Drupal allows developers to find the most effective solutions for each business case.
Large companies often need more than one site — they need a “collection” of related sites that would be easy to manage. To do this, there is a Drupal multisite feature, which has gained popularity among university, government, and corporate sites. Let’s consider what is Drupal multisite and when to use it.
What is Drupal Multisite?
Several sites combined in one — this is the main essence of Drupal-multisite technology. So, instead of one site, you can have a whole set of sites that can be created, managed, and updated simultaneously because they have a single code base. These websites have different web addresses and may differ according to your requirements. So, they apply the same Drupal core, codebase, and available modules. However, they have different in the following points:
- Databases
- Themes
- Domains or URLs
- Configuration files
- User profiles
- Content
It is worth noting, that the CMS allows any of the Drupal app to be integrated with a certain website thanks to the solutions provided on https://gole.ms/services/mobile-integration.
Advantages of Drupal multisite
For some companies, powerful multisite capabilities inspired them to choose Drupal. Drupal-multisite is highly valued for its ability to save time, effort, money, and resources. This applies to the development, installation, and management of sites. Sites are hosted on the same server, use a single code base, and you can perform actions with them simultaneously. The effect of this is especially noticeable if there are many sites.
For example, updates may not be performed for each site, since you just need to take one action. With multisite, it’s easier to integrate new features. For example, you can create a new module that can be easily integrated into all sites.
Among the advantages of Drupal multisite is also the availability to use advanced solutions, including:
- Domain Access module for managing a group of related sites — in particular, sharing users, content, and configurations;
- Domain Menu Access module to configure user access to menu items depending on the domain;
- Apache Solr Multisite Search module to provide powerful search capabilities on related sites;
- Aegir hosting system is recommended for multisite management, which can eliminate the risks of multisite.
Risks of Drupal multisite
In some cases, Drupal multisite may contain risks. If there is a huge traffic increase or a security issue on one site, it could potentially spread on others. Additionally, any errors during updates or changes can harm all sites at once and create chaos.
Therefore, setting up and supporting Drupal-multisite is a responsible task for teams with good technical training. Websites need to be maintained carefully, using the best practices and tools, and always keep up to date. Of course, multisite is better to use if it is suitable in a particular case. Good luck!
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