

Ask HN: How should I setup the domain name architecture of my web app? - marcamillion

So I have the marketing site URL, but once someone signs up - and starts using the app - they won't be on the marketing site anymore, rather the actual app itself.<p>Basecamp has a variety of domains that you can choose to make your name from. Campaign monitor has createsend.com, where you get &#60;your company&#62;.createsend.com.<p>Kevin Hale (of Wufoo fame) has said that if he could go back he would not do subdomains in a web app again - http://particletree.com/notebook/subdomains-development-sucks/<p>Do ou guys have any feedback as to what I should do, and how I should separate my marketing site from the actual app itself?<p>Also just some general thoughts/tips/best practices?<p>The web app is written in rails.
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bobbywilson0
I don't think your problem is as complex as you think.

You have two sites right, a marketing site and an application. If it is just
this I would keep both sites under the same domain and deploy your application
to a sensible sub-directory. Alternatively you can make a sub-domain for the
app, but this is just slightly more work since you will have to take care of
this in your DNS settings.

However, if you are planning on giving your users each sub-domains then you
are talking about something way more involved.

Clarify your question, and I think you will get better help.

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marcamillion
If I deploy the app to a sub-directory, or a sub-domain, what do I do with the
users?

mysite.com/marcamillion ?, where marcamillion is a sub-folder of root ?

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bherms
Incorporate your site into the app. Generate a "site" controller and then
populate the views for your main page with the site. Use the controller if you
want anything to be dynamic. Then set your routes so that the root is
site/index. "map.root :action => 'index', :controller => 'site'" etc. Then you
can use the rails app as a sort of CMS while maintaining the domain.

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delano
You have only two other options:

* use one domain for your marketing site and another for the app (not desirable)

* incorporate your marketing site into your rails app.

BTW, thanks for the Particletree link. I hadn't read that.

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marcamillion
Well....I guess the real question should have been, what are the options and
the related pros and cons.

I know I said I don't want the app to be on the same domain as the marketing
site...but that's based on my limited knowledge. What are the pros & cons
(both technical and non-technical) that I should consider with this option -
and all other options.

Thanks.

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bobbywilson0
I think the thing to consider is what is most practical to your users. I want
to be able to login at yourdomain.com I don't want to remember that I have to
login at app.yourdomain.com. I think ultimately providing the simplest path
for your users to sign up and log in with is what you should do.

What might make the most sense is putting your marketing site in a sub-
directory like /tour or something and then get another domain just for
marketing that redirects you to the /tour marketing page.

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marcamillion
This is an interesting solution.

So the actual app could be at my main marketing domain - perhaps just simply
have the marketing site appear when they are not logged in. Once they are
logged in, they are shown their home screen.

But how do I handle the file organization for each user. Give them their own
subdomain or just do folders? So all the images for marcamillion would be
mydomain.com/marcamillion/images, and my home site would be
mydomain.com/marcamillion.

~~~
bobbywilson0
Yeah, the style you mentioned (domain.com/user/images) makes sense to me, and
it is built into Rails to do it that way.

