Possible to have two domains with one database?

This may be a ridiculous question, I don't know, but is it possible to have two domains / installations running off a single database.  On one of the blogs someone mentioned that this was going to be part of "the next big thing" that Andrew announced a year ago August.  Maybe then he was talking about some more advanced way of linking communities though.  Someone just asked me this and it was something I wanted to know anyway.  If I had two different installations, but specified the same database, would it work?

I'm curious about this too because there are things I'd like to test/intall/tweak, etc. but you don't want to do that stuff on a live site so you need a test site.  But if you have a separate DB for your test site it seems you'd have do do a lot of duplicate effort.  Would be nice if you could run them both off the same DB then just move over any design changes.  I'm particularly interested because I'm going to have a site that is live for registrations but will have no additional functionality.  But at the same time I'm going to want to start adding content so it'd be nice if I could have a fully functioning site where I could be adding content into the same DB where the sign-ups are going.  Hope that makes sense.

Interesting.. my logic tells me it should work..

The only trouble should be with the physical storage of the media files and the way the two websites are sharing these files.. the database part shouldn't be a big problem..

As I am not a php programmer I can't give you further details.. :D You should just test it..

I haven't really taken a look at the DB structure too closely, but it seems that you could have some sort of communal or common user database with the login and general profile info in it.  But, like mastermindsro said, you would have trouble with the media files.  How would the common database know that the user has say 4 videos on site A and only 2 on site B?

Now if the content on both sites was exactly duplicated (ie when a video is uploaded to one it is uploaded to both) then I guess you could run 2 different "appearing" sites on 2 different domains

If you just wanted to have your site accessible (the same one) through multiple domain names, you can do that through your control panel and set up a forwarding domain to point to your main domain.

I'm just not sure what the benefits of running one DB would be... just my 2 cents worth...

Thanks for the thoughts all.  The reasons I might want to do this:

1 - the 2nd site is a testing site where you're adding new elements that you want to test before you make them available to the membership.

2 - test different colors, layouts, menu interfaces, etc. to see which draws the most user attention.

3 - give different user groups the chance to test things that aren't on the main site yet.  For example, I plan to allow my JV Launch partners access to the full functionality of the site for several weeks before I launch so they can go in and play around and learn  how it works.  This will help get them motivated to pitch on launch day and will start developing content before the site is actually launched to the public.  In the mean time I'll have a *very* stripped down version where the general public can register for pre-launch accounts.  if necessary I'll just set it all up using permissions but I'd prefer it if there were 2 different sites.

I don't think you'd want to run two completely different businesses off of one DB but I can see why having more than one install running off of the same DB would be helpful

Yes, I have already been working with this kind of projects years back, here are the details and its possible :

1) each domain has its own template

2) each domain has its own members

3) members  be able to access other domain if allowed

4) everything on one database

5) only one table for Profiles,Messages,Friendlist  etc.. for several domains

6) all data created on a particular domain does not show on the other domains.

7) sounds cool ha, lol

I really don't know if is a good idea... I means you want to have 2 domains : one for test, and one live...

but using the some database ....

If you accidentally  from the test domain delete some member doesn't delete also from the live domain ?

I think for test is better to use a different database... But is my opion and i'm not a developer or programmer....

Yes, it does sound cool dolphinbugfixing.  That goes beyond what I had asked, and it sounds like you have developed a "linked communities" approach.   Can we see it?   Years ago, I saw some dating site that did something like this.  As I recall, you could browse members, but there was a field icon that indicated what site they were on.  I believe you could view their profile from the site you were on, but to go beyond that (i.e. send a message or something) you had to log on/ register to the second site.  Was that where Andrew was going with his "next big thing" post?

Sorry I cant used my clients site for demonstration purpose, but I will try to have demostration site soon for 6.1.6 and also for 7 final release for this modification

Regards,

dolphin bug fixing

Where is the problem? Get into your SQLadmin, make a dump of your live-DB. Install your dev-site and dump your SQL back. Then you have a 1:1 copy of your site but you're not getting in trouble with buggy code ...

I have always 3 copies of my live-DB running for development ...

Hi guys! I saw you talk about 2 domains. Look i bought 2 domains for same website, one it's com and the other one it's ro because i have to languages. I want to know if is working or not? Thanks.