How to Display data across multiple sites on different servers

[Mel]

Hi I am new to PW but have used cms systems before and would like your input on how or even if it is possible to achieve the following:

What I want to do is show records from a master site across lets say for example 6 slave sites deployed on several  DIFFERENT dedicated servers which I would have admin of.

I want to avoid having to individually input records (which include images) into each site.

My thinking so far is:

• Have clone sites with PW on the six other domains
• Use something like Navicat.com to regularly update the databases on the slave sites

But how do I get the images over to the other sites from the master site on a regular basis?

Or more to the point is my thinking totally flawed?

Am I going to have problems with incorrect pathways etc?

Or is there a better way to do it?

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be much appreciated

Thank you

Mel

[Craig]

It sounds like the master site would benefit from having some form of RSS feed or web service making the content available. The other replica/satellite sites can read this feed when convenient, parse and download the information, and create local copies for their own purposes.

ProcessWire will make this easy in several areas. You could use the MarkupRSS module to create the necessary feeds on the master site. PW's API is a breeze to use in order to create pages programmatically from various sources.

You could schedule this to run on a regular basis to keep the sites up to date.

This is just one way, and the way I might do it - but there are probably multiple correct ways to approach this problem with ProcessWire.

[Mel]

It sounds like the master site would benefit from having some form of RSS feed or web service making the content available. The other replica/satellite sites can read this feed when convenient, parse and download the information, and create local copies for their own purposes.

ProcessWire will make this easy in several areas. You could use the MarkupRSS module to create the necessary feeds on the master site. PW's API is a breeze to use in order to create pages programmatically from various sources.

You could schedule this to run on a regular basis to keep the sites up to date.

This is just one way, and the way I might do it - but there are probably multiple correct ways to approach this problem with ProcessWire.

Hello Craig,

Thanks for your reply.

Part of the reason that these sites are going to be on different servers is to make sure that each site is and appears independent from the master site from a Google - SEO perspective.

Not having dealt with RSS at all and at this moment in time I would not even know where to start with it also I am not sure if the RSS feed will show up as an incoming link to the slave sites from the master site .

What I am trying to achieve is X number of totally stand alone sites but with all being able to access the master data without any direct linkage

Mel

[horst]

RSS: http://modules.processwire.com/modules/markup-rss/

or better use the webservices module? (http://modules.processwire.com/modules/service-pages/)

[diogo]

As horst said, the service-pages module would be a perfect fit for this. Although I don't understand why you have to keep the sites in separate servers from a SEO perspective... couldn't you just have different domains?

[Mel]

As horst said, the service-pages module would be a perfect fit for this. Although I don't understand why you have to keep the sites in separate servers from a SEO perspective... couldn't you just have different domains?

Hello Diogo,

Yes they will all be different domains, but the reason for different servers is that there may be a slight overlap on some of the keywords and meta descriptions and also want to avoid having all the sites on the same IP addresses, it could be the case where several of the sites are on one server (where there is no risk of duplicate meta description and keywords) and others on another server, etc etc,

We want to avoid Google seeing any chance of duplicate content and the like

I will take a look at the service pages module

• Does the module allow access to pages by other domains not on the same server?
• When displaying the data on another site is it apperent that the data is being called from another IP address?

That's was my initial reasoning of copying over the master database on a regular basis beit  hourly, twice or once a day but I am stuck on how I could update all the other files i.e. the image files etc on a regular basis at the same time and probably as I mentioned in the orginal posting I am also missing somethinge here like wrong url pathways etc on the other domains in the databases

Mel

[diogo]

The module works by creating a page with only json content that you can get via URL either by JS or PHP (or whatever you want). It allows you complete control over the data that gets passed to json, so you don't have to have any problems with sensitive data being exposed. If you get the json from another site with PHP in your templates, there's no way Google will know where it came from.

[renobird]

Just to echo what Diogo has said, service pages sound like a great fit here. 

[Mel]

The module works by creating a page with only json content that you can get via URL either by JS or PHP (or whatever you want). It allows you complete control over the data that gets passed to json, so you don't have to have any problems with sensitive data being exposed. If you get the json from another site with PHP in your templates, there's no way Google will know where it came from.

Hello I have managed to get service page module installed and producing output

Below is the output from a page called widgets (have not tried adding any images yet or css formatting yet) thought I would start of simple

I have no real working knowledge of JS and limited knowledge of php

On the basis that I want to get this information to show on another domain and different server, I would appreciate some coding example of what I have to do next

This is the output that the service page is producing which is correctly showing five records

Thanks - Mel

• Selector: template=widgets, limit=50
• Total: 6
• Limit: 50
• Start: 0
• Matches:
  • 0
    • id: 1018
    • parent_id: 1
    • template: widgets
    • path: /enter-widgets/
    • name: enter-widgets
    • widget_name:
    • widget_color:
  • 1
    • id: 1024
    • parent_id: 1018
    • template: widgets
    • path: /enter-widgets/blue-widget/
    • name: blue-widget
    • widget_name: widget1
    • widget_color: blue
  • 2
    • id: 1025
    • parent_id: 1018
    • template: widgets
    • path: /enter-widgets/white-widget/
    • name: white-widget
    • widget_name: widget2
    • widget_color: white
  • 3
    • id: 1026
    • parent_id: 1018
    • template: widgets
    • path: /enter-widgets/red-widget/
    • name: red-widget
    • widget_name: widget3
    • widget_color: red
  • 4
    • id: 1027
    • parent_id: 1018
    • template: widgets
    • path: /enter-widgets/another-widget/
    • name: another-widget
    • widget_name: widget4
    • widget_color: yellow
  • 5
    • id: 1028
    • parent_id: 1018
    • template: widgets
    • path: /enter-widgets/widget-help/
    • name: widget-help
    • widget_name: widget5
    • widget_color: green

[formulate]

Hello I have managed to get service page module installed and producing output

Below is the output from a page called widgets (have not tried adding any images yet or css formatting yet) thought I would start of simple

I have no real working knowledge of JS and limited knowledge of php

On the basis that I want to get this information to show on another domain and different server, I would appreciate some coding example of what I have to do next

This is the output that the service page is producing which is correctly showing five records

Thanks - Mel

Hi Mel,

Did you ever get a solution together for dealing with the JSON data? I have a similar situation and am searching around for how best to grab the JSON and then display the data.

Thanks.

[Mel]

Hi Mel,

Did you ever get a solution together for dealing with the JSON data? I have a similar situation and am searching around for how best to grab the JSON and then display the data.

Thanks.

Hi Formulate,

Unfortunately I did not manage to get an answer to the problem, did not have any further input from the forum.

Looking at some of the sites that have used PW the potential seems great.

My only observation is, this forum is very friendly and helpful, but I think that a certain level of knowledge is assumed in replies you get, however when you are like myself and completely out of my depth on certain issues then I run into a brick wall.

I will be the first one to admit that not all of us are made equal and there is no shame in that and clearly there are some outstandingly clever contributers in this forum but I think the fact that we are not all made equal does not always register with them

Regards - Mel

[kongondo]

Unfortunately I did not manage to get an answer to the problem, did not have any further input from the forum.

@Mel, 

Unfortunately sometimes some posts get buried in the forums. It is not an issue of unwillingness on our part to provide a response . Hopefully by bumping this, you will get a response soon . 

My only observation is, this forum is very friendly and helpful, but I think that a certain level of knowledge is assumed in replies you get, however when you are like myself and completely out of my depth on certain issues then I run into a brick wall.

My opinion is that the 'level of knowledge assumed' varies. For newbies, in many responses, the expectation is that they at least know their HTML. To use PW effectively, one should also know or be willing to learn at least some very basic PHP. Of course, one would also be expected to be willing to learn how to use the basic PW API  - $page, $pages and selectors and also search the forums for similar topics.

I will be the first one to admit that not all of us are made equal and there is no shame in that and clearly there are some outstandingly clever contributers in this forum but I think the fact that we are not all made equal does not always register with them

I am sorry that this has been your experience. I've always felt that those 'clever contributors'  know when my skills run out of road and they are always willing to chip in. The caveat here is that I also need to show some willingness to learn. I am not saying that you are not willing to learn! Just saying that forum members are always willing to help

Anyway, let's hope this gets picked up and answered...