogerson http://5by5.tv/eepodcast/34
12. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Personal sites  JO UIFXJME +
13. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Getting Started  XPPIPP
14. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Installation 1. Purchase 2. Download 
15. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Installation 3. Extract .zip*  • EE_MSM_2.1.0/system/expressionengine • /controllers/ • /language/ • /libraries/
16. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Installation 4. Upload files to /system/expressionengine/ directory  /controllers/cp/sites.php /language/english/sites_lang.php /libraries/Sites.php /controllers/cp/sites.php /language/english/sites_lang.php /libraries/Sites.php Local Web server
17. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Backup database! 
18. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Setting up MSM 1. Log in to control panel 2. Admin > General Configuration 3. Select “Yes” for enabling MSM 4. Submit 
19. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Creating a new site • New “Sites” button 
20. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Create a new site 1. Select “Sites” button 2. Choose “Edit Sites” 3. Select “Create New Site” 
21. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Create a new site • Site label = name of site in control panel • Site short name = value used in code references • Site description = optional description of site 
22. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Create a new site • You only get the chance to import during the creation process not during editing • Import = moves the data from your original site to the new site • Duplicate = copies the data and/or preferences from your original site to your new site 
23. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Did you backup your database? 
24. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Create a new site 1. Select the appropriate import/duplicate options • Channel • File upload preferences • Template groups • Global variables 2. Submit 
25. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit You are here • Breadcrumbs • Sites button 
26. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Configure site 1. Admin > General configuration 2. Enter URL for site root 3. Submit 
27. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Configure site 1. Design > Templates > Template Manager 2. Choose/create template group that contains home page 3. Select “Edit Group” 4. Select checkbox for site home page 5. Update 
28. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Set up public access • Can use domain, sub- domain or sub-folder 1. Create directory under /public_html/ for new site 
29. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Set up public access 2. Copy index.php from original site root not from system directory 3. Save to new directory just created for new site 
30. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Set up public access 4. Edit index.php • $system_path = path from new site directory to EE system directory 
31. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Set up public access 4. Edit index.php • $assign_to_config[‘site_name’] = Site short name • $assign_to_config[‘cp_url’] = Site control panel • $assign_to_config[‘site_url’] = Site URL 
32. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Save templates as files 1. Are you in the right site? 2. Design > Templates > Template Manager 3. Select “Global Template Preferences” 
33. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Save templates as files 4. Select “Yes” for allowing templates to be saved as files 5. Enter path to new site directory, where templates should be saved 6. Update 
34. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Global variables • MSM comes with 3 global variables: • {site_id} = the site’s ID number • {site_label} = name of site in control panel • {site_short_name} = value used in code references 
35. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Sharing content • To pull content from one site into another, use the site variable with the site short name as the value • site is available on all Channel and Comment tags, as well as RSS  {exp:channel:entries site="default_site" ...}
36. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Sharing content • You can also specify several sites with the site variable • Each site short name is listed, delimited with a pipe (|) • You can also exclude a site using not  {exp:channel:entries site="default_site|blog" ...} {exp:channel:entries site="not blog" ...}
37. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Sharing content • You can also use site short name with the orderby parameter • Add the site short name as a prefix to the field you want to order on  orderby="blog:title|default_site:description"
38. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Sharing templates • You can embed a template from one site in a template from another by prefixing the template group/ template with the site short name  {embed="default_site:global/nav"}
39. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Resources • EE Documentation http://expressionengine.com/user_guide/cp/sites/index.html • Building a Sub-Folder Site in ExpressionEngine MSM http://www.designlitm.us/articles/building_a_sub- folder_site_in_expressionengine_msm/ • Splitting a Site out of an ExpressionEngine Multiple Site Manager Installation* http://www.train-ee.com/courseware/free-tutorials/comments/splitting-a- site-out-of-an-ee-msm-installation/ 
40. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Questions?  emily@emilylewisdesign.com @emilylewis
41. Multiple Site Management Engine Summit Thank you!