Multi-Site Textpattern v4.8.2

dberladyn · 2020-08-16 20:59:24

Last night I installed Textpattern, gave it whirl and found that I liked it. I’ve been looking for and playing around with various CMS offerings, but Textpattern and it’s simplicity caught my interest upon installing. There were no hiccups. Everything just works and is seemingly straightforward. While I am trying to orientate myself and learn the ins and outs, I am still at a loss to the Multi-Site feature. Perhaps I deleted something upon install, but there is no Site folder as per the documentation. I will try to keep looking around, but perhaps I will find the appropriate files on this site, or github, or something rather.

dberladyn · 2020-08-16 21:01:49

Obviously I accidentally deleted the files, as they are in the ZIP file at GitHub.

https://github.com/textpattern/textpattern/releases

dberladyn · 2020-08-16 21:06:02

Ok. That specific folder and files are definitely missing from the original download ZIP file which I believe I took directly off this site. I am not sure if there is different download versions for v4.8.2, but the one I had downloaded has no Site folder.

jakob · 2020-08-16 21:07:00

The multi-site documentation is here and other variations are possible with some tweaking. If you happened to use a webhost’s in-built install system, the /sites folder may have been missing. Note that there are some server-side prerequisites for multi-site setups.

jakob · 2020-08-16 21:09:21

dberladyn wrote #325395:

Ok. That specific folder and files are definitely missing from the original download ZIP file which I believe I took directly off this site. I am not sure if there is different download versions for v4.8.2, but the one I had downloaded has no Site folder.

Try the tar.gz download instead of the zip. Zip files cannot contain symbolic links but tar.gz archives can. A zipped sites folder can still work: the installer will try and create the symlinks during installation if they are missing or incorrect.

dberladyn · 2020-08-16 23:28:23

CPanel keeps showing an internal server error. Perhaps I will have to play with this another time. I have a feeling it is something I had done, but I’ll give the host some time to catch and correct it. The Textpattern files seems small enough to just upload per subdomain as needed.

gaekwad · 2020-08-17 09:44:36

jakob wrote #325397:

Try the tar.gz download instead of the zip. Zip files cannot contain symbolic links but tar.gz archives can.

^^^ This. It’s mildly annoying that web host installers tend to go for the .zip package which doesn’t have the multi-site bits and pieces. If it’s any consolation, I run a heap of Textpattern sites as individual sites rather than with multi-site, it’s not a massive headache when it comes to updating them individually, and it makes it easier to have them with air gaps so if one gets popular and needs better hosting, I can detach it and the others keep going just fine with minimal work.

Bloke · 2020-08-17 10:01:50

Yeah, multi-site is fine but can be overkill, as Pete says. To really do it justice it’s better to multi-site your multi-site using additional symlinks for indirection.

What I mean is that you install a base Textpattern but don’t serve your sites directly from it. What you do is put up a parallel directory in your /var/www/ area with your public stuff in it, but your admin area (base files) simply links to your base installation. Everything runs as normal. There’s no difference to a regular multi-site in this regard. Repeat for each site you want to host off this Textpattern version.

If you upgrade that base version, each time you log into one of your sites that are pointing at it, they get upgraded. But if, for whatever reason, you want to do something a little different for one or two clients – perhaps you offer “paid upgrade” paths and don’t want to give away upgrades for free, or perhaps a site is going to break if you upgrade because of essential plugins that haven’t yet been updated – then you can go and install a second multi-site installation with a different version of Textpattern.

That gives you the option of simply breaking the symlink from your /var/www area to point to any one of your multi-site installs. Thus you can control at the flick of a symlink which version of Textpattern each of your sites is using. Very handy as you can run multiple clients on multiple versions and upgrade them at will, while still maintaining the option of legacy installs for clients that won’t/can’t move.

Things get a little murky with differing PHP versions and system requirements of course. There comes a time when you have to draw the line because your older Txp versions are running on older PHP versions. At that point, you have to start thinking about forcing upgrades, or delving into virtualisation instead, which is a whole other ball game!

Last edited by Bloke (2020-08-17 10:04:54)

gaekwad · 2020-08-17 10:03:43

Bloke wrote #325427:

What I mean is that you install a base Textpattern but don’t serve your sites directly from it. What you do is put up a parallel directory in your /var/www/ area with your public stuff in it, but your admin area (base files) simply links to your base installation. Everything runs as normal. Repeat for each site you want to host off this Textpattern version.

Every time I read this I realise how clever it is, and resolutely fail to implement it. Guh.

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#1 2020-08-16 20:59:24