Categories as subdomains

ImWithStupid

Anyone have an idea of how to use subdomains for the different categories?
Such as:
example.com/categories/general/ to
general.example.com

It seems it's not straightforward to do, since there is no actual directories named "categories" or "general".

Thanks for the help.

Linc

This is a complex task that I think is a bit beyond what I'd expect to be explained on a message board. This will minimally require knowledge of Apache virtual hosts and probably mod_rewrite and advanced Vanilla work. My initial reaction (having a good deal of experience in adventures like this) is "this is far more trouble than it is worth."

Linc

This is a complex task that I think is a bit beyond what I'd expect to be explained on a message board. This will minimally require knowledge of Apache virtual hosts and probably mod_rewrite and advanced Vanilla work. My initial reaction (having a good deal of experience in adventures like this) is "this is far more trouble than it is worth."

S

1) First of all, you need configure DNS: * IN A x.x.x.x or * IN CNAME myhost.com
2) Configure apache thus that it will accept all requests for IP-address (not virtual, but the real host)
3) In PHP you can parse $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] and get requested subdomain.
4) Redispatch event with new REQUEST_URI (faked), 'BeforeDispatch' is good place for it.
Example (plugin function, or application hooks):

public function Gdn_Dispatcher_BeforeDispatch_Handler($Sender) {
	$Request = Gdn::Request();
	$RequestHost = $Request->Host();
	$IsIpHost = (is_int(ip2long($RequestHost)));
	if (C('Garden.Domain') != $Request->Domain() && $IsIpHost === False) {
		$this->IsSubdomainRequest = True;
		$URI = $Request->RequestUri();
		if (substr($RequestHost, 0, 4) == 'www.') $RequestHost = substr($RequestHost, 4);
		$UrlCode = GetValue(0, explode('.', $RequestHost));
		$CategoryModel = new CategoryModel();
		$Category = $CategoryModel->GetByCode($UrlCode);
		if (!$Category) throw NotFoundException();

		if ($URI == '') { // only for empty uri
			$Request->WithControllerMethod('categories', Null, array($Category->CategoryID));
		} else {
			$this->bCheckInAfterAnalyzeRequest = True;
			// We have dynamic domain, so do redirect to home if knowingly bad subdomain requested
			// See Gdn_Dispatcher_AfterAnalyzeRequest_Handler()
			Redirect(DomainUrl(), 301);
		}
	}
}

davidangel

I would love to have this functionality as well. @ImWithStupid, did you find a solution?