Questions, Mostly On Multi-Companies

[serge]

Hello,

I'm interrested by the multi-companies feature, and do have questions:
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1/
I saw here, http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/Creating+Companies
you said "We suggest when using multi-company, you use subdomains for your Blesta installation, otherwise it will not be possible to have different website content at each hostname."

Please may you explain why we need say  :   sub.domain1.com  & sub.domain2.com
and why you said  domain1.com & domain2.com will no work ?

As a hostname is always unique, why are you saying  it will not be possible to have different website content at each hostname in a no sub-domain case, please may you explain more?

2/
If I well understand each new company need to buy a addon company that give credit to add one more single company?

3/
Will other paid plugin licence from you will be still valid in the new company(ies), or we need to buy plugins licences for each company?

4/
Is your API have by company only access, say if we want give API access to a given company, but not give access to the whole system (the master company - admin)?

5/
Are plugin parameters insulated by company, example all companies use same paypal plugin , but each using a different paypal accounts, it's possible?

6/
Will it be possible to automatize provision of company by script or with the use of your api?


Not related to multi-company:
---------------------------------------------------
7/
In customer account, for domain product, Have you a DNS editor form from blesta (and this form use your api functions to connect with a registrar plugin), or this form come only from each registrar plugins?

Because on demo, I can not see it, certainly domain(s) on blesta demo are not active or are expirated, so this feature is disabled.

A picture will be nice


8/
Within pages or template files, it's possible to get cession variable like customer-id , company-id, etc..

 

 

All the Best

 

Serge

 

[Michael]

1.) I saw here, http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/Creating+Companies

you said "We suggest when using multi-company, you use subdomains for your Blesta installation, otherwise it will not be possible to have different website content at each hostname."

Please may you explain why we need say  :   sub.domain1.com  & sub.domain2.com

and why you said  domain1.com & domain2.com will no work ?

As a hostname is always unique, why are you saying  it will not be possible to have different website content at each hostname in a no sub-domain case, please may you explain more?

 

You need to use the domains on the same account, pointing to the same folder which holds Blesta.

For example: A) accounts.blesta.com --> /home/blesta/accounts/ || accounts.licensecart.com --> /home/blesta/accounts/

 

2.)

If I well understand each new company need to buy a addon company that give credit to add one more single company?

 

Yes, it allows you to create a addon company on your license, you can remove it, re-add a new one at any time. So you are free to use at your own will.

 

3.)

Will other paid plugin licence from you will be still valid in the new company(ies), or we need to buy plugins licences for each company?

 

All paid plugin licenses like License Manager will work on both companies as long as they are in the same directory. You can't use the plugins on another license which doesn't already have the license for it.

 

4.)

Is your API have by company only access, say if we want give API access to a given company, but not give access to the whole system (the master company - admin)?

 

It's by User and company, so Company A will have their own API and the Company B will have it's own.

Example:

$user = "Licensecart_user";
$key = "9d383a65e91dd7c5***************";
$url = "https://licensecart.com/billing/api/";
$api = new BlestaApi($url, $user, $key);
$company_id = 2; // Company ID is 2 for Licensecart.

That key is for Licensecart, and the company ID is 2 as the 1st one was my old company.

 

5.)

Are plugin parameters insulated by company, example all companies use same paypal plugin , but each using a different paypal accounts, it's possible?

 

Yes you can use different accounts for different companies, you can use the same as-well if you wish, you can just change the page layout (PayPal allows you to use different checkouts designs, logos) but they don't allow two accounts per user. Just a warning. But yes a new company is a new company.

 

6.)

Will it be possible to automatize provision of company by script or with the use of your api?

 

Yes, you can use the API to make your own Modules / Plugins.

 

7.)

In customer account, for domain product, Have you a DNS editor form from blesta (and this form use your api functions to connect with a registrar plugin), or this form come only from each registrar plugins?

Because on demo, I can not see it, certainly domain(s) on blesta demo are not active or are expirated, so this feature is disabled.

A picture will be nice

 

Each registrar has their own API, I believe only certain modules has this but you can edit the modules.

 

8.)

Within pages or template files, it's possible to get cession variable like customer-id , company-id, etc..

 

Yes you can see my new integration guide and get the code for first name etc, company ID etc: http://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3642-blesta-integration-33x-advanced/

[serge]

Thank you Licensecart,  your answers are very helpful! :-)

 

regarding 1)

 

It's still unclear for me why 2 TLD (Top level domains)  say domain1.com & domain2.com could not be used VS using SLD (second level domains) like sub.domain1.com & sub.domain2.com.

 

of course all pointing to same physical location & having A record .

 

using SLD is not an issue for me, but I just would like understand why TLD could not work?

[Michael]

Thank you Licensecart,  your answers are very helpful! :-)

 

regarding 1)

 

It's still unclear for me why 2 TLD (Top level domains)  say domain1.com & domain2.com could not be used VS using SLD (second level domains) like sub.domain1.com & sub.domain2.com.

 

of course all pointing to same physical location & having A record .

 

using SLD is not an issue for me, but I just would like understand why TLD could not work?

 

If you are using say domain.com/billing/ domain2.com/billing/ then you can do that as long as the domains are pointing to the same folder.

[Paul]

You can use domain1.com and domain2.com if you wish, but since they must point to the same document root, then it will be difficult to have different websites at each domain. For example, let's say you want Blesta to be at domain1.com/blesta and domain2.com/blesta.

 

Let's pretend you install at /var/www/html/blesta. domain1.com's docroot is /var/www/html and domain2.com's docroot is the same, /var/www/html. Blesta will work at domain1.com/blesta and domain2.com/blesta. However, this means that the docroot for each website is the same /var/www/html. This means your application must be able to distinguish which domain to show which website, or they must have the same website.

 

That's why we recommend using a subdomain with multi-company. But if your application can sort out which content to display for each domain, or you don't mind having the same website, or no website, or you come up with a fancy trick to show different content, then it doesn't matter.

[serge]

ok, thxs for explains.

 

I will be using Nginx & webmin/virtualmin, and not certain I will be blocked at using TLD, but as I said even using SLD is not an issue.

 

Thank You

[serge]

Since today, I started using the free trial for better understanding,  I would like to back on my  previous question Ref. 7) :

"7.) :

---------
In customer account, for domain product, Have you a DNS editor form from blesta (and this form use your api functions to connect with a registrar plugin), or this form come only from each registrar plugins?

--------

Licensecart answered:

------

Each registrar has their own API, I believe only certain modules has this but you can edit the modules.

--------

 

After checking some domain registrar modules (enom, namecheap, logiboxes, internetbs), it's seem to me that "DNS Record" form should be displayed from files like : tab_client_dns.pdt & tab_dns.pdt in the registrar module (at components/modules/REGISTRAR/views/default), but none of 4 registrar modules I checked do have it?

 

So when in customer area, for an active domain in service, the "DNS Records" section, go to https://MY-BLESTA/index.php/client/services/manage/1/tabClientDNS/ but it's display same general content as there is in the Information" section

 

When using nameservers supplied by the registrar, how manage DNS Records from Blesta client area ?

 

By the way my goal is to create a new registrar module, but before that I was trying to understand how Blesta is working, so, any example for files likes tab_client_dns.pdt  &  tab_dns.pdt (is this syntax corrects?) will be helpful.

[Michael]

Since today, I started using the free trial for better understanding,  I would like to back on my  previous question Ref. 7) :

"7.) :

---------

In customer account, for domain product, Have you a DNS editor form from blesta (and this form use your api functions to connect with a registrar plugin), or this form come only from each registrar plugins?

--------

Licensecart answered:

------

Each registrar has their own API, I believe only certain modules has this but you can edit the modules.

--------

 

After checking some domain registrar modules (enom, namecheap, logiboxes, internetbs), it's seem to me that "DNS Record" form should be displayed from files like : tab_client_dns.pdt & tab_dns.pdt in the registrar module (at components/modules/REGISTRAR/views/default), but none of 4 registrar modules I checked do have it?

 

So when in customer area, for an active domain in service, the "DNS Records" section, go to https://MY-BLESTA/index.php/client/services/manage/1/tabClientDNS/ but it's display same general content as there is in the Information" section

 

When using nameservers supplied by the registrar, how manage DNS Records from Blesta client area ?

 

By the way my goal is to create a new registrar module, but before that I was trying to understand how Blesta is working, so, any example for files likes tab_client_dns.pdt  &  tab_dns.pdt (is this syntax corrects?) will be helpful.

 

The only one I believe has it is: http://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/671-logicbox-reloaded/ I could be wrong but I believe that expands LogicBoxes a lot.

[Paul]

Zone management is coming in a future release, largely after we complete the domain registrar plugin.

[serge]

ok, great, thanks to both of you about given infos

[serge]

As it's still about multi-companies :

 

Today, having different domains/fronted by type of products is a best for create brands identity & SEO for each niches, that why using the multi-company feature of Blesta is a technical easy way to do it, as the customers sale page can be created by Blesta CMS, VS using an other CMS in from for each products type or an other multi-domains able CMS in front of Blesta...

But for more than say about 4-5 companies.
will it be possible your consider you at Blesta sell an unlimited-company addon having of course an other price, or maybe make companies number can go to unlimited after X addon company paid?

Your "friends" from Russia have multi company capacity in an unlimited number on BillXXXXXXX Corporate version, and of course their price is in relation with this aptitude.

my 2cents

[Michael]

I don't think ISPSystems is in the same market as Blesta, they charge you a bomb for support (two free tickets per month, extra tickets for a fee).

[Paul]

As it's still about multi-companies :

 

Today, having different domains/fronted by type of products is a best for create brands identity & SEO for each niches, that why using the multi-company feature of Blesta is a technical easy way to do it, as the customers sale page can be created by Blesta CMS, VS using an other CMS in from for each products type or an other multi-domains able CMS in front of Blesta...

But for more than say about 4-5 companies.

will it be possible your consider you at Blesta sell an unlimited-company addon having of course an other price, or maybe make companies number can go to unlimited after X addon company paid?

Your "friends" from Russia have multi company capacity in an unlimited number on BillXXXXXXX Corporate version, and of course their price is in relation with this aptitude.

my 2cents

 

We don't have plans at the moment for an unlimited addon company version for a few reasons..

1. The hostname is added to the license for each addon company, so that it will pass license validation. A very large number of these could be problematic with licensing by increasing the time required to validate.
2. A large number of addon companies could result in performance issues. Automation tasks are not multi-threaded across companies.
3. Blesta isn't licensed for SaaS, which is the only reason I can think of that unlimited addon companies would be desired.

That doesn't mean we wouldn't consider a bulk discount for x number of addon companies. If you need more than 5 or 10, email me at sales.

[serge]

ok, thank you, your answer make sense