[consulting] multisite with shared users, but with different roles

[Laura Scott]

On Mar 15, 2006, at 5:28 PM, Boris Mann wrote:

>
> On 15-Mar-06, at 2:15 PM, Laura Scott wrote:
>
>> [I posted this on the support list, but given the mission of the  
>> consultants' list, perhaps it's a good one to post here, as it  
>> gets to architecture, a current project and best practices on a  
>> current problem....]
>
> Is this 4.7 or 4.6? I'm assuming 4.6 for now...

For now, 4.6. But once we're really rocking on this, I hope and  
expect 4.7 will not only be out but the contrib modules we'll need  
will be ported as well.

>
>> I am working on a multisite-type of project involving over a dozen  
>> sub-sites. The main site will have accumulated content (and I  
>> assume I'll use agg2 for that, though I'm not 100% sure that's the  
>> best or easiest way) and the sub-sites will have their own  
>> content, own admins, own bloggers, etc.
>
> Publish/Subscribe are excellent modules to look into.

These (this?) look great! I'd not noticed them hiding away in cvs.
>
>> Ideally, people could register on one site and be registered for  
>> all sites. But they would have user roles only as appropriate for  
>> the site they're on. In other words, someone on Site A with  
>> blogging permissions is also registered on Sites B, C, D... but  
>> without blogging permissions. Same with admins.
>>
>> I am contemplating a multisite install with:
>
>> shared tables
>> - users
>> - profile
>> - ?
>
> I'm not a huge fan of shared tables in this manner. What if you  
> want to add a site that is under control elsewhere? Difficult to  
> upgrade, etc. etc. That being said, it's a "works today" solution.

I agree. And these other modular approaches seem much more stable and  
future-minded approaches. Thanks.

>
>> unique tables per site
>> - users_roles
>> - roles
>> ...and everything else
>>
>> Questions: Am I looking for trouble going this way? Are there  
>> other tables I will need to share (e.g., sessions, cache)? Are  
>> there other pitfalls to this hybrid multisite approach I should  
>> watch out for?
>>
>> Can you suggest alternative approaches you might try? (I'm looking  
>> at SXIP, but it seems to be overkill for what we're after.)
>
> Doing a "real" identity system will make it easier to expand the  
> system and make it more flexible. Someone can start a site  
> elsewhere and decide to interoperate with you, instead of having to  
> connect at the database level.
>
> In a dream scenario, we get a sort of "controller" function from  
> one of the identity modules. A dashboard that lets you connect in  
> other sites, and actually set roles of users across sites.
>
> Also, related to multisite, have people heard of Performancing.com?  
> They are built on Drupal, and made a Drupal-based metrics/analytics  
> system. See http://performancing.com/metrics/start
>
> I don't know if they would release the module, but it would be a  
> great way to get cross-site metrics. As perhaps a slightly more  
> realistic approach, it would be great if instead of using  
> javascript, this could be turned into a more full-featured module  
> that you installed on all sites that you wanted to monitor. It's  
> kind of the tough thing...if they don't release, I know that I'll  
> eventually have to rebuild that functionality...

This looks fabulous! I went and signed up a couple sites of ours  
right off to see what it's like. I'd never had the need for the  
blogging module for FF, but these metrics look wonderful!

Thanks.

Laura

Laura Scott
pingVision, LLC
www.pingv.com

laura at pingv.com
303.415.2559
303.459.4859 (direct)

>
> --
> Boris Mann
> Vancouver 778-896-2747 San Francisco 415-367-3595
> SKYPE borismann
> http://www.bryght.com
>
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