white-labelling [Catalyst]

[James R. Leu]

I implemented this in Catalyst by modifying the View:TT path based on the
contents of $c->request->uri->host().  I'm sure this isn't revolutionary,
but for the sake of completeness and peer review ....

Here is a trimmed down version of my MyApp::Controller::Root::auto()

sub auto : Private {
    my ($self, $c) = @_;

    my $hostMap = {
        'foo.example.com' => [ 'foo/lib', 'foo/src' ]
        'bar.example.com' => [ 'bar/lib', 'bar/src' ]
    };

    my $server = $c->request->uri->host();
    if (defined($hostMap->{$server})) {
	my $path = [];
        foreach my $elem (@{$hostMap->{$server}}) {
	    push(@{$path}, $c->config->{root} . '/' . $elem);
        }
        $c->stash->{additional_template_paths} = $path;
    }

    ...
}

In addition I have a default set off assets.  I set this up in MyApp::View:TT

__PACKAGE__->config({
    CATALYST_VAR => 'Catalyst',
    INCLUDE_PATH => [
        QuickView->path_to('root', 'default/src'),
        QuickView->path_to('root', 'default/lib')
    ],
    PRE_PROCESS  => 'config/main',
    WRAPPER      => 'site/wrapper',
    ERROR        => 'error.tt2',
    TIMER        => 0
});

My resulting 'root' directory looks like:

    default/  foo/  bar/  static/

Where I did my main template development in 'default' and then each
time I need to rebrand the site I copy a subset of 'default' into the
a new directory, and make the changes to those.

The one area I still struggle with is 'static'  Being that the
static data is being served via the main web server, I have to have
'virtual servers' setup for each site and a superset of the static
content in each.

If anyone has figured out a more gracefully way of handling static content
I would be interested in hearing how.

On Thu, Jan 24, 2008 at 09:46:57AM -0000, Carl Johnstone wrote:
> 
> >Interesting term, 'white labelling'; where do you get it from.
> 
> It's a fairly standard term for the process. One origin I've come across is 
> it comes from manufacturers selling products with plain white labels to 
> supermarkets, who would then brand them as own-brand products. However 
> these days it applies in all industries where such practices are common, 
> for example white-label credit cards are common.
> 
> Good web examples would be LOVEFiLM  ( www.lovefilm.com ) providing a DVD 
> rental service under several other brands :-
> 
> http://www.tescodvdrental.com/
> http://dvd.easycinema.com/
> http://www.odeondirect.com/
> 
> 
> >A client wants something similar so I am interested in the issue. The 
> >sites
> >will have some differences such as CSS but access the same application.
> 
> If you can get it just down to CSS changes, you could probably just put a 
> conditional in where you load the CSS files (testing the hostname used to 
> access the site).
> 
> It's likely that sooner or later though you're going to need actual 
> template changes, in which case you could just use an alternate view in 
> Catalyst pointing to a separate set of templates. You probably want to 
> experiment a little as it depends where you want the balance between 
> separate and common stuff. Too much common stuff and it gets harder to 
> customise the look and feel for a client to what they'd like. Too much 
> separation means more maintenance work when improving your application.
> 
> Carl
> 
> 
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-- 
James R. Leu
jleu at mindspring.com
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