Host multiple clients on the same Magento code base.

Each client has their own local.xml and etc/modules.xml. This allows you to specify separate databases and caching services per client, as well as enable/disable modules as requested.

Each client maintains their independance but shares a code base.

This could be considered a Magento Go-esque approach to hosting Magento websites.

Please see the wiki for installation instructions.

Because of customized directory structure the entire Magento code base is included in this repository. The structure may look like:

• magento/app
• magento/var/client1
• magento/var/client2
• magento/public/skin
• magento/public/media/client1
• magento/public/media/client2

Note that each client has a separate media path. This prevents file collisions and lets you use a single CDN domain.

To work correctly Magento has to know which client this visited site is. This done by setting the CLIENT_CODE environment variable.

See index.php or cron.php for an example of how Mage::app()/Mage::run() is intialized.

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name store.example.com;
  root /var/www/html/public;
  location ~ .php$ {
    fastcgi_pass  unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_param CLIENT_CODE client1;
  }
}

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName store.example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html/public
  SetEnv CLIENT_CODE client1
</VirtualHost>

Each client has a local.xml and module declaration folder. These are located in

• app/etc/multiclient/<CLIENT_CODE>/local.xml
• app/etc/multiclient/<CLIENT_CODE>/etc/modules/

Magento will load app/etc/*.xml and app/etc/local.xml first, then app/etc/multiclient/<CLIENT_CODE>/*.xml and app/etc/multiclient/<CLIENT_CODE>/local.xml, giving the client's local.xml the highest priority.

The same order is used for module declaration.

Cron should be run every minute. The cron.sh is located just above public. It will look for folders in app/etc/multiclient/. The folders names must match a CLIENT_CODE.

Create you script in shell/multiclient/<CLIENT_CODE>/myScript.php and extend Multi_Client_Shell_Abstract and it will handle setting the CLIENT_CODE.

• Composerify
• Not sure downloadable products will work (get.php in media)
• Tests and CI
• Streamline new client installation process (for now delete app/etc/local.xml to trigger the install, then mv it to app/etc/multiclient/<CLIENT_CODE>/local.xml).

This is very much a work in progress.