Displaying data from multiple CMSB installs on one page

4 posts by 2 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: February 28, 2011   (RSS)

By sidcam - February 25, 2011

I'm building a real estate website with an IDX. I'm using the Website Membership add-on (and other add-ons) to capture leads. To manage them I'm building backend pages for lead management.

If I create multiple lead capture websites (additional installs of CMSB) is there a way to create a backend system that manage the leads from ALL sites on one page so my leads are all in one place (that way my sales people don't have to log into multiple sites to manage their leads?)

The technical issue I'm immediately seeing is that I would need to build webpages that are pulling from multiple installs of CMSB. Either the backend webpages are displaying User Account information from multiple installs, or the front end pages of sites 2, 3, etc are all displaying the add-on capture tools from site 1 so all leads are captured to one installation.

Having all leads on one installation seems the best way to go, but that also mean add-ons like Website Favorites and Saves Searches need to be able to handle data from multiple installations of CMSB.

How would I accomplish that?

Happy to pay for additional installs of add-ons, BTW, the goal isn't to save a few bucks but to make it easy for my sales people.

Thanks, Sid

Re: [sidcam] Displaying data from multiple CMSB installs on one page

By Jason - February 28, 2011

Hi Sid,

I can definitely see the advantage of pooling all this information into one place, however, it does present some significant technical challenges. For example, plugins like website membership and website favorites use the "num" field to to ensure uniqueness between records. Since "num" is just a auto-incremented field, you can't guarantee it to be unique across multiple databases (ie, installations).

Another issue is actually connecting to separate databases. This could be a problem if they are being hosted by different hosts or are on different servers.

One solution you may want to look into is creating scripts that pull in information from the other databases (perhaps through an XML file) and then importing that information in one database. That way you can attach extra information to these records like where the record originated.

This would definitely go beyond anything we could handle through support. A better option would be to send an email to consulting@interactivetools.com and we could explore some options.

Hope this helps
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Re: [Jason] Displaying data from multiple CMSB installs on one page

By sidcam - February 28, 2011

Thanks for the reply.

Over the weekend it dawned on me that the my current host sets things up as having a primary website and "add-on" websites which are just directories within the primary site that their name server points to. As such, I can run multiple websites from one installation as long as the server/database can handle the traffic and records.

That neatly solved all my technical concerns. Now my question is, how does that work with your licensing?

Sid