Even though my own CMS can handle multiple sites running off of a single installation, I don't run it that way. The points brought up about clients wanting individual customizations and portability fit my situation. I understand if you are offering software-as-a-service things change, but for me this turned out to be enough of a headache that I reverted to separate installs and have never regretted it. If a customer wants an upgrade, they pay me an hour or two individually to make that happen. If they want a specific feature that I don't want to fold into the overall codebase, I can do it - and earn the money for doing it - without worrying about consequences on 40 other web sites on the server. But thats a business decision and not coding. Mentioned just as food for thought.
For sites for my own company, where presently we have about 36 up and running and will be at around 60 when we are done, we *do* share a single codebase. There are no special mappings. Each site has an Application.cfm that looks like this: request.appName="AR_060110_1033"; request.rootFolder="ARDotCom/"; request.FQDN="www.mysiteAR.com"; <cfinclude template="../common/Application_common.cfm"> The common file has some server vars too: server.BaseRoot="C:/foo/bar/sites/"; server.dsn= etc. etc. blah blah And thats enough - along with more code in the common "Application.cfm" - to set up absolute and relative paths to the files I have located in the common-use folder. Every site has its own independent application scope. I've opted to set the app name manually so I can reset session and app vars if need be... a rare occurrence but its nice to have the option available. The root of this web site is a root folder in a discrete IIS web site and, since CF has no trouble recursing back up beyond a web root insofar as physical paths go, the /common/ folder is not accessible from the web, but it is from CF. Very simple to set up. -- --m@Robertson-- Janitor, The Robertson Team mysecretbase.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:342481 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm