Duplicate One license, one domain, separate categories/forums, universal login

[Sal Collaziano]

I'm looking to get a community running the way bimmerpost.com does.. I want to run an automotive community for a brand with several different vehicles. Each vehicle should have it's own style and forum "front page" with the ability to return search results from only those specific forums. Logins would work across the board. So if you're signed up under one vehicle type, you'd use the same login at any of the other vehicle types.. Like this, a member who's only really signed up for "car 1" can feel like he/she signed up for a site entirely geared toward his/her interests.

I'd like:
car1.brand.com
car2.brand.com
car3.brand.com
suv1.brand.com
suv2.brand.com

...and so on.. Each forum front page would look like a regular XenForo forum front page with the usual list of categories and forums - and "home" navigation that brings you back to that brand's specific front page). This should work with one license..

I think it might also be nice to have something for large networks where you can purchase a separate license for each domain - but use one central XenForo installation. This would make upgrades easy. I run almost 30 forums so this would be very nice for me. Every time there's a security vulnerability, I have to update or upgrade 30 forums. I'd gladly pay more than I do now for the ability to save time...

 

[Wildcat Media]

I think it might also be nice to have something for large networks where you can purchase a separate license for each domain - but use one central XenForo installation. This would make upgrades easy. I run almost 30 forums so this would be very nice for me. Every time there's a security vulnerability, I have to update or upgrade 30 forums. I'd gladly pay more than I do now for the ability to save time...

I used to run several phpBB2 forums. My installations were heavily modified, and it was difficult to upgrade or add a new modification. What I ended up doing was creating a "master" directory with all of the phpBB files in it, then use symbolic links to replicate the files to individual directories. You would still need to keep separate /data and /internal_data directories for each installation, and make sure your config.php file is protected from being overwritten (might have to unlink it somehow), but the core files would remain the same on all installations.

Alternately, write a shell script that copies all appropriate files from one "master" area to each forum when an upgrade takes place. This may not be quite as safe if new files or directories are added, which are not accounted for in your shell script. And you cannot blindly copy the entire directory structure of the forum, since your config.php file may be overwritten, and data in your /data and /internal_data directories could cause a clash.

You would still need to log into each admin control panel to complete the upgrade in the database.