I have spent the last few hours reading the docs and watching videos and it's really very good information. However, I can't tell by those what comes first, the chicken or the egg? I would love to see a step by step guide that says, "Ok you idiot, 1st install the component, 2nd setup a template, 3rd add a slave, etc.".

I have a production site so I can't afford to experiment. What's first? I already purchased JMS but should I not even use it since I am not installing a fresh Joomla site? Also, what's all the stuff with hosts files? I don't have access to those files nor do I have cpanel or plesk. Now what, again can't use JMS?

I can literally (and have many times) set up a Centos 5.x server w/LAMP and get it online and hosting sites and everything yet I don't know anything at all about Linux but because there are step by step guides that show me how, I can.

This seems like a powerful extension but perhaps it requires certain server access and knowledge that simply I don't have?

Normally you have to follow the video step by step.
It starts to explain the concept and show you a demo overview.
You install Joomla (if this is not already done)
You install JMS Multisites.
We also help you check your environment and identifying the context in which you are working (windows, linux, symbolic links, ...)
Depending on the environment, we show how to create your first very basic slave site.

When you need more sofisticated configuration we give you other sample of configuration to share the user, create website from the front-end and also some sample using a cPanel.

So start from video 0 and continue step by step.

If you want a personal teaching, we also have billable support that you can order at
www.jms2win.com/en/joomla-multisite?page...35&category_id=1

Thanks for the reply, edwin.

I already have a production Joomla 1.5.22 site so...

Step 1: I installed JMS
Step 2: I ran the patch updates
Step 3: I uploaded the hello.txt and hello.php to my J! root
- Both files worked as expected and symlinks are all good although JMS>Settings shows:
Unix Symbolic Links: Forbidden
MySQL Version: 5.1.41-3ubuntu12.7 Sharing supported
Step 4: Under "Manage Sites" I added the first "new" site
- Site ID: sa
- List of domain names: www.domain.foo/sa
- left all other fields default
- Success, now map 'www.domain.foo/sa' to '/var/www/base/joomla'
Step 5: Edited hosts.conf per success message
Step 6: in browser, 'www.domain.foo/sa'
- opens Joomla main site 'www.domain.foo'
Step 7: Cleared browser cache and flushed dns, still opens main site
Step 8: Tried opening 'www.domain.foo/sa' on different computer, still goes to main site
Step 9: Edited hosts.conf to map 'www.domain.foo/sa' to '/var/www/base/joomla/multisites/sa' because under "manage sites" the mouseover tooltip shows this as the the mapping location
- Results of this opens a blank page at www.domain.foo/multisites/sa/'


Not sure how to proceed. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you!

Server details:
PHP Built on: Linux 2.6.32-26-server #48-Ubuntu SMP x86_64
Database Version: 5.1.41-3ubuntu12.7
Database Collation: utf8_general_ci
PHP Version: 5.3.2-1ubuntu4.7
Web Server: Apache
Web Server to PHP interface: apache2handler
Joomla! Version: Joomla! 1.5.22 Stable

If you display the master site instead of a slave, this simply mean that you didn't have entered the correct URL value in the domain name of the slave site.
You have to verify that you spelled it correctly.
Check also that you have entered the domain with www and without www.

In your case, if you master is www.domain.foo
and that you have create a slave that you have deployed in {root}/{site_id}
then enter in the domain the values
www.domain.foo/{site_id}
domain.foo/{site_id}

So when you enter the site ID = sa, this will define
www.domain.foo/sa
domain.foo/sa

that is located on
{root}/sa
Where root is the absolute path to your master website.

You should find in your disk the directory sa with plenty of links inside.

Becarefull that URL is case sensitive.
Do not write SA or Sa or sA

At this point when I use the URL 'www.domain.foo/sa' I end up at 'www.domain.foo/multisites/sa/' which is a blank page.

There is no directory 'root/sa' presumably because JMS does not think that symlinks are allowed.

Still lost and thank you for helping me!

Nowhere in the reply that I give you I have written the multisites in the parameters.
So please copy/paste the value that I give you.

www.domain.foo/{site_id}
domain.foo/{site_id}

So when you enter the site ID = sa, this will define
www.domain.foo/sa
domain.foo/sa