[geeklog-devel] GL2 and site relationships

[Vincent Furia]

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 12:54:13 -0600, Tony Bibbs <tony at tonybibbs.com> wrote:
> Let me try explaining this another way.
> 
> The first relationship would be independent.  In 1.3.x there is no way
> to do this.  If you want two unrelated sites running under the same
> database...forget about it.  In this the sites are truly separate with
> their own users, their own groups, own content.
>
I thought this could be done in 1.3.x by changing the table prefix? 
Are you talking independent sites sharing the same tables?  I don't
think that would be a good idea.
 
I know one requested thing not currently supported  in 1.3.x is to use
a single GL installation to run multiple sites with independent
databases (different physical databases or different table prefixes). 
I can see how this would make an admins life much easier when
upgrading GL or installing plugins (which could be installed on all
the sites, but enabled per site)...

> The second relationship, peer-to-peer, might be a suite of on line
> publications.  For example purposes, they might all be computing
> publications with one specializing in Programming and the other in, say,
> Networking and Security.   Each would have their own  sets of groups,
> permissions, etc.  However the admins can pick and choose what content
> they are willing to share with their affiliate sites.  Thus the
> Programming site could 'listen' to the LDAP topic on the networking and
> security site so that when, for example, a story submission on LDAP was
> made the Programming site would get it as well.
>
I think this could be best accomplished by a Web Application plugin
that would allow "items" to be cross submitted to several sites.  Such
a system wouldn't even depend on the sites being on the same server. 
While implementing this may be a little difficult, as there are many
complexities involved, I think implementing this later rather than
sooner would be OK.  Such a plugin could eventually give the ability
to submit items (and do other tasks?) through interfaces besides the
web.
 
> The last, and more complicated is the affinity relationship.  This
> imposes a hierarchy where the parent site admin can control content
> downstream.  So, for example, take a large company like Honeywell.
> Honeywell's HQ would have their own site.  Each regional division would
> have their own Gl2 site under the Honeywell umbrella.  The look and feel
> can even be drastically different by the content comes two sources, the
> HQ site and any content generated at the regional level.
> 
If we can implement giving different groups different default themes
(and even different themes available based upon group/userid [ACLs?]),
then I think this can be implemented like Simon described as a single
site with items being assigned to whichever groups are applicable. 
Admins could be given permissions to post/edit on a per category
basis.

-Vinny