Centralised Updates for Websites

lukefowell89

I was wondering if people could share their expertise and opinions on the best solution to a potential problem. I won't go in to specific details, just the theory of what our plans are.

What we are planning to develop at work is a website in which we can sell other websites to buyers. Then we can manage these websites centrally from one place which will apply updates to all of these websites.

E.g. If we add an additional function such as feeding products to Google Shopping which we want to be addded to all of the websites admin area.
E.g. Want to add a video or advertisment to all of the 'child' websites from the 'parent' central website.

Has anyone got any ideas how this could work? I know previously having worked at a different company as a designer they achieved this with an eCommerce system and added to its functionality overtime to clients who already purchased the eCommerce system. They applied updates to central server files which processed all of the websites below's payments and other features.

I realise that probably the best way to achieve this would be having the "child" websites check for updates from the master webserver and then apply them and replace files and update the DB.

The master webserver will set a message to all the child servers to tell them to update their files and DB.

The problem I have is how do i achieve this in PHP? I am a good enough developer but I need some expertise to gain a starting point, some idea of what functions to use, an approach to take. Then I can design the system around this.

Please can people help with me tech solutions?

Thanks

anoopmail

instead of replicating we could include php files on common locations. Hosting function as webservice would be another alternative.

lukefowell89

I did consider this, but for example, we have 5 websites that are updated from our central website. We create a new function or feature to this website, then we needed to update not only the admin panel, but the processing files, images etc.

Are you suggesting that on all of these websites we include the files on for processing and everything? Wouldnt this make loadtime quite slow? Do you know of a better way of doing this?

I know there is another way to do it, but i just dont know how. We built a system using XSL and XML and PHP where could apply updates to 100's of ecommerce websites.

anoopmail

the options vary according to how frequently u make the changes and what time can be tolerated to sync the changes. A script which deploys files using FTP functions can be another option. The script would be executed on intervals or by click of a "Sync now" button.

lukefowell89

I would probably want to make ammendments to the master server and then choose which websites to apply the update too or all of them for some. This would be my idea answer.

Basically in rough we are creating a franchise based on this concept, but need to make sure it can be done properly.

Any further comments into the use of PHP functions? The theory behind how it will work?

I am assuming using the FTP php functions to connect to another website, but then using a database to store each website that is connecteds ftp details? Then looking through each one and uploading the files to it? The only issue i can think of is if it is a large update, will the php timeout?

Thanks for your help so far

anoopmail

U r correct. FTP details can be stored in a database table or in configuration file. I heard php scripts do not time out if they execute from console or from a scheduled job. So you web interface will make a queue of files to be pushed and a list of destinations. A scheduler script checks the queue in intervals and starts deploying until the queue becomes empty. It can be done client triggered way as well. ie, each franchise server will check by hitting a url or webservice once per day to see if there is any updates similar to Firefox/GoogleTalk checks for updates. If it found one, it get the queue and start downloading files need to be updated.

lukefowell89

Could you explain abit further what you mean by a scheduling script? how it would work?

Could this be done from a web browser? If I have a PHP/Html form that has a button to do it would this work?

I was thinking more or less about doing a while loop to loop through an array of websites that are being updated.

anoopmail

scheduling script are run in a webserver automatically at configured time intervals. In linux it is achieved by using deamon called cron. See this or search in google for some tutorials. As you think the button on a webpage does not actually upload the files. Instead it would make queue of files has to be uploaded, paths, ftp info etc. Yeah, you could need a while loop for this. You can use a database table for this.) Each record is considered as a task and will have a flag field to mark it completed successfully or not. So the scheduled script checks this table in intervals and look for new records. It found any, start doing the tasks, ie upload the file to the marked destination and flag it as completed when done.