Drupal architecture - investigate Micro Site contrib

[finnlewis]

There are a number of approaches we could take within Drupal to deploy a microsites system. These include:

• https://www.drupal.org/project/micro_site
• https://www.drupal.org/project/domain

• [ ] Test and/or demonstrate the micro_site https://www.drupal.org/project/micro_site ecosystem approach

Acceptance:

• [ ] Report on pros and cons to this approach with a recommendation

[finnlewis]

From initial discussions with @ekes it sounds like the Domain Access and Group modules have significantly more community support and activity so are probably a better bet for the underlying architecture for microsites.

However, it is worth looking at some of the admin interface decisions so adding some notes here on the Micro Site site-builder experience.

I've installed all the main modules on a default LocalGov Drupal install. This includes Micro site, Micro Menu, Micro Node, Micro Path, Micro Taxonomy, Micro Theme, Micro User

Once installed, we have a new site entity to manage new sites.

At /admin/content/site we see the list of sites.

Editing a site shows us the properties of that site:

Points to note:

1. Each site entity allows control over the site name, url, contact email address
2. Favicon can be set on the site entity
3. Logo can be set on the site entity
4. Slogan can be set on the site entity
5. Users can be added as Site administrator, Site manager, Site contributor, Site member
6. Various other local tasks are available once editing the site entity.
7. A menu is automatically created for each site (if desired)
8. The menu can be managed on the /site/1/menu/site-1 tab

Menu management:

Content management at /site/1/content

On settings / theme you can override fonts and colours: