I am currently evaluating Joomla Multi Sites because I think it will suit my needs for the following reasons:

1. Master site in English
2. Regional sites that will be controlled independently of each other but link back to a catalog database that I'm going to maintain separately.

3. Each site I'm developing for purposes of demonstration will be under their own regional directory. Examples:

www.domain.com/richco/us/ -> Will eventually point to www.richco-inc.com

www.domain.com/richco/uk/ -> UK Region - will point to www.richco.co.uk

www.domain.com/richco/it/ -> Italy (in Italian Language front end and back end)- will point to www.richco.co.it

I'm developing the menus, localisations and templates on my own development server to preview for the client. If I purchase JMS / Subscribe to it, will I be able to transfer the registration from my development site to the live production environment once we move it to that new server, or is my registration always going to be tied to a particular domain? Is it possible to "migrate" the registration when the time comes to move from development to production.

Please advise. Thank you.

With JMS 1.0.x, the sub-directory in the URL is not recognized.
Therefore if you want to recognize URL like www.chadbaus.com/richco/us/ you will need JMS 1.1.x.

Concerning the synonym between sub-directory and domain name, there is no problem.
This is very simple in JMS. You just have to give the list of URL that will be assigned to the same website.
Thus www.chadbaus.com/richco/us/ -> Will eventually point to www.richco-inc.com is OK.


Concerning the languages, there is no problem. You will have to install all the language files on the master website and each website can select any default language.

When you buy JMS, you can install JMS without any problem on different websites (Developement, Production). The migration from developement to production can be do with a simple unix tar or zip + a backup restore of the DB. You will just have to adapt the DB connection in the different "cnfiguration.php" file. When you will move an installation, you will have to register again and therefore to perhaps have to login again in jms2win.com to complete the registration.
You can not transfert JMS to another customer as JMS is attached to your login.
You will have to ask this person to buy JMS and create a new login.

JMS 1.0.x only accept domain (www.domain.com) and sub-domain ( slave.domain.com).
In addition, JMS 1.0.x require that all the website are located into the same directory than the master website.
You can not customise anything and you can not replicate website.

With JMS, there is a special feature when working on a localhost that allow simulate a production environment.
See forum reply /forum?func=view&id=303&catid=17#303

Thank you for the very fast response. I'm using Joomla 1.5.9 so I'll be using JMS 1.1. Oh yes, I will be using it.