On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 10:21 AM, Robert Harrison <rob...@austin-williams.com> wrote: > 1. Your relationship with the client changes and the client wants to take > the site and move. Now you are faced with either holding the client's site > hostage or giving away your multi-site base code framework (possibly even to > a competitor). Neither of those is an attractive option.
It really depends on how you set up the contract and the expectations. Broadchoice (where I worked in 2008) has a software-as-a-service CMS which hosts a number of high-profile client sites. It's very clear to the clients that they're using a multi-tenant SaaS platform and therefore they know upfront that this isn't a site they can just "take over" (although there is an option to license the codebase for an internal installation). > 2. Also, assume one or more clients keeps coming back to you to make > adjustments and additions. Now your code is getting more and more mucked up > with custom-code exceptions. That's also not cool. Eventually that will make > your framework really difficult to manage and upgrade. At Broadchoice we tackled this by designing a pluggable, modular architecture for "applications" that could literally be dropped into the (single) codebase and then configured to be available on any client sites. The nice thing about this is that one client may pay for the module to be developed but it's still provided to them as a service - they're not purchasing the code - and then it can be offered to other clients, as a paid option if appropriate. The key is really in deciding whether you're "just" hosting a number of sites or whether you're offering a "website platform" in a SaaS model. You might also want to read Steve "Cutter" Blades blog series about MSOC: http://blog.cutterscrossing.com/index.cfm/MSOC At World Singles, we have about 50 sites all running on a single codebase. Mostly the sites differ in branding and look'n'feel but there are functional differences between many of the sites, managed with a similar model to what we used at Broadchoice. -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://getrailo.com/ An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ "If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive." -- Margaret At ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:342410 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
