I would like to set up MultiSites on our dev server with the following configuration.

1. Installed Joomla on our dev server using WAMP
2. Installed Multi-Sites, Article, Menu, Contact and User sharing
3. Our live site will be multiligual (6 languages)
4. We will be using separate domains for each language, not sub-domains
5. We currently have a static IP address so that those connected to our network can check up on progress (192.168.100.241 which resolves to our WWW root in our WAMP folder)
6. We want to have separate installations of Joomla for each domain, but be able to share: images, templates, users, articles, and menus

I understand this is all possible with Multi-Sites. My question is how do I set up the dev environment using WAMP when it's not being hosted by a hosting company? I only have one local static IP address. It looks like I can't install the Slave site unless I have a domain name. Is that correct?

If you develop on Windows platform (case wamp) and using a "localhost" or "127.0.0.1", you can use the procedure as described in the user manual chapter 9.
Othewsise you will not be able to simulate the DNS.


In addition, on Windows, the Symbolic Link is not allowed.
So you will have to share the same directories for all the websites because you will not be able to deploy the websites into a specific directory.

Figured it out on my own. I had to add aliases to Alias Directory in Apache, under the WAMP menu in the system try.

You can try simulating very few things with apache "alias" but not all.
This will not replace the symbolic links and a DNS.

Could this be this why the Multi Site User Site component is not working for me?

If so, if I were to move the content of our local dev server to a hosted environment, set up temporary domain names for each slave site, then it should work? Correct?

Also, if I understand the risks, is there any way to install components not yet approved by Jms2Win?

We are still in the research phase and are testing extensions to make sure they will function as we need them to.

John

Personally we don't understand why you don't want to use the "localhost" procedure described in the user manual to simulate the DNS.

When you are working on a local environment, the browser does not call the DNS server and the information are not present in the request received by the server.
This is the reason why we provided an alternate solution that is working on localhost or 127.0.0.1.

When using this procedure, you can simulate any domain name and use your future domain name.

This is what we are using internally for 3 years when we test and develop our website.
This is also the procedure that we are using when you restore on windows platform a website that was originaly present on linux platform.
We can simulate the environment in test.