Major Additions - CERBERUS: 1 vB4: runs multiple domains with custom styles, forums, universal login

***Attention: This product is currently UNSUPPORTED***

We would like to release an Alpha version of the vBulletin4 Cerberus product. This product allows you to create one vBulletin4 installation which can power unlimited number of domains and sub-domains; while allowing to customize each domain differently to make it look like different sites or sections. Domains will have one universal admincp and user login information.

***Example***
www.supercoolautoforum.com - main site, all forums
ferarri.supercoolautoforum.com - custom style and forums, same login
bmw.supercoolautoforum.com- custom style and forums, same login
honda.supercoolautoforum.com - custom style and forums, same login
supercoolmotorcycleforum.com - custom style and forums, same login

*** Why are you releasing this, I want more features?! ***

This is a very simple product; we believe that the basic functionality provided in this product will satisfy a lot of communities - and since the product is simple - it will be easy to extend it and modify it to work for your custom community requirements.

Overview of Current Features:

• One shared installation of vBulletin 4
• One shared user account on all domains
• Custom Style for each domain
• Custom Forum listing for each domain

Known Issues:

• CMS and Blogs are currently not configured to have special domain-specific categories and sections. CMS is shared across all sites although the appearance will be different for each domain.

Project Contributors: s.lauderdale;m.biddle;a.ahn; anders

[KW802]

Originally Posted by iBaker

Thanks KW...having the same problem...couldn't post in any of the different domains due to no permissions...changed all references to forumid to forumidx in that plugin and it worked.

Can you think of any ramifications of doing this?

As long as "$forumidx" isn't used anywhere by vBulletin itself (and I don't think it is), then we should be good to go.

[BirdOPrey5]

Or any other mods... (I used $forumidx in some custom stuff...)

[FoW]

Originally Posted by puertoblack2003

yea good point, i had noticed that too they refer to installations, not for each domain.Not sure unless someone can enlighten to that terms.

Im not sure if Im right, but this is how I am understanding it:

There are two options.

1. You have multiple vbulletin sites running on multiple domains and you link them together with this mod.

This circumstance requires a license for each vbulletin site.



2. You install vbulletin once, and have just one license.

You create multiple subdomains, or use other domains via cpanel of your hosting company.

You create multiple styles/forum categories and link your subdomains/domains accordingly to the appropriate style/forum category using the one vbulletin install.

This DOES NOT require multiple licenses.


Im hoping its option 2.

I run a gaming website that plays multiple platforms, and Im looking to create subdomains for each specific game, but to be apart of the entire gaming site.

Ex:

forcesofwar.com
cod4.forcesofwar.com
bc2.forcesofwar.com
blackops.forcesofwar.com


forcesofwar.com being the community website where everyone can meet and chat about all games, and then subdomains which have different styles pertaining to the specific game, along with the content that would go with it. So if someone comes to the site and registers, and plays call of duty 4, they can go to cod4.forcesofwar.com to view all the specific content/forums about that game.

[Helmut71]

sounds interesting: will Blogs & CMS be supported soon?

[cache]

your option 2 and your examples with subdomains is the same as quoted the "/forum1" and "/forum2" see my earlier post on this page. I submitted a ticket to the vb support, here is the exact reply:

"Yes, but for each instance or site you need its own license.

So if you want to run 10 sites from 1 install, you still need 10 licenses."

I don't know whether this answer applies to your option 2 or not, may be someone else can make sure we don't need to buy licenses. You don't want to spend all your time and effort to integrate this mod and later find out it does not save your licenses.

The wording at http://www.vbulletin.com/faq.php ============================
if you wish to install one copy of vBulletin at http://www.yourserver.com/forum1/ and another copy at http://www.yourserver.com/forum2/, you will require two license

notice the "one copy" and the "another copy". From this example, your option 2 does not have two copies. However from the vb support reply "10 sites from 1 install", it clearly applies to your option 2. For example I have http://laFrance.com/forum installed, this counts as one install. If I can access this forum's category from another site say http://goblinwars.com/forum then when vb's bot visits the goblinwars.com/forum but does not find the license linked in my membership area URL, your hosting company will shut you down. Last time that Howard at vb shutdown my site by mistake, they don't warn you first, they shut you down first!!

Originally Posted by FoW

Im not sure if Im right, but this is how I am understanding it:

There are two options.

1. You have multiple vbulletin sites running on multiple domains and you link them together with this mod.

This circumstance requires a license for each vbulletin site.



2. You install vbulletin once, and have just one license.

You create multiple subdomains, or use other domains via cpanel of your hosting company.

You create multiple styles/forum categories and link your subdomains/domains accordingly to the appropriate style/forum category using the one vbulletin install.

This DOES NOT require multiple licenses.


Im hoping its option 2.

I run a gaming website that plays multiple platforms, and Im looking to create subdomains for each specific game, but to be apart of the entire gaming site.

Ex:

forcesofwar.com
cod4.forcesofwar.com
bc2.forcesofwar.com
blackops.forcesofwar.com


forcesofwar.com being the community website where everyone can meet and chat about all games, and then subdomains which have different styles pertaining to the specific game, along with the content that would go with it. So if someone comes to the site and registers, and plays call of duty 4, they can go to cod4.forcesofwar.com to view all the specific content/forums about that game.

[djr]

Originally Posted by Shogo

I have those option in plesk :

You need the 'Domain Alias' option: http://support.netfirms.com/virtual-...a-domain-alias. Any additional domain is a domain alias to your main domain. E.g. your main domain is www.forum1.com. Create extra domain aliases for that domain called www.forum2.com, www.forum3.com etc. Cerberus takes care of redirecting the user to the right domain URL.

[AleXanniX]

I asked this to ticket system:

Hello
i'm Italian, so sorry for my bad english.
I decided to create a vb. forum network in my site in this way
mysite.com <- vb cms home page, with news about all portal in my site
example1.mysite.com <- vb cms about a specific topic
example2.mysite.com <- vb cms about another topic
forum.mysite.com <- my vb 4.x forum
example3.mysite.com <- a forum of one of my vbforum, for exmple mysite.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1 -> example3.mysite.com, and mysite.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3 -> example3.mysite.com/showthread.php?t=3, but last topics and number of Threads and posts must be displayed in forum.mysite.com, and users online on example3.mysite.com must be seen in forum.mysite.com user list too.

How do i do it?
If i use just a database, how many licenses must i buy?

They said:

Hello.

If you use URL rewrite rules and sub-domains, you could do this with one installation of the software which would only need one license.

Best regards,


Trevor Hannant
vBulletin Support Staff

What does it mean?

[BirdOPrey5]

It means you only need once licence per domain name.

alpha.domain.com
beta.domain.com
gamma.domain.com

= 1 License

www.domainalpha.com
www.domainbeta.com
www.domaingamma.com

= 3 Licenses

[sticky]

Originally Posted by iBaker

Thanks KW...having the same problem...couldn't post in any of the different domains due to no permissions...changed all references to forumid to forumidx in that plugin and it worked.

Can you think of any ramifications of doing this?

Would someone be able to post their updated file with the forumidx changes?

[kronnos]

I would just like to know whqat does this mod really do. For example: what if I remove this mod after having 2 sites linked like site1.forum.com and site2.forum.com? What would happen to the same user groups on both sites?