In order to make the most efficient use of my resources I would like to set up my existing DNN installation such that I can design other sites 'under' it and access those sites through different domains.
For instance, my main site is www.foo.com, and i would like my customer at www.bar.com to be managed by data contained in the www.foo.com database.
If I understand right, I should be able to set the portal up as www.foo.com/bar, design it, and set www.bar.com as an additional HTTP alias for the www.foo.com/bar portal. Then I upload the DNN installation files to www.bar.com, point it to the existing database, and now users can browse www.bar.com and see the exact same thing they'd see if they browsed www.foo.com/bar.
Questions:
- Am I completely out of my tree in understanding how this thing works?
- Can what I'm attempting to do, be done?
- What happens when I run the install file on www.bar.com, since it seems like that would overwrite (and detroy!) the database information that was created and is being maintained by www.foo.com
- The current structure of www.bar.com has several child subdirectories, like www.bar.com/foobar, that contain different look-and-feel content (think about a rental property management company with several different communities, each with information held under a subdirectory). Is there a way to handle this easily, or do I need to find a URL redirect module and use that to tell www.bar.com/foobar to point to www.bar.com/Home/tabid/###/default.aspx?
- Is there any kind of comprehensive documentation available that will help me sort this out without having to drop a couple hundred dollars on 6-10 different books (I'll do that eventually, but right now I don't have the available funds)?
In a nutshell, I run a web design company, and would like to slowly roll all of my existing and new clients in to DNN, using my domain as the master host and having their sites exist as "hidden" portals under the master ("hidden" in the sense that they'll never be seen by using the domain name of my company, but will instead appear as their own discrete sites under their own domain name.) The way I've read what free documentation I've been able to find, I *should* be able to do this, even going so far as to build a rework of an existing site as a sub-portal under my domain, and then adding their domain as an HTTP portal and uploading the DNN install files when it's time to roll over from the old ASP/PHP/static HTML site - whichever - into DNN.
Or am I just thinking way outside the scope of this thing and the reality is I'll have to run a completely separate DNN install, including a separate SQL Server instance, for each new/migrated domain?
If anyone can point me in the right direction here, I'd be truly appreciative.