3 seperate versions of the same site
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Hi all, I am trying Concrete5 5.7 for the first time (beside the point but I am loving the improvements).
I am setting up a large website we are separating the site into 3 groups,
- Residential Customers
- Commercial Customers
- Builders/Developers
With each sub-section being a little like a mini, self contained website following all the general templates etc however the navigation items will only be relevant to that user section.
For example, if you clicked 'Residential Customer', you wouldn't see links in the autonav that have been assigned to the 'Commercial Customers' section.
What I have done so far is set up my sitemap like:
- Home
- Residential Customers
- Your account
- Make a payment
- Understanding your bill
- etc etc
- FAQ's
- Services
- About Us
- Commercial Customers
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Builders/Developers
- Builders page
- Builders page
- Builders page
- Builders page
This seems to work ok in the early stages of development with some hardcoded autonavs but I suspect it's not the most flui way of doing this.
My knowledge of PHP is at a functional yet weak standard so I was hoping someone out there might have done something similar or have a good idea how to tackle this in a more logical way.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am setting up a large website we are separating the site into 3 groups,
- Residential Customers
- Commercial Customers
- Builders/Developers
With each sub-section being a little like a mini, self contained website following all the general templates etc however the navigation items will only be relevant to that user section.
For example, if you clicked 'Residential Customer', you wouldn't see links in the autonav that have been assigned to the 'Commercial Customers' section.
What I have done so far is set up my sitemap like:
- Home
- Residential Customers
- Your account
- Make a payment
- Understanding your bill
- etc etc
- FAQ's
- Services
- About Us
- Commercial Customers
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Commercial page
- Builders/Developers
- Builders page
- Builders page
- Builders page
- Builders page
This seems to work ok in the early stages of development with some hardcoded autonavs but I suspect it's not the most flui way of doing this.
My knowledge of PHP is at a functional yet weak standard so I was hoping someone out there might have done something similar or have a good idea how to tackle this in a more logical way.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You can maintain this from a single installation. Crate three different page tempaltes and page types for
- Residential Customers
- Commercial Customers
- Builders/Developers
In page template add different header suppose header_residential.php,header_commercial.php,header_developers.php
In header nav portion load three different view for autonav. You can change the navigation view and activities from autonav blocks view page.
- Residential Customers
- Commercial Customers
- Builders/Developers
In page template add different header suppose header_residential.php,header_commercial.php,header_developers.php
In header nav portion load three different view for autonav. You can change the navigation view and activities from autonav blocks view page.
This way you'll have multiple page types/templates, and if you create another subsite, you will have to create another page type/template. It's an option, but the solution I suggested is a one-timer.
Hi all, thank you all for the great suggestions... Pluto, to be honest, I liked your option better but before even reading Ramons reply I noticed that it wasn't going to be as flexible as Ramons suggestion.
Thank you both for the suggestions/tips as they actually sparked ideas for menu switching as well.
I love it when this forum not only helps the original issue but also produces a great stream of concepts from different perspectives.
Thank you both for the suggestions/tips as they actually sparked ideas for menu switching as well.
I love it when this forum not only helps the original issue but also produces a great stream of concepts from different perspectives.
Glad we could both give you a view/solution to your problem. Hope you have a good time developing your site :)
You have 3 "mini" sites in your single concrete5 install. So make 3 pages right under the homepage. Each and every next page, will go under one of these 3 pages. Like so
- Home
-- Subsite 1
--- Subpage subsite 1
--- Subpage subsite 1
--- Subpage subsite 1
-- Subsite 2
--- Subpage subsite 2
--- Subpage subsite 2
--- Subpage subsite 2
--- Subpage subsite 2
--- Subpage subsite 2
-- Subsite 3
--- Subpage subsite 3
--- Subpage subsite 3
--- Subpage subsite 3
--- Subpage subsite 3
You catch the drift I hope. Anyways, after doing this, you change the global area name where you're putting the navigation. You will grab the URI/slug of the page you're on and explode that into parts.
Like if you have home/subsite1/test-page/sub-of-test-page, your parts will be
- home
- subsite1
- test-page
- sub-of-test-page
Now your global area should be named like the name it already got + the second part (or first 2) of what you see above. So if your global area is "Header", it will be "Header subsite1" or "header subsite2". This way it's always unique and you can read it correctly. If you fear you might change the URL every now and then (which I don't expect you to), use the ID of the page of the second part (subsite1). So it will be "Header 152". Now every page beneath subsite1 will get this navigation/area and voila, clean sitemap and not ding hardcoded sh*t at all.
If you have questions, feel free to ask :)