I am developing a new site, for arguments sake lets say a "Rubber Ducky Aficionado" website.
The users will be able to purchase webspace, based on a template (I have developed the Rubber Ducky system).
This is a hosted solution, like a "free web page" solution.
The users should have the option of using their own domain, or a sub-domain of mine.
The system will be on a VPS/Dedicated server (unknown which yet) with cPanel.
I have downloaded the cPanel API - and I can automate creating of websites, etc with this.
Thought 1:
Each website is setup as a Virtual Host going to the same software, the software will read which website they are on, and display accordingly.
This option (in theory) would work, and they are not being given FTP access so they can't upload PHP scripts (or anything for that matter).
Thought 2:
The base software will held in a skeleton folder, and each new website will be a new user in cPanel, this allows me to do such things as suphp, which means they won't have access to other user's folders (based on permissions) just in CASE the security of the site is exploited.
Pros / Cons:
Thought 1:
Pro:
I update 1 set of software, so keeping the site (and all features for the users) is always up to date.
Con:
In case of security breech, very difficult to restrict a rogue script from causing damage.
Limited to not being able to allow add-ons that use PHP functionality from the community (not a plan, but I want it open to do so if possible).
Thought 2:
Pro:
Much more secure
Allows me to allow PHP Code if required
Cons:
Updates would be a headache, at best.
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I am wondering if anyone has done something similar to this, and can provide any advice on how to set it up.
At the moment the software is planned to be developed using Zend Framework, PHP 5.3 (thus far), MySQL.
The MySQL Databases may very well become distributed, as there is potential for a lot of data (there is a lot of rubber duckies out there).
I hope I have explained myself well, and thanks to anyone who will provide their thoughts.
