Question

First, let me explain my situation:
I have two domains, two websites, the same layout, but different content and different purposes.
What I would like to do:

Share between these two systems:

• The functionality, layout template and management.

What is different:

• The pages in the view, some controllers.

The options I considered:

Option 1

1. Make one of the two sites a plugin
2. Check the hostname: $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’], and indicate in the core or bootstrap if the plugin should be used or not.

Something like this:

if ($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == 'www.example1.com') {
    Configure::write('defaultplugin', 'example1');
} else {
    Configure::write('defaultplugin', null);
}

Is this possible

Option 2

A virtual address, but this is also hard to achieve because my routing is configured like this:

Router::connect("/{$prefix}/:language/:plugin", $indexParams, $shortParams);

Maybe I should change this route to:

Router::connect("/{$prefix}/:plugin/:language", $indexParams, $shortParams);

But if my earlier suggestion is possible, I would like to that, because I don’t know if the last solution will work correctly on some levels.

Option 3

Use the method described here: http://rickguyer.com/cakephp-one-core-many-apps/

So I would make 3 app folders: example1, example2, common. But I don’t know if it is possible to have the app folder consist of the contents of example1 and common OR example2 and common.

Option 4

An awesome idea from someone here on Stackoverflow.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

We switch our routes.php content based on the domain.
This way we have all the flexibility without having to do too much config/hacking/switching.

You just switch/replace the relevant routes and the rest should be fine.

e.g.:

if ($isDomainX) {
    Router::connect('/', array('plugin' => 'shop', 'controller' => 'shop', 'action' => 'index', 'slug' => $slug), array('pass' => array('slug')));
    ...
} else {
     Router::connect('/', array('controller' => 'custom_pages', 'action' => 'homepage'));
    ...
}

You could also include/switch a whole file, if that makes it easier to read/maintain.