How to create multiple multilingual sites in one install?

Friday 13 January 2006 2:30:01 am

[Sorry for double posting, but I posted earlier in the wrong forum]

I'm currently evaluating eZ Publish for a rather large project with two multilingual sites using shared content.
I tried for a few days to set this up, but didn't find a complete solution. Can anybody help?

This is the situation:

site1.com/ # default (english) version of site1
site1.com/en/ # same as above
site1.com/de/ # german version of site1
site1.com/es/ # spanish version of site1
site1.com/admin/ # admin site for site1

site2.com/ # default (english) version of site2
site2.com/en/ # same as above
site2.com/fr/ # french version of site2
site2.com/ar/ # arabic version of site2
site2.com/admin/ # admin site for site2

I first tried a combination of host and uri matching (settings/override/site.ini.append.php):

[SiteAccessSettings]
MatchOrder=host;uri

But this doesn't work, because when a host match is found, the uri is not evaluated. The other way around also doesn't work:

MatchOrder=uri;host

When a uri match is found, the host is not evaluated, and you don't know which site the uri belongs to (both sites have /en/ for example).

Then I tried a combination of servervar and host matching, and using Apache to set the servervar (both sites have the same DocumentRoot):

MatchOrder=servervar;host
ServerVariableName=SITE_ACCESS
HostMatchType=map
HostMatchMapItems[]=site1.com;site1_en
HostMatchMapItems[]=site2.com;site2_en

The server variable is set by Apache using the SetEnvIf directive (using mod_setenvif):

In the <VirtualHost> section or .htaccess for site1:

SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/de/ SITE_ACCESS=site1_de
SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/es/ SITE_ACCESS=site1_es
SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/admin/ SITE_ACCESS=site1_admin

In the <VirtualHost> section or .htaccess for site2:

SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/fr/ SITE_ACCESS=site2_fr
SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/ar/ SITE_ACCESS=site2_ar
SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/admin/ SITE_ACCESS=site2_admin

When no language is specified, the server var SITE_ACCESS is not set, so the servervar match fails, and the host matching takes care of the default site access (MatchOrder=servervar;host).

Site access works now, but the language/admin part is interpreted as a module, with a 'module not found' error as a result. I tried fixing this using the PathPrefix setting, but that didn't work.

Any suggestions?

Thursday 01 April 2010 6:49:33 am

Hi,
I find a solution to use servervar match order :
First, in your VHost, use this rules to set your variable :

SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/.* SITE_ACCESS=site1_en
SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/de.* SITE_ACCESS=site1_de
SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/es.* SITE_ACCESS=site1_es

You can also add this one :

SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/en.* SITE_ACCESS=site1_en

Do the same for the other VHost and create another VHost for the backend with this rule :

SetEnvIf Request_URI ^/ SITE_ACCESS=admin

Next, in settings/override/site.ini.append.php, put this conf :

[SiteAccessSettings]
MatchOrder=servervar
ServerVariableName=REDIRECT_SITE_ACCESS 

(Apache add 'REDIRECT_' before your variable)

Restart Apache and try.