I've read the documentation and watch numerous videos, but I can't seem to accomplish what seems like a basic thing.

I have an existing joomla site, that has JMS multisite installed. I just want to make one exact clone of this master site, sharing everything, with domain #1 going to original/master site (which it already is) and domain #2 pointing to clone site.

I just want two identical sites, that have seperate domain names, that share everything so that I only have to manage one site instead of two.

Is this possible? If so, I could use a hand in how to go about setting this up. (I've tried setting up a Slave site, then a template. I've tried setting up a template, then creating a slave based on the template ... no matter what I do, each attempt is creating a fresh joomla site using existing DB but adding new tables. I don't want to have to manage two different sets of data ... I just want all my content - articles, modules, extensions - in one place and have them get displayed on both sites.)

If you want exactly the same "whole site" content between domain 1 and domain 2, you have to create a JMS Template rule where you mention that you want to replicate domain 1 and click on "share whole site" checkbox to use the same DB with same table prefix.

When you click on the "checkbox" this is the equivalent to create a slave site that is using the same DB with same prefix.

Ok, so I figured out how to do this ... I think I was actually over-complicating it in my mind, so maybe others figured this out, but just in case I thought I'd put the exact steps down for anyone else trying to do the same thing who maybe is making it harder than it needs to be (like me!).

1. Setup master site
If you're like me, you might already have a master/original site setup. Either way, once you have a master site ready, install JMS Multi site on that site (directions in videos and manual explain this process adequately). For this example, let's say I called my master site "IceCreamSite" w/ domain name "icecreamsite.com". (BTW, this isn't real )

2. Create new template.
a. Enter ID. (In my case I entered "IceCreamSlaveTemplate")
b. Select Template Site = "< Master Site >".
c. Check the box called "Share the whole site".
d. Go to "Folders and Files" tab and make desired selections. (In my case I left everything with the default selections except '.htaccess' and 'robots.txt' - I set both of these to "Copy the folder or file")
e. I left the "Sharing" tab as-is
f. Save.

3. Create the slave site.
a. Enter Site ID. (In my case I entered "IceCreamSlaveSite")
b. Enter your list of domain names. (In my case I entered "www.icecreamsite2.com" and "icecreamsite2.com")
c. Select the template you created in step #2 above from the Templates dropdown list. (In my case I selected "IceCreamSlaveSiteTemplate")
d. Check the box called "Share the whole site".
*e. Deployed Directory. Now in my case my hosting plan forces me to point all domains to my root directory, so I didn't need to enter a deployed directory. However, if you set up the domain that you are using for your slave site (in my example it was icecreamsite2.com) so that it goes to a subdirectory/folder in your hosting account, then you would need to enter the path to that directory in this Deployed Directory field. (So, in my case, had I been able to point icecreamsite2.com to a subdirectory in my hosting account called "icecreamsite2", then my Deployed Directory might have been something like "/icecreamsitemain/root/icecreamsite2")
f. Save.

That's it. After the slave site has been saved, you should now be able to go to it in your browser (in my case, www.icecreamsite2.com) and it should basically be an exact mirror of your main/master site. It's sharing the same content/database,etc. So any changes made in the adminstration area of the master site should be reflected on the slave site as well.

Thank you for your contribution.

Hello,
Thanks a lot slsmithVN for this tutorial.
After having followed it step by step and tried a few different things, I however could net set up a similar application.
I am pretty clear for the steps 1 and 2, where I could do exactly as slsmithVN described, but for the step 3, I am not sure about how to follow the 'Deployed Directory' step.
I thus left everything by default so I now have a subdirectory created on my host (www.maindomain.com/multisites/). The url www.mainsite.com/multisites/slavesiteID/index.php gives me the exact mirror as my mainsite, but unfortunately, what I do not understand is that if I enter my slave website url in my internet browser, it is still pointing to my slave website server, and not my main site one.

Would anyone have any hint?

Thanks a lot!

In most of the tutorial example we use the
domain = {site_url}/multisites/{site_id}
that corrspond on the disk to the
deploy folder = {site_dir}

If you have a look in the yellow light, you have the definition of the keywords.
If you replace the keywords by they value, you get
{site_dir} = {multisites}/{site_id}
{multisites} = {root}/multisites/{site_id}
{root} = the current absolute path of your website that is display just above the deploy folder.
As {root} correspond to the location on the disk of the {site_url} you can have acces to your domain.

The key element is to have the domain URL and deploy folder that match.