I'm seeking to use Joomla as a Content Management System for several "sites" under the one domain name of
sea-change.com.au
Each "site" would be managed by its own editor/author, dealing with sea change issues in their geographic locality - - with me a top administrator.
Each site would have its own subscription arrangements for access to some specific information within that site (and that may include a small subscription fee).
Any blog attached to any of the "sites" would be secondary to the main content (probably not essential).

Would that be feasible within Joomla?
(as you can see I'm a newbie to Joomla, but am proficient in HTML and WordPress)

Thanks in advance,
David

Hi David - you could do this with subdomains e.g:
site1.sea-change.com.au, site2.sea-change.com.au, .. etc and each could have a unique joomla installation - in this case you would b eindividually listed as a superadministrator on each iste - OR - you could one site with different sections managed by different people - using different templates or colour schemes etc - and an access control component like JUGA - depends how unique the sites need to be etc?

Thanks for your response to my post.
I get the impression from what you say that I should be able to achieve what I want to do using Joomla.

However, I want to avoid subdomains.
The reason being that although there will be sepatate "sites", they all will relate to the common theme of sea change. Hence, I want some sort of integrated feel.
Maybe directories could do that?
e.g. sea-change.com.au/southcoast/

I would be using the same template throughout the whole - thus each "site" would feel part of the "whole". Each "site" would have information relating to a separate geographic area, but should be part of the whole.

Do you see any problem with the directory method of structuring the overall web site?
Each "site" would have a public area and a subscription area in a sub-directory
e.g. sea-change.com.au/southcoast/ (public area)
and sea-change.com.au/southcoast/concierge/ (subscription area)

Could each site subscription area (sub-directory) have username/password for access by each subscriber? The extension PayPal Subscriptions Pro might do what I want.

Thanks again,
David

G'day David.

I'm not sure that I've correctly understood. I may have over simplified what you want to do. But here goes:

When I first started using Joomla, I caused myself much anxiety by trying to manipulate Joomla as I was used to with a hand coded html site. Joomla is quite different. You've just got to relax with Joomla and let it do things it's own way. Joomla's way is excellent!

Joomla will do what you want, nearly straight out of the box. That's how it's made. You may need a couple of plugins, as suggested by JLJ, to get the password protection and individual access, but that's about it.

Joomla has sections and categories.

So here's how I suggest you set up the site:

Section - South Coast
Section - Mid coast
Section - North Coast
And so on......

For every section you can have an Article Layout page which will be like a Mini Home page for that section.

You would also use an Article Layout page for your true home page. It would link to the Mini Home pages.

Now, leading from each section you would have two categories, more if need be. These categories would be Public and Subscription.

So your site hierarchy would run something like this:

Home

South Coast (mini home page)
Public
Subscription

Mid Coast (mini home page)
Public
Subscription

And so on.......

Now, I've already mentioned the Article Layout for the Home and Mini Home pages.

The articles in the public and subscription categories should be set out using the Blog Layout. Alternatively you could use the Blog List layout, but I'd go for the Blog Layout.

There would be other variations that you could use:

Instead of using the Mini Home pages as I've suggested, you could simply add a description to the top of each Blog Layout page and make it your Mini Home page.

I do suggest that you get yourself a practice Joomla installation and have a play for a while to get the feel of what Joomla will do for you.

Joomla really is the most versatile thing they've come up with since the invention of the T-shirt.

So please feel free to make what you will of my suggestions. Hope I understood correctly.

Hey David,

Thats what I did here for one of my clients.

One main site and 17 mini sub sites.

The amount of content under the sub sites justified the separate sites, as well as the administrative controls needed.

BUT with Joomla 1.6 and other content construction kits like K2 that just changes everything and we're looking at a complete rebuild in the future.

Peter

Thank you to all for your assistance ...

Yes, you have answered my question.

David.