how to create a virtual subdomain system?

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how to create a virtual subdomain system?

Megatron

a project i'm going to undertake in the summer will require a user system which generates a virtual subdomain for users who register with my site.

For example the user john signs up and is given a subdomain to access his account, john.website.com, which when rendered in the browser will automatically bring up http://website.com/profile.php?username=john or similar.

How can this be acheived? I know can it can be done with .htaccess but won't that require configuration from myself each time a new user signs up? I would like this system to be automated as much as possible. I will be developing in PHP so if anyone knows of a way to do this....

Cheers

SpectreReturns

You could change conf.httpd to give php access to write .htaccess, and then write it on the fly.

balloonbuffoon

I found this at http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t19527.html
You'd put it in the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.website\.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ([^.]+)\.website\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.website.com/profile.php?username=%1 [L,R]

I'm not sure if that would work for you or not.

--Steve

Megatron

hi, yes it would seem that .htaccess is the way to go. I found this code which is very similar to what you have posted. You'd need to have wildcard DNS activated as far as i'm aware too by your host.

RewriteEngine On

# Extract the subdomain part of domain.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^\.]+)\.website\.com$ [NC]

# Check that the subdomain part is not www and ftp and mail
RewriteCond %1 !^(www|ftp|mail)$ [NC]

# Redirect all requests to a php script passing as argument the subdomain
RewriteRule ^.*$ http://www.website.com/profile.php?username=%1 [R,L]

balloonbuffoon

Yes, that's right about needing wilcard. I wish I could do this on my website but my host doesn't allow wildcards.

--Steve

Megatron

that's a pity, it's a very nice little feature to have.

balloonbuffoon

I know, you don't have to rub it in! :p
I should probably switch hosts. Who are you using? Are they any good?

--Steve

Megatron

i'm using blacknight.ie , Irish company. I know the bossman a little bit

bokeh

Why do you need subdomains. They use more resources and are pointless if the domain and subdomain are located on the same server.

Megatron

for convience. Each user on the site will have an account and instead of getting to it by website.com/profile.php?username=john they can just go john.website.com

markro

but it is in Pearl.
It was on the net 2 years ago and ..it dissapers now
Fortunately I still have-it.
It allocates a fixed space every user, registration processs with name/password, possibility for uploading files for users, etc ...
If it is ok, contact me to send-it to you.
calin_sb@yahoo.com

bokeh

Well before going any further you need to figire out if you are allowed to have wildcard subdomains.

Megatron

yes, wildcard subdomains are allowed. Thanks markro, i'll email you.

dColumbus

Megatron wrote:
hi, yes it would seem that .htaccess is the way to go. I found this code which is very similar to what you have posted. You'd need to have wildcard DNS activated as far as i'm aware too by your host.
RewriteEngine On

# Extract the subdomain part of domain.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^\.]+)\.website\.com$ [NC]

# Check that the subdomain part is not www and ftp and mail
RewriteCond %1 !^(www|ftp|mail)$ [NC]

# Redirect all requests to a php script passing as argument the subdomain
RewriteRule ^.*$ http://www.website.com/profile.php?username=%1 [R,L]

How would I go about redirecting depending on the username (url example: http://www.somewebsite.com/username) would be able to pull its distict variables that would affect the FUI according to the usernames preferences (how those variables would be stored isn't important)... the point is to be able to basically replicate the website when requested at the example url above.

alihan1988

THANK YOU

RewriteEngine On

Extract the subdomain part of domain.com

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^{([^{.]+).website.com$}} [NC]

Check that the subdomain part is not www and ftp and mail

RewriteCond %1 !^{(www|ftp|mail)$} [NC]

Redirect all requests to a php script passing as argument the subdomain

RewriteRule ^.*$ http://www.website.com/profile.php?username=%1 [R,L]

Edit by admin: no commercial links permitted on the forum, thank you

Znupi

Why use .htaccess? It's just a pain in the boat. Why wouldn't you simply use $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] and extract the username from there?

bokeh

Znupi wrote:
Why use .htaccess? It's just a pain in the boat. Why wouldn't you simply use $SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] and extract the username from there?

$SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] relies on the server configuration. It would only work if canonical name were switched on.

donatello

What luck! I just came in here to post that exact same question, and it's the first thing I saw!
I didn't even have to search!

I need to build the exact same thing, and would like to have a way to send an automated email message from other domains.

I was wondering if this type of functionality existed in an application like Drupal already?

Anyway, I'll follow this thread carefully - I'll post my solutions as I find them and let you know what works.

Regarding the generation of subdomains, I remember looking into this about a year ago and recall that one hosting company, lunarpages allowed unlimited subdomains at that time.

I'm now using GoDaddy, and have had to resort to some trickery to get certain things to work (like .htaccess), otherwise, I am very happy with them, although they are not a host for newbies who cannot do almost every single thing for themselves.

donatello

Alternative solution:

What about using permalinks?

This is what I have decided to do for my project using Drupal. It is much easier and my host (GoDaddy) allows it and does not allow wildcards...

So your 'sub-domains' can look like this:
http://www.mywebsite.com/users/1234567
is converted to
http://www.mywebsite.com/index.php?q=users/1234567

The user experience is the same.
You do not need to "re-invent the wheel".
Drupal can supply the logins, account creation, security, captcha and permalink plugins.

In a nutshell,

Each page is given a 'permalink' name chosen by the user (username)
Each page is password protected for that user - or an are of it is for admin.
It will look like a subdomain as far as the user goes
It will be easily found by search engines

SyCo

bokeh wrote:
$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] relies on the server configuration. It would only work if canonical name were switched on.

So simply test with

echo $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];

If you have the domain name available, it's much easier.

preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z]+/',$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'],$arr);
$subdomain=$arr[0];

Then use a switch() to redirect or database look up, or whatever and header() re-locate.