Using Easy Edit Suite on more than one site

(Peter Grube) #1

I have not come across any Squiz documentation about rolling out EES on multiple sites. It would good to have some guidance on the best way to this.


I'm particularly interested in the role of the Media Folder and accessing Media Folder files from the Asset Finder, as I've recently been informed that "EES only supports referencing assets that are within context of the site that EES is applied to." This means that media files have to either be relocated to sit under the site, or be linked to from within the site, which I've been informed is "not officially supported as a feature", but fortunately does work (but would it still work in a new EES build?).



Does anyone have any experience with, or knowledge about, this that they care to share?

(Scott Hall) #2

[quote]
I have not come across any Squiz documentation about rolling out EES on multiple sites. It would good to have some guidance on the best way to this.

[/quote]



Hey Pedro



Depends on whether your sites will be using the one design file or not.



If each site will use it’s own design file then it’s a matter of adding the EES template code to the top of each design file as per online manuals and creating a separate EES config file for each one. You might not need a separate config file per design, but it will give you the power to control various config options per site if need be. You should be able to use the one JS API reference for all of them, just make sure to add each new site as a new root node. If you do use a separate config file per site then each customisation needs its own nested standard page for the EES CSS/JS code snippet.



If you are sharing the one design file but need slightly different tweaks for certain things in EES per site then you could just set up a new customisation for each site, and each one of these customisations could point to its own unique nested standard page for bringing in EES code.



When it comes to the actual EES CSS/JS snippet of code that is pulled into the design via a EES template code customisation, you can make reference to the one central source for all designs or different pages where necessary if some of your sites need EES to look/behave differently. Refer to the online manuals for the correct way to tweak EES via EES template code and/or EES template code which basically comes down to dropping your own .css or .js file references at the end of the EES code. The simpler and more elegant you make these the easier your life will be come upgrade time in-case you need to adjust them to cater for any changes we make.



Cheers



Scotty

(Peter Grube) #3

thanks Scotty, that's really useful information, as we use different design files for each site. Should we also be using a separate Media Folder for each site? If so, what are the implications of using media files across multiple sites through EES?

[quote]

Hey Pedro



Depends on whether your sites will be using the one design file or not.



If each site will use it’s own design file then it’s a matter of adding the EES template code to the top of each design file as per online manuals and creating a separate EES config file for each one. You might not need a separate config file per design, but it will give you the power to control various config options per site if need be. You should be able to use the one JS API reference for all of them, just make sure to add each new site as a new root node. If you do use a separate config file per site then each customisation needs its own nested standard page for the EES CSS/JS code snippet.



If you are sharing the one design file but need slightly different tweaks for certain things in EES per site then you could just set up a new customisation for each site, and each one of these customisations could point to its own unique nested standard page for bringing in EES code.



When it comes to the actual EES CSS/JS snippet of code that is pulled into the design via a EES template code customisation, you can make reference to the one central source for all designs or different pages where necessary if some of your sites need EES to look/behave differently. Refer to the online manuals for the correct way to tweak EES via EES template code and/or EES template code which basically comes down to dropping your own .css or .js file references at the end of the EES code. The simpler and more elegant you make these the easier your life will be come upgrade time in-case you need to adjust them to cater for any changes we make.



Cheers



Scotty

[/quote]

(Scott Hall) #4

Hey Pedro


I have to admit, I rarely see the media folder used anymore for anything other than globally used JS and image files e.g. jQuery, SWF/Flash stuff. Most new sites we set up incorporate a 'media' or 'images' or 'files' or 'documents' folder within context of the site or a section within a site. So there might be an 'Images' folder directly under a site that holds images in it used across the whole site and there might also be an 'Images' folder that sits directly under the Home page, for Home specific files.



To avoid a mess of linked locations can you set up your new sites to use that sort of model and slowly migrate to this apprach for older sites?



Cheers



Scotty

(Peter Grube) #5

thanks Scotty. The concern we have is that when we want to reuse assets from other sites in a site using EES, we will be forced to link locations so that reused files sit under the site so they will appear in the Asset Finder. In admin mode, this was not necessary.

[quote]

Hey Pedro



I have to admit, I rarely see the media folder used anymore for anything other than globally used JS and image files e.g. jQuery, SWF/Flash stuff. Most new sites we set up incorporate a 'media' or 'images' or 'files' or 'documents' folder within context of the site or a section within a site. So there might be an 'Images' folder directly under a site that holds images in it used across the whole site and there might also be an 'Images' folder that sits directly under the Home page, for Home specific files.



To avoid a mess of linked locations can you set up your new sites to use that sort of model and slowly migrate to this apprach for older sites?



Cheers



Scotty

[/quote]