Site Controller – explain all these controls

Since the documentation for Site Controller is not yet released, I’m going to talk about some of its capabilities and show you some examples of its use.

So, the Site Controller is designed to centralize administration, updating, and monitoring a large number of sites located either on the same server, or on remote servers accessible through the Internet.

The main functions of the module include:

• Maintaining of a list of all controlled sites with their characteristics and settings;
  
• Management of any single site (global administration) or of a group of sites;
  
• Management of rights and parameters on client sites;
  
• Monitoring of the each client site’s size, number of users, active period, etc;
  
• Performing of updates on client sites;
  
• Remote execution of any PHP scripts;
  
• Publication of information block elements on client sites.
  

More concretely…


Registration of a client site

Adding a new site to be managed is done on the page: Desktop>Services>Controller>Sites.



After registering a site, you can perform one of the following actions.



Update a client site through the controller

After choosing the Update site action, a new task appears in the Tasks.



To update a client site, some amount of time is required. After a task has been completed, the result and status of the task appears in the task table, and the client site will be updated.

Managing client site settings

The Update settings action configures the settings of the client site in conformity to those of the group (of sites) to which it belongs.

In group settings, you can:

• Indicate a list of modules which will be installed on member sites; unlisted modules will be uninstalled;
  
• Assign module settings (for Kernel and Site Explorer modules) for sites of the group;
  
• Manage access rights of client site administrators with respect to each module.
  and more
  

The status of the given action is shown in the Journal of Site Controller.



Remote execution of commands

Let’s look at the creation of a text file using a PHP script as an example of executing a command remotely through Site Controller.



After executing the script, the file will be created in the root folder of the client site.
If the Execute command via the task scheduler option is marked, the PHP command will not be executed immediately, but placed in the task queue.

Publication of information block elements on a client site using the Business Processes module

Set up an information block, in which elements will be added, in Site Controller:



In the Business Process Templates tab, we mark that the Publishing on controlled sites process will be launched when a new element is created or when an existing element is modified. Multiple business processes may be run simultaneously, including customized processes.



When an element is added or changed, a business process of the given type (template) is launched, and the element will be published on the site where Site Controller is installed, and then on the client site(s).