Managing sites

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You can run any number of sites within a single instance of Xperience. Each site runs on its own domain names (both the live site and the administration) and stores content in a separate content tree.

Sites use a shared database and web project for the administration interface, but each site also has a separate project that provides the live site (running under the site’s Presentation URL).

Creating sites

See Creating new sites.

Starting and stopping sites

You can stop or run individual sites in the Sites application. Use the following actions:

  •  Start site
  •  Stop site

When you stop a site:

  • Visitors cannot access the live site
  • Users cannot edit the site in the site-specific sections of the administration interface

Switching between sites on a single domain

You cannot start sites that use the same administration domain name, presentation URL, or domain alias as another site that is already running. If you need to test multiple websites on a single domain, such as localhost, set this domain for all sites and switch between them using the Start site and Stop site actions.

You can run multiple sites at the same time using alternative host names that point to the same domain (for example localhost and 127.0.0.1).

Assigning objects to sites

Many objects in Xperience need to be assigned to specific sites in order to be available on the given sites. Site bindings allow you to limit where objects can be used when running multiple websites in the system. You can manage all types of site bindings for individual websites in a single location:

  1. Open the Sites application.
  2. Edit () the site.
  3. Open the Assigned objects tab.

You can assign the following objects to the site:

For example, after creating a new site, you can assign users from other sites in the system:

  1. Select the Users sub-tab.
  2. Click Add users.
  3. Select the users that you want to add to the site.
  4. Click Select.

Renaming sites

When renaming individual sites, we do not recommend changing the Site code name. The code name is used throughout the Xperience folder structure, and can also be used by developers in the API. If you want to rename a site and change its Site code name, you need to manually rename related folders and files in both the administration and live site projects. For example:

  • ~/<site code name>/
  • ~/App_Data/CMSModules/SmartSearch/<site code name>.<search index code name>
  • ~/App_Data/<site code name>/
  • ~/App_Data/<site code name>/Resources/<site code name>.resx
  • ~/App_Data/<site code name>/Resources/<culture code>/<site code name>.<culture code>.resx

Deleting sites

You can delete sites from the system in the Sites application.

  1. Click Delete () next to the site that you want to delete.

    • The Site deletion confirmation dialog opens.

  2. Enable or disable the following options:

    • Delete page attachment physical files – the deletion process removes files attached to the site’s pages from the file system (stored in the <web project>\<site name>\files folder).
    • Delete meta files physical files – the deletion process removes the site’s meta files (stored in the <web project>\<site name>\metafiles folder).
    • Delete media files physical files – the deletion process removes physical files stored in the site’s media libraries (<web project>\<site name>\media folder by default).

  3. Click Yes.

    • The system displays a log showing the progress of the deletion.

  4. When the process finishes, click OK.

The list in the Sites application no longer includes the deleted site.