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Multiple codeigniter sites, using symlinks
Posted on 07/14/2007 at 12:19 PM
I’m posting this here as reference for both myself and anyone else that it might benefit. Its a plan of attack I documented on CodeIgniter’s community forums in order to host multiple sites off a single install base .. its primarily intended to help share code across applications.
Now onto the meat ...
MY REQUIREMENTS
My project called for a specific configuration of sites and applications:
site #1: one application
site #2: has both frontend and backend applications
(will also operate on wildcard sub-domains)
site #3: uses ssl with one application
site #4: one application (internal access)
All 4 sites are heavily related ... and will often want to use the same models, libraries, helpers, views etc. Unfortunately CI doesn’t give me a place to store these resources cross-application, and I really didn’t feel comfortable editing or extending the core CI classes. That might have made upgrading the framework painful with later releases. I like the idea of just ‘dropping in’ a new system folder without worry.
MY HOMEWORK (B-)
So as I was looking into CI initially, I found a lot of posts about running multiple-application sites. Overall, I got the impression that this was something CI ‘could’ do with tweaking (depending on your specific sites/applications) but wasn’t particularly great at out of the box. Thankfully, CI is so easy to work with that there are a number of solutions to consider.
Option 1:
One alternative was to run all my apps out of the same application folder, and just give them unique controllers ... I considered this but thought it might be difficult to keep site #1 from calling site #2’s controllers by editing the urls. My sites needed to be fairly secure in this regard.
Option 2:
Another alternative was to modify the loader of the CI core classes to include a new search path, essentially adding a Library level where cross-application code goes. This would have been the most attractive option if I felt more comfortable editing core files. But I don’t ... ick! Hopefully CI adopts a similar solution officially in a later release.
Some related links on that method:
http://www.jaaulde.com/test_bed/CodeIgniter/modLoader/
http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/49157/
And other options I won’t get into right now ...
MY BACKGROUND INFO
My situation is unique to me perhaps. I happen to own the box my sites are being hosted on, so all configuration options are available. My sites use the traditional php5, mysql5, apache2 on Free(as in beer)BSD. I can edit httpd.conf freely and create .htaccess files as needed.
MY SOLUTION
I found I was able to share a (parent) application folder (located outside each site’s root) with a specific site’s (local) application folder ... I did this by creating a series of symbolic links in each (local) application folder to represent the corresponding folders in my (parent) application folder ...
I literally matched symbolic links to parent folders exactly ... EXCEPT for the (local) application’s ‘controllers’ folder, which was really the meat of each website.
It might be easier to show you the following folder hierarchy I used:
application/
my global application folder, where most the code goes
CodeIgniter_1.5.4/
my CI install's system folder and other files, I leave the version
number so that I can link to a new system in the index.php if
needed for testing
common/
an apache directory alias called 'common' lets me link to subfolders here
called img, js, css, file, etc. Having one folder with all my includes makes
it easy to specify in an .htaccess file that CI should leave links alone with
the word 'common in it.
Smarty_2.6.18/
my smarty install, contains the actual libraries
www_site1/
the site root for site #1
www_site2/
the site root for site #2
www_site3/
the site root for site #3
www_site4/
the site root for site #4
A closer look at my (GLOBAL) application folder:
cache
SMARTY SPECIFIC FOLDER with write access
config
standard codeigniter
configs
SMARTY SPECIFIC FOLDER
controllers
NOT USED GLOBALLY - EACH SITE HAS ITS LOCAL CONTROLLERS FOLDER
FOLDER IS ACTUALLY EMPTY
errors
standard codeigniter
helpers
standard codeigniter
hooks
standard codeigniter
libraries
contains a wrapper class called MySmarty.php for smarty useage
models
standard codeigniter
templates
SMARTY SPECIFIC FOLDER
templates_c
SMARTY SPECIFIC FOLDER with write access
views
standard codeigniter
A closer look at my (LOCAL) application folders (EACH SITE HAS ITS OWN):
cache
symbolic link to parent
config
symbolic link to parent
configs
symbolic link to parent
controllers
ALL LOCAL SITE SPECIFIC CONTROLLERS GO HERE
default controller is index.php as set in CIs global config
errors
symbolic link to parent
helpers
symbolic link to parent
hooks
symbolic link to parent
libraries
symbolic link to parent
models
symbolic link to parent
templates
symbolic link to parent
templates_c
symbolic link to parent
views
symbolic link to parent
A closer look at my individual site’s ROOT folders:
.htaccess
(see below)
index.php
links to (local) application folder and global system folder
system folder can be changed in one place to reference a new CI install
applications
mostly contains symbolic links, but has a legit controllers folder
A closer look at my sites individual .htaccess files:
Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|common|robots\.txt)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
TWEAKAGE:
A few small edits I made along the way.
For SSL.
Since I have a single CI config file for multiple applications/sites I had to make a small change to the way the $config[base_url] was captured. It now prefixes the URL with the proper protocol if SSL is in use on that site.
$config['base_url'] = (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) ? 'https://' : 'http://').$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/";
instead of
$config['base_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/";
For Smarty.
In my (global) applications autoload.php file, I add the following:
$autoload['libraries'] = array('mySmarty');
Then I create a class file in my (global) application/libraries folder (remember to edit the smarty path)
Found on the CI forums, thx to the author whoever you are!
if (!defined('APPPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
require_once(APPPATH . "../../Smarty_2.6.18/libs/Smarty.class.php");
/*
|==========================================================
| Code Igniter - by pMachine
|----------------------------------------------------------
| www.codeignitor.com
|----------------------------------------------------------
| Copyright (c) 2006, pMachine, Inc.
|----------------------------------------------------------
| This library is licensed under an open source agreement:
| www.codeignitor.com/docs/license.html
|----------------------------------------------------------
| File: libraries/Smarty.php
|----------------------------------------------------------
| Purpose: Wrapper for Smarty Templates
|==========================================================
*/
class MySmarty extends Smarty{
var $smarty;
function MySmarty()
{
$this->smarty = new Smarty();
$this->smarty->template_dir = APPPATH . "templates";
$this->smarty->compile_dir = APPPATH . "templates_c";
$this->smarty->cache_dir = APPPATH . "cache";
$this->smarty->config_dir = APPPATH . "configs";
$this->smarty->compile_check = true;
$this->smarty->debugging = true;
log_message('debug', "Smarty Class Initialized");
}
function assign($key,$value)
{
$this->smarty->assign($key,$value);
}
function display($template)
{
$this->smarty->display($template);
}
}
10 Comments
Solved.
You must be extremely gifted with coding. Host multiple sites off a single install base sounds like a terrific project. My friend at this mmo community use to host multiple sites but this looks like a great way to do it easily with lots of function.
Thanks Haris. Symlinks are pretty friendly for this sort of thing. Did you find this post by way of a CodeIgniter project?
Hi,
I use smarty too for template and I like to learn how people are with it and dealing with situations that is covered by standard CI but probably have to handle separately when using with Smarty.
I’ve never used a PHP framework before, and it amazes me! I guess I make my framework up as I go along on my websites, but this thing is so amazing. I’m very impressed.
Here’s a shell script for making creation easier (not running a mac, and my server isn’t running a window manager):
#!/bin/sh
mkdir ~/www/$1
ln -s ~/www/application/cache ~/www/$1/cache
ln -s ~/www/application/config ~/www/$1/config
ln -s ~/www/application/errors ~/www/$1/errors
ln -s ~/www/application/hooks ~/www/$1/hooks
ln -s ~/www/application/libraries ~/www/$1/libraries
ln -s ~/www/application/models ~/www/$1/models
ln -s ~/www/application/views ~/www/$1/views
# create our controller
mkdir ~/www/$1/controllers
touch ~/www/$1/controllers/index.php
Saved me some time.
Thanks Michael, good stuff! I did something similar when I did this, I’ll have to look for the script.
I use smarty too for template and I like to learn how people are with it and dealing with situations that is covered by standard CI but probably have to handle separately when using with Smarty.
An example is form.
Hi CodeOfficer ... very interesting post. Thanks for sharing it!
I have a similar situation, although my solution is a bit different (as are my project needs) ... so I’m wondering what your thoughts are regarding a post I just made at the CI forums - http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/125954/
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As noted on CI Forum really like the setup but having some issues.
What does your index.php file look like particularly the $application_folder area? Also are you using one index.php only? Are there any references in your www_* dirs?
Thanks