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Use Web Spotlight for more websites

Tomas Nosek
7 min read
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When using Web Spotlight, a rule of thumb is to use a separate project for each website. Still, there are situations when you may benefit from managing multiple websites in one project. But how does it all work when Web Spotlight is involved?

Table of contents

    Key points

    • Manage more websites in one project with Web Spotlight only when using the same content model and reusing the content among the websites.
    • Keep in mind that you need to double down on the authoring experience. Focus on the navigation and preview for authors.
    • Use the default homepage as a virtual root for the homepages of individual websites. Use collections for permissions and preview.

    What is Web Spotlight?

    If you're not sure what Web Spotlight is and if it's suitable for your project, read our introduction to Web Spotlight and how to set up Web Spotlight.

    When to choose one project

    The best approach to choose either one or more projects will vary based on your requirements. In general, managing two or more websites with Web Spotlight in one project is beneficial when:

    • All websites use the same or similar content model and the time for maintaining more projects would increase significantly.
    • The websites reuse the content among each other and it will save time to have content available for use under all websites.

    If your situation doesn't fulfill either use case, we strongly recommend using a separate project for each website.

    Consider the authoring experience

    As Web Spotlight is primarily intended for one website per project, there are two aspects to consider before choosing differently.

    Keep the navigation simple

    Content creators may find it difficult to work with more websites in one Web Spotlight. If your websites are complex and will use different content types for pages or content, authors may struggle with navigation and content item creation.

    Consider the following recommendations to improve the authoring experience:

    • Use the same content type for navigation on all websites.
    • Differentiate content types designed for only one of the websites, for example, by giving them a specific name.
    • Host a user testing session to find out the problematic parts of your configuration.

    Plan the content preview

    Preview is undoubtedly a key feature that heavily improves the authoring experience. We can't stress enough how vital preview is, especially for Web Spotlight.

    If your websites run on different domains, this will bring more complexity to your code. That's because you specify exactly one preview URL for each content type when setting up the preview links.

    Consider the following options to implement preview:

    • Make sure all content types work at least on one website. Let the content creators know that the preview will always be displayed on that site.
    • Don't reuse the same content types among websites. This way, you can set a different preview URL for content types related to each website. Use snippets to make reusing the elements in content types easier. As a disadvantage, this approach cancels out one of the positives of the one-project approach.
    • Create proxy preview URLs which will rewrite the domain based on the item's collection. Such a proxy server will work with URLs of all websites and redirect them to the right website.
      • For example, for websites with previews running on preview.example1.com and preview.example2.com, set up a proxy server on a separate domain. Using collections, a proxy server running on example-preview.com will redirect example-preview.com/example1/ traffic to preview.example1.com.
    • Create a universal preview app that can display content from all websites.
      • For example, for websites running on example1.com and example2.com, set up a preview app on a separate domain. Using collections, a preview app running on example-preview.com will display content on example-preview.com/example1/ as if published on example1.com.

    There isn't one right option, so choose what works best in your case. Remember you can use the {Collection} macro in the preview URL configuration. This macro can help you in some of the mentioned options.

    Let's get started

    To create separate page trees, use the Web Spotlight's predefined homepage as a virtual root page to which you'll link the actual homepages of your websites. Use collections to set up permissions for different websites and potentially for previews.

    Are you using an already existing project?

    If you want to run Web Spotlight for multiple websites in an existing project, migrate your existing project to Web Spotlight for one website first or combine the procedure with the following instructions. Don't forget to work on this in a separate environment to avoid website downtime.

    1. Create collections for individual websites and one collection for the shared content (i.e., three collections if you have two websites). When you create content items further, assign them to the right collections.
    2. Create a content type for your actual website homepages, for example, Website homepage.
      • Alternatively, you can create a content type for every homepage website. In such a case, make sure to name the content type clearly to avoid confusion.
    3. To avoid misunderstandings, rename the default Homepage content type to, for example, All websites root.
    4. In the All websites root type, limit the subpages element to link only items of the Website homepage type (or the content types you created for this purpose).
    5. Set up content preview based on the considerations above.
    6. Set up permissions to establish which roles can work with individual websites using collections.

    Any further configuration follows the same principles as a typical Web Spotlight implementation of one website per project.

    What's next?