The best approcach for Multi-Site Codeigniter projects? - php

Question

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Here's what I want:
I will have a main server, it will hold the client's package info, the themes they've ordered and a_ds they have attached from my marketplace.
I don't want their site to be a sub-domain, rather their own domain and it will be hosted by me in a shared environment.
Now, I want to set up my CI project in such a way, that these will happen. Each individual client will be given their own project space and database but I want their particular projects to derive their settings from my database/CI functions.
I know I wrote terribly, but even Google failed me on this. You guys are my last hope.
Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

Do you intend to run these multitude of sites from one CodeIgniter source in your server, with application configurations varying depending on which domain is accessed?
If that is the case, then here is an option available for you off the top of my head:
Organize the varying configurations in application/config like this:
application/
config/
domains/
foo.com/
database.php
config.php
bar.net/
database.php
config.php
baz.org/
database.php
config.php
Each of these application/config/domains/*/(database|config).php files contain the configurations specific only for that particular domains (You have to generate these somehow).
Example:
//In database.php files
return array(
'username' => 'client1',
'password' => 'password!',
'database' => 'client1_db'
);
//In config.php files
return array(
'base_url' => 'http://baz.org'
);
Then its just a matter of including the right file depending on the domain used in the request:
In your application/config/database.php:
$client_vars = include __DIR__ . '/domains/' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/database.php';
/* validate $client_vars to ensure that client is not overriding anything important. Throw an error to inform client. */
$db['default'] = array_replace($db['default'], $client_vars);
/* Rest of DB settings. */
In your application/config/config.php:
$client_vars = include __DIR__ . '/domains/' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] .'/database.php';
/* validate $client_vars to ensure that client is not overriding anything important. Throw an error to inform client */
$config = array_replace($config, $client_vars);
/* Rest of config settings */
This is a rough idea of a possible solution, though this is not very secure at all. Just two cents.