The need to have a successful online business increases as your business grows. Using a single website does not always ensure that all of the needs of the business owner and consumers are satisfied. You can create multiple websites, but this will cause a number of problems:
- Creating websites that will be focused on the work of each regional office is slow work.
- Each website costs money to develop.
- It is difficult to control the processes taking place on each website.
- There will be a lack of transparent control over the general situation of the company.
In such a situation, it makes sense to opt for several websites, developed with taking into account the products and the specifics of the target audience, and united on a single Drupal platform.
This is a better solution than creating multiple stand-alone websites, each of which would target a specific part of your business.
In the case of multisiting, different Drupal websites share:
- Drupal core;
- Code base;
- Available modules;
- Available themes.
At the same time, each website has its own:
- Database;
- Included modules;
- Included themes;
- Base domains or URLs;
- Config files;
- User profiles;
- Content.
How Does Drupal Multisite Work?
The main feature is server requests. Each website created on the Drupal platform is stored in a separate folder. Each folder is separated from the repositories and has its own PHP file connected to the database, which makes it easy to open instantly
Drupal provides additional extensibility and scalability by loading the proper database and configuration based on the specified domain. As a result, the user can easily access the needed website.
This multi-folders platform provides a single scenario for managing the configuration of all the websites. On the other hand, each website can potentially have a configuration that would not operate by the normal strategy. What should be done in this case?
The solution lies somewhere in between, and in order to find that solution, let's look at the extreme options.
- The multisite configuration is made in such a way that you can update it or create some new features. This is a good thing, as you get the option to update information for all Drupal-connected websites, even if you have hundreds or even thousands of more or less identical websites on your Drupal platform.
- You have a hundred or even a thousand websites that are all different. Can you manage all of them at once? No. Making changes to the configuration of at least one website can lead to problems with some of your other websites or even with all of them.
What should you do in this case? Search for the medium:
- Create the same functionality for all of your websites – blocks, content types, views, and more.
- Create a base profile suitable for all of your websites.
- Do not create new content types and other "one-off" configurations.
- Have the same configuration for all websites.
What Is the Best Place to Use Drupal Multisite?
This question has a simple answer. Drupal multisite is a perfect solution for a commercial and non-profit organization that needs to have multiple websites supported at the same time. The idea of using Drupal is perfect for working with websites that perform similar kinds of functions, targeting the same audience.
What businesses are these? For example, a large educational institution with numerous structural divisions - departments, regional branches, etc. Or a large manufacturer or distributor with an extensive network of branches and partner companies.
Using Drupal multisite is a great solution for branding, creating a general content model for a certain target audience. At the same time, each website has its individuality, serves its unique users, and promotes its own content based on a common corporate scenario.
As a result, you get the opportunity to provide users of each of your websites with relevant content and individualize each website's visitor.
Benefits of Using Drupal Multisite
Drupal multisite is highly appreciated for its ability to save time, effort, money, and resources. This applies to the development, installation, and management of the websites. Websites are hosted on the same server, share a single code base, and can operate at the same time. The effect is especially great when you have a lot of websites.
For example, you don't have to update each of your websites — you can do it all in one step. This includes the core, modules, themes, as well as the server's operating system, database software, and so on.
Multisiting makes it easier to add new features to your websites. For example, you can create a new module that you can easily add to all of your websites.
One of the advantages of Drupal multisite is that it has a number of useful tools that help solve different issues. Among them are:
- Domain Access module for managing a group of related websites – in particular, sharing users, content, and configurations.
- Domain Menu Access module for configuring user’s access to the menu depending on the domain.
- Apache Solr Multisite Search module that provides powerful search capabilities on related websites.
When Is It Beneficial to Have Drupal Multisite?
Like in real life, everything depends on the situation. Here are some of the situations when Drupal multisite is a good choice, easy to maintain, and brings you profit:
- First of all, the golden rule for choosing a proper multisite is that all of the websites in the collection must have similar features. The websites can look different due to the different themes, or even represent completely different industries. They can also look the same (for example if they all represent different departments of the same organization) and have the same features with slight differences for different departments.
- Having a multisite can be an option if you do not plan any major changes to any websites in your "cluster". If you plan some major changes, they should be applied to all the websites at once.
- In order to successfully create a multisite, the same development and support team must be responsible for all of the websites in the collection. And, as mentioned above, it should be done by a responsible and experienced team.
If these requirements are not met, it is better to use other approaches instead of having a multisite. It is possible to significantly optimize the management of your codebase using the Git control system, the Composer PHP package manager, and other tools.
In What Cases Drupal Multisite Will Not Meet Your Expectations?
Imagine a situation where Facebook, Google, and Twitter operate exclusively using Drupal. Moreover, each of these social network platforms has its own concept of communication and its own target audience. In theory, there could be a Drupal-based application for all of these social networks. But will such an application easily operate taking into account that each social network has different functions and configurations? The answer is “no”, and once again “no”, because Drupal multisite has a number of strict restrictions, such as:
- Inability to update only selected websites, because they all have the same codebase.
- All of the modules share the same version. If you wish to change the version of the module for a specific website, then this change will be applied to all of the websites of the platform.
What Are the Risks When Using Drupal Multisite?
In some cases, Drupal multisite may lead to some risks that are considered its main downside. There were even some active discussions about this in the Drupal community.
For example, if there is a spike in the loading of traffic or a security problem on one of the websites, this can potentially spread to the other websites. And different errors that occur when you are updating or adding some changes can harm all of the websites at once and create "chaos".
Setting up and maintaining Drupal multisite is an important task that only a team with good technical training can do. Websites should be maintained with care, using the best solutions and tools, and always stay tuned. This will help avoid any problems and ensure the stable operation of the entire multisite system.
Drupal Multisite Customization Options
We can implement several customization options to fully meet the needs of your company.
1. Classic Multisite
This is a platform that will unite several websites that have their own configuration and their own databases, but a common code base. As a result, you can get several independent websites with a unique design - your own modules and themes.
2. Multi-Domain Multisite
There is one codebase for all of the websites and a single database. As a result, you get easy configuration and functionality support. The location of access modules in the platform architecture allows you to classify content and not only have the same content for all of the websites, but also some unique content for the domains you choose.
The advantage of using the multi-domain format is its simplicity, while the disadvantage is that it is difficult to add any exceptions for one or more of your websites.
Share your business development plans with us and we will develop the best IT solution for you that will help you get the expected result quickly and efficiently. The Alpha Web Group team has many years of experience in product development for any business area and is always ready to take on a task of any complexity.