# Best way to install multisite drupal

## Letharion

I wanna run several sites with drupal.

Drupal has built in support for that.

Gentoo has webapp-config.

Are those the same? Which should I use?

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## pappy_mcfae

Good luck with that. The drupal community is not very helpful. 

To directly answer your question, drupal supports multiple sites by default. You'll have to do some play with your USE flags, specifically add, apache2 crypt ctype mysql php and vhosts if they aren't already there. Also, make sure when you do emerge drupal that you use emerge -av drupal. That way, you will get a list of the required USE flags from the assorted packages that make drupal work.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Letharion

 *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   

> Good luck with that. The drupal community is not very helpful. 
> 
> To directly answer your question, drupal supports multiple sites by default. You'll have to do some play with your USE flags, specifically add, apache2 crypt ctype mysql php and vhosts if they aren't already there. Also, make sure when you do emerge drupal that you use emerge -av drupal. That way, you will get a list of the required USE flags from the assorted packages that make drupal work.
> 
> Blessed be!
> ...

 

Hey thanks  :Smile: 

Is that php use-flags? (php being mentioned makes that seem unlikely)

Cause my drupal only shows a single use-flag, and that's "vhosts"

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## pappy_mcfae

The USE flags aren't for drupal, they're for php, mysql and apache. You have to have those packages all installed and working before you install drupal. Oh, and you'll also want to install phpmyadmin to set up your initial drupal database.

I can definitely help you get it installed. Working with it is up to you.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Letharion

 *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   

> The USE flags aren't for drupal, they're for php, mysql and apache. You have to have those packages all installed and working before you install drupal. Oh, and you'll also want to install phpmyadmin to set up your initial drupal database.
> 
> I can definitely help you get it installed. Working with it is up to you.
> 
> Blessed be!
> ...

 

Oh, then I follow.  :Smile: 

Thus far I've gotten.

Drupal is set up "and working". I haven't installed a database yet, but I've done that before, so I know how to get it working.

So it's more a question of whether webapp-config "gentoo-style" or symlinking "drupal-style" will be the easiest to setup/use/maintain several sites in one install  :Smile: 

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## pappy_mcfae

Some do well with it. IMHO, it's far to complex. While complexity isn't usually a bad thing, there is little or no documentation, and hardly an example to be seen. What makes it worse is that some of the documentation is just plain wrong. 

I still play with it trying to modernize my kernel seeds site, but I still have no idea how to get it to do some of the simplest things. I've gotten a few things to work, but overall, I'm less than impressed. 

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Letharion

 *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   

> Some do well with it. IMHO, it's far to complex. While complexity isn't usually a bad thing, there is little or no documentation, and hardly an example to be seen. What makes it worse is that some of the documentation is just plain wrong. 
> 
> I still play with it trying to modernize my kernel seeds site, but I still have no idea how to get it to do some of the simplest things. I've gotten a few things to work, but overall, I'm less than impressed. 
> 
> Blessed be!
> ...

 

In general I agree. I prefer something complex to something simple, provided I can do cool stuff with the complexity, as opposed to getting locked in by simplicity.

However, I completely agree, documentation could have been far better. (But that's how open-source is I guess. And if I make this work, I'll try to provide the information back  :Smile:  )

I like the idea of your seeds site btw, I used it recently.

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## pappy_mcfae

Complexity is one thing. Goddess knows, I've worked with lots of complex things. Usually, given enough time, I can find the angle; the epiphany that breaks the complex down to it's constituents, and makes the whole easier to understand. As of yet, while I have had epiphanies concerning drupal, they haven't been of the "Eureka" variety. I've got something of a site set up, but it's pathetic, if you ask me.

Sadly, the best documentation costs...in some cases, lots. There are lots of books on drupal, no doubt full of exactly what I'm looking for. So much for totally open code. If it were totally open, the books would be free, and on line. 

If you get it going, you might give me some clues as to how to make my ideas work. But, we can cross that bridge when we get there.

I think the Kernel Seed idea was one that was long overdue. And while the Zen team has used a variant of one of my ideas, (and haven't been kind enough to explain how they did it on the page), my idea still stands on its own merits. I'd just like to pretty things up a bit as far as the web site goes.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Letharion

Here we go: http://drupal.org/node/290768

 :Very Happy: 

Clean instructions.

Haven't tried them yet, but it looks very good and makes sense. (Mostly)

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## pappy_mcfae

Unfortunately, I tried this, and it didn't work. I might have done something wrong, but as far as I could see, I followed the directions. If you get it to work, I'll retry.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## cach0rr0

 *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   

> As of yet, while I have had epiphanies concerning drupal, they haven't been of the "Eureka" variety. I've got something of a site set up, but it's pathetic, if you ask me.
> 
> 

 

same experience with drupal

you're provided such a very basic framework with minimal doc, after a while trying to do nothing but get the look and feel you're after, whilst being told "write it yourself" if a pre-existing module doesn't work, you become inclined to agree - if im going to get my hands this dirty, i might as well do the site from scratch. 

this is the route ive gone. 

for pure eye candy, ill build something myself with pilfered code from the wild wooly intrawebs. 

for business or intranet or some such, itll be egroupware or similar. 

not to detract from the work of the drupal team, indeed it's a powerful framework, but you end up having to spend so much time and potentially custom code just to get the base of what you want, you might as well build the thing from scratch.

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## Letharion

 *cach0rr0 wrote:*   

>  *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   As of yet, while I have had epiphanies concerning drupal, they haven't been of the "Eureka" variety. I've got something of a site set up, but it's pathetic, if you ask me.
> 
>  
> 
> same experience with drupal
> ...

 

I still haven't had a great deal of experience with drupal, but I have experimented a bit with it before. Maybe I'll come to the same conclusion, but if I do need to "write it myself" it feel it's a good idea to write it "for drupal" and contribute that back.  :Smile: 

It's also gonna be interesting to see what happens with drupal 7, as there have been promises of "wide-ranging, far-reaching usability improvements".

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## pappy_mcfae

 *Quote:*   

> "wide-ranging, far-reaching usability improvements".

 

I will believe it when my site is up and running the way I want it without taking weeks to do research, and still coming up empty. I really hope you're right. I see the great potential in drupal, but I also see unneeded complexity...which is why my "update" for my site languishes. I suppose I should be happy I have the weather module working, but I'd love it even more if I could get the site to work the way I'd like it to work.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## duckz

dont forget the mod_rewrite for apache....

Drupal is the GENTOO of cms world, while Joomla is the equivalent of Microsoft XP of the cms world and Wordpress is the Microsoft Windows VISTA of cms world.

I Need like 3 days just to get the menu working right in drupal + ubercart (after long search in forum for the right module), While Joomla + Virtuemart took only 1 hour max to do the same job and I got the same job up and running within 10 minutes in wordpress.

Does that sound like a similar situation when you want to get a program installed in gentoo vs xp vs vista?.

but why do people still use gentoo or drupal????

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## pappy_mcfae

I completely disagree with that assessment. Gentoo is understandable, transparent, logical, and better supported than drupal. Ask a question here, it gets answered at least 95 percent of the time. Ask a question in the drupal forum...silence...deafening silence...crickets in the background silence.

I spent a month at the drupal forums, and saw that as a recurring theme.

Let's say you want to install Gentoo, and set it up with samba, cups, and KDE-3.5.x. There are clear, concise documents that tell you how to install, setup samba and cups, and setup KDE-3.5.x. If you want to know more, you can look at everything Gentoo Documentation wise on one page.

If you follow these directions, at the end of it all, you will have a functional Gentoo setup. I've seen it happen time and time again. And, if there are problems along the way, ask question, get answer, or read the answers others have received. All one really needs to install Gentoo Linux is to read and follow directions carefully. 

Not the same with drupal. I've spent weeks on end reading the docs, and re-reading the docs, and re-reading the docs, then messing with my site, watching it suck, then reading more. I asked one question...probably fairly simple to answer, and I have heard nothing. I've seen other messages go unanswered as well. The community is not what we have here, by a LOOOONNNNNGGG shot.

At this point, I just want something I can work with that will make what I want to happen, happen. If it's not drupal, that's fine with me. I'd just like to snaz up the kernel site a bit, and perhaps support more different kernel versions. I might look into those other programs to see what they have to offer. 

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## WhyteWolf

 *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Not the same with drupal. I've spent weeks on end reading the docs, and re-reading the docs, and re-reading the docs, then messing with my site, watching it suck, then reading more. I asked one question...probably fairly simple to answer, and I have heard nothing. I've seen other messages go unanswered as well. The community is not what we have here, by a LOOOONNNNNGGG shot.
> 
> 

  have you gone back and looked at the forums on drupals site after you posted? cause a quick search found one post from you, that has a reply {the drupal.org forums do not mail out when a reply is posted} the reply was posted 2 hours after your original post. and no follow up by you to let anyone know if that answered your question. 

as for the OP, I currently run 3 separate sites off of a single drupal install, i find it eases things a bit to use the internal drupal sites setup. if all three will be using the same database/modules/themes/everything then just put your settings into default. other wise split them off making a separate directory for each of them each directory. 

I also do not use portage to install drupal. not saying it can't or shouldn't be done. just personal preference.

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## Letharion

I feel compelled to defend the drupal community. I've begun reading docs, and asking questions. So far I've gotten good useful response.

The above stated fact that drupal doesn't email me when I get a response is inconvenient, but I keep a tab open.

WhyteWolf. The real problem I had with drupal was that I never understood that drupal, completely automagically, determines that www.mysite.com is located in sites/www.mysite.com

I read about symlinking and similar stuff, and that was not necessary. I just couldn't believe it was that simple.

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## pappy_mcfae

 *Letharion wrote:*   

> The above stated fact that drupal doesn't email me when I get a response is inconvenient, but I keep a tab open.

 

Forgive me for making the obvious observation here, but if they can make their site do whatever, why not fix it so one gets replies? Huh? Seems a little slipshod to me.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Maitreya

 *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   

>  *Letharion wrote:*   The above stated fact that drupal doesn't email me when I get a response is inconvenient, but I keep a tab open. 
> 
> Forgive me for making the obvious observation here, but if they can make their site do whatever, why not fix it so one gets replies? Huh? Seems a little slipshod to me.
> 
> Blessed be!
> ...

 

I use Gentoo and Drupal for 2 years now and I like both communities, they've always been very helpful and kind to me.

I love Gentoo, but if someone wants Linux on their machine i don't give Gentoo as advice (don't go away now  :Razz:  ), although it rocks it needs a little time from the user which most people just don't want to spend.

The same thing sort of goes for Drupal too. Want to display simple blogs and such? go for the alternative like Joomla and such. Want it finer tuned and do cool stuff? Go Drupal... i love it's tidiness but has a "steeper" learning curve.

Try the irc channels sometime! I hang in there and give support sometimes.

Now on-topic. (Finally  :Very Happy: )

There are several different ways to install multiple Drupal installations on servers.

One could set up several vhosts with their own Drupal installation.

Or just one installation and use Drupal sub-site system. (I prefer this so i don't have to copy all my self developed modules to all installations, just put them in sites/all/modules instead of /drupal/modules)

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