[6.X][RFC] Create multisites with Joomla

[Druskus]

In the past, I have come across many requests from users asking if Joomla could be multisite. I know that there are extensions that do this. I have developed an extension called SiteHive. SiteHive allows the administrator to create multisite in Joomla, and I would like to see it integrated into the core. I developed the extension entirely myself, and as a Joomla user, I would like to make a small contribution and would like to see it included. Would that be possible?

Registrazione.2026-03-09.201501.mp4

Uploading Registrazione 2026-03-09 201501.mp4…

[HLeithner]

Actually MultiSite/MultiDomain is already accepted as feature request and also it has been worked on it, but work has stopped again because of complexity and waited for a new approach. We have a concept document where we discussed the needs and how implemention might can work for extensions in a "painless" way for example.

https://developer.joomla.org/features/46-joomla-7-x/48-defend-and-expand-market-lead/996-multi-subsite-concept.html

Your video doesn't show much about multisite integration only an admin interface, is this fully working?
If yes, what's your plan to integrate this into core?

[Druskus]

In the video, I show how to create a multisite website. The website is a demo that I use locally, and you will see that there are already other tests. It still needs a lot of improvement, but I don't think the result is basic.
Under implementation and roadmap

Registrazione.2026-03-12.183147.mp4

SiteHive — Full Documentation, Roadmap & Joomla Core Integration Plan

Version: 2.0.0
Compatibility: Joomla 6.0+
Author: Druskus
Package: pkg_sitehive-2.0.0.zip

---

PART 1 — DOCUMENTATION SUMMARY

1.1 What is SiteHive

SiteHive is a Joomla 6 component for multisite management from a single installation. Unlike competitors (JMS Multisite, MightySites) that duplicate tables or require separate installations, SiteHive uses a single-table architecture with a site_id column — lighter, faster, and more maintainable.

1.2 Technical Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  HTTP Request (blog.example.com / example.com/shop)         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  System Plugin (onAfterInitialise)                          │
│    ├── SiteResolver → Resolves site from domain/path        │
│    ├── SiteContext  → Sets global context                    │
│    └── SiteAwareDatabaseDriver → Injects site_id WHERE      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Joomla Core (untouched)                                    │
│    ├── #__content       ← site_id column                    │
│    ├── #__categories    ← site_id column                    │
│    ├── #__menu          ← site_id column                    │
│    ├── #__modules       ← site_id column                    │
│    ├── #__tags          ← site_id column                    │
│    └── #__fields        ← site_id column                    │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  SiteHive Tables (27 dedicated tables)                      │
│    ├── #__sitehive_networks                                 │
│    ├── #__sitehive_sites      (+ shard_id, cdn_id,          │
│    │                            cache_policy_id,             │
│    │                            cluster_node_id)             │
│    ├── #__sitehive_domains                                  │
│    ├── #__sitehive_config                                   │
│    ├── #__sitehive_site_extensions                          │
│    ├── #__sitehive_site_templates                           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_user_sites                               │
│    ├── #__sitehive_shared_content                           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_site_languages                           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_quotas                                   │
│    ├── #__sitehive_sso_tokens                               │
│    ├── #__sitehive_audit_log  (+ category, severity,        │
│    │                            retention_days, gdpr_data)   │
│    ├── #__sitehive_api_keys                                 │
│    ├── #__sitehive_webhooks                                 │
│    ├── #__sitehive_webhook_log                              │
│    ├── #__sitehive_network_acl          (Phase 4)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_subscription_plans   (Phase 4)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_subscriptions        (Phase 4)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_branding             (Phase 4)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_staging              (Phase 4)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_scheduled_ops        (Phase 4)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_shard_connections    (Phase 5)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_cdn_configs          (Phase 5)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_cache_policies       (Phase 5)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_cluster_nodes        (Phase 5)           │
│    ├── #__sitehive_migration_jobs       (Phase 5)           │
│    └── #__sitehive_audit_exports        (Phase 5)           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key principle: The SiteAwareDatabaseDriver decorates Joomla's DB driver and intercepts every SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE query to automatically inject WHERE site_id = ?. Joomla core code works without any modifications. The QueryInterceptor maintains a list of 27 global tables excluded from tenant filtering.

1.3 Package Components

Component	Type	Description
com_sitehive	Component	Main component (admin + site + API)
plg_system_sitehive	Plugin	Multisite bootstrap (routing, context, DB wrapping, API routes, CLI)
lib_sitehive	Library	60+ service classes (AI, Auth, Blueprint, Cache, Batch, Webhooks, Sharding, CDN, Cluster, Migration, Compliance, etc.)

1.4 Implemented Features (100%)

Site Management

• Full CRUD (create, edit, delete, archive, publish/unpublish)
• Site cloning with content, categories, menus, and modules copy
• Live preview with automatic screenshots (Puppeteer or GD fallback)
• Unique aliases/slugs

Domains

• Multi-domain per site (primary, alias, redirect)
• Per-domain SSL enforcement
• Automatic domain → site_id resolution

Per-Site Extensions

• Enable/disable extensions per site
• Per-site parameter overrides
• Ordering management

Per-Site Languages

• Independent languages for each site
• Configurable fallback language
• Per-site default language

Content Sharing

• 3 modes: reference (link), copy (duplicate), mirror (synced)
• Article sharing between sites with AJAX search
• Share revocation
• Automatic mirror synchronization

User Management

• User assignment to sites with roles (admin, editor, author, registered)
• Dynamic role changes
• AJAX user search
• Per-site Joomla groups (JSON)

SSO (Single Sign-On)

• Automatic cross-site login
• JWT tokens with SHA-256 hashing
• Configurable expiration
• IP and user agent tracking

Blueprints & Templates

• Site → JSON blueprint export
• Built-in blueprints (blog, e-commerce, corporate, portfolio, news)
• Blueprint import
• WYSIWYG visual editor with drag-and-drop (Phase 3)

Artificial Intelligence

• 8 native providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, Cohere, OpenRouter
• Joomla AI Framework bridge (joomla/ai GSoC 2025)
• Content generation, SEO optimization, multilingual translation
• Analytics intelligence, content moderation, image generation
• AI interaction history logging

Monitoring & Health

• Health score per site (0-100)
• Network health overview
• Dashboard with KPIs and Chart.js analytics (Phase 3)
• SVG storage ring charts

Audit & Security

• Complete user action logging (who, what, when, IP)
• Filters by site, action, entity, time period
• Old/new value tracking (JSON diff)
• GDPR/SOC2 compliance exports with checksum verification (Phase 5)
• Retention policy enforcement

Cross-Site Search

• Article search across the entire network
• Filters by site, type, status
• Popular terms

Quotas & Limits

• Per-site limits: storage MB, users, articles, categories, modules
• Monthly bandwidth
• Current usage monitoring
• Subscription plan integration (Phase 4)

Migration Tools

• WordPress — Remote DB analysis, content import
• Drupal (7/8/9/10) — Users, taxonomy, content, menus (Phase 5)
• TYPO3 — Backend/frontend users, categories, pages, content elements (Phase 5)
• Migration Job Manager — Full lifecycle: pending → analyzing → ready → running → completed/failed (Phase 5)

CCM Format Support (GSoC 2025 API)

• Export/import in Common Content Model (CCM) format
• Interoperability with com_ccm component
• Standardized content representation

Frontend Site Switcher (Phase 3)

• mod_sitehive_switcher module — dropdown/list/pills display modes
• Permission-aware, i18n support

Super Admin Panel (Phase 3)

• Unified cross-site view with 6 KPI cards
• All-sites table, storage meters, activity feed

Dashboard Analytics (Phase 3)

• 7 Chart.js charts: site growth, content, users, audit events, distributions, health

WYSIWYG Blueprint Editor (Phase 3)

• Visual drag-and-drop with 8 component types
• Properties panel, JSON preview, save/load

Site Provisioning Wizard (Phase 3)

• 5-step guided wizard: basic info → template → domain → options → review

Real-Time Notifications (Phase 3)

• SSE endpoint with polling fallback
• Notification bell in admin
• Health/quota alerts

Multi-Network Management (Phase 4)

• Independent network management
• Network-level configuration

Network-Level ACL (Phase 4)

• Granular permissions per network/site/resource
• Permission key system with resource scoping

Billing & Subscriptions (Phase 4)

• Subscription plans with quota limits
• Plan lifecycle: trial → active → suspended → cancelled → expired
• Usage monitoring tied to plans

White-Label Branding (Phase 4)

• Custom branding per network/site
• Logo, favicon, colors, custom CSS
• Admin header/footer text customization

Staging Environments (Phase 4)

• Staging copies of sites before go-live
• Promote staging to production
• Refresh staging from production

Scheduled Operations (Phase 4)

• Scheduled tasks per site (backup, sync, publish)
• Cron expression support
• Run history tracking

Database Sharding (Phase 5)

• Separate DB connections for high-traffic sites
• AES-256-CBC encrypted credentials
• Connection pooling with health monitoring
• Automatic failover to main DB
• Latency tracking per shard

CDN Integration (Phase 5)

• 5 providers: Cloudflare, CloudFront, Bunny CDN, Fastly, Custom
• Per-site CDN management
• Auto-purge on content save
• Bandwidth monitoring
• URL rewriting for CDN domains

Distributed Cache (Phase 5)

• Redis (with serializer selection, LZ4 compression, SCAN flush)
• Memcached (with SASL authentication)
• APCu support
• Per-scope cache policies with configurable TTL

Cluster / Load Balancer Awareness (Phase 5)

• Multi-node deployment management
• Weighted round-robin node selection
• Heartbeat monitoring with stale detection
• CPU/memory metrics per node
• Role-based nodes: primary, worker, standby

Audit Compliance (Phase 5)

• GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, ISO export types
• Formats: JSON, CSV, PDF
• SHA-256 checksum verification
• GDPR data anonymisation
• Configurable retention policies
• Automatic expiration

REST API (66+ endpoints)

Sites (8 endpoints)

• GET /sites — List | GET /sites/:id — Detail
• POST /sites — Create | PATCH /sites/:id — Update | DELETE /sites/:id — Delete
• POST /sites/:id/clone | POST /sites/:id/publish | POST /sites/:id/unpublish

Domains (5 endpoints)

• GET /domains | GET /domains/:id | POST /domains | PATCH /domains/:id | DELETE /domains/:id

Users (4 endpoints)

• GET /users | POST /users | PATCH /users | DELETE /users

Content Sharing (4 endpoints)

• GET /sharing | POST /sharing | DELETE /sharing/:id | POST /sharing/sync

Health (2 endpoints)

• GET /health | GET /health/:id

Audit (2 endpoints)

• GET /audit | DELETE /audit/purge

Webhooks (7 endpoints)

• GET /webhooks | GET /webhooks/:id | POST /webhooks | PATCH /webhooks/:id | DELETE /webhooks/:id
• POST /webhooks/:id/test | GET /webhooks/:id/log

API Keys (3 endpoints)

• GET /apikeys | POST /apikeys | DELETE /apikeys/:id

Batch (1 endpoint)

• POST /batch/sites

Networks (Phase 4 — 5 endpoints)

• GET /networks | GET /networks/:id | POST /networks | PATCH /networks/:id | DELETE /networks/:id

ACL (Phase 4 — 4 endpoints)

• GET /acl | POST /acl | PATCH /acl/:id | DELETE /acl/:id

Plans (Phase 4 — 5 endpoints)

• GET /plans | GET /plans/:id | POST /plans | PATCH /plans/:id | DELETE /plans/:id

Branding (Phase 4 — 4 endpoints)

• GET /branding | POST /branding | PATCH /branding/:id | DELETE /branding/:id

Staging (Phase 4 — 5 endpoints)

• GET /staging | POST /staging | POST /staging/:id/promote | POST /staging/:id/refresh | DELETE /staging/:id

Scheduler (Phase 4 — 5 endpoints)

• GET /scheduler | GET /scheduler/:id | POST /scheduler | PATCH /scheduler/:id | DELETE /scheduler/:id

Shards (Phase 5 — 6 endpoints)

• GET /shards | GET /shards/:id | POST /shards | DELETE /shards/:id
• POST /shards/:id/health | GET /shards/stats

CDN (Phase 5 — 6 endpoints)

• GET /cdn | GET /cdn/:id | POST /cdn | DELETE /cdn/:id
• POST /cdn/:id/purge | GET /cdn/stats

Cache Policies (Phase 5 — 6 endpoints)

• GET /cachepolicies | GET /cachepolicies/:id | POST /cachepolicies | DELETE /cachepolicies/:id
• POST /cachepolicies/:id/health | GET /cachepolicies/stats

Cluster Nodes (Phase 5 — 6 endpoints)

• GET /clusternodes | GET /clusternodes/:id | POST /clusternodes | DELETE /clusternodes/:id
• POST /clusternodes/:id/heartbeat | GET /clusternodes/stats

Migration Jobs (Phase 5 — 6 endpoints)

• GET /migrationjobs | GET /migrationjobs/:id | POST /migrationjobs | DELETE /migrationjobs/:id
• POST /migrationjobs/:id/execute | GET /migrationjobs/stats

Compliance (Phase 5 — 7 endpoints)

• GET /compliance | GET /compliance/:id | POST /compliance | DELETE /compliance/:id
• POST /compliance/:id/process | POST /compliance/:id/verify | POST /compliance/:id/anonymise

All endpoints at /api/index.php/v1/sitehive/. Auth via Joomla Bearer token or SiteHive API key (X-SiteHive-Key).

Webhook System

• 19+ event types (site., domain., user., sharing., staging., scheduler., etc.)
• HMAC-SHA256 signature verification
• Auto-retry (3 attempts, exponential backoff)
• Auto-disable after 10 consecutive failures

API Key Authentication

• sh_ prefix + 64 hex characters
• SHA-256 hashed storage
• 19+ granular permission scopes
• IP/CIDR whitelisting

CLI Commands (32 commands)

Site Management

• sitehive:site:list | sitehive:site:create | sitehive:site:delete | sitehive:site:clone

Domains

• sitehive:domain:list | sitehive:domain:add | sitehive:domain:remove

Users

• sitehive:user:list | sitehive:user:add | sitehive:user:remove

Webhooks

• sitehive:webhook:list | sitehive:webhook:add | sitehive:webhook:test

API Keys

• sitehive:apikey:create | sitehive:apikey:list | sitehive:apikey:revoke

Operations

• sitehive:health | sitehive:batch:import | sitehive:audit:purge
• sitehive:sync:mirrors | sitehive:quota:sync | sitehive:ai:stats | sitehive:screenshot

Scalability (Phase 5)

• sitehive:shard:list — List DB shard connections
• sitehive:shard:health — Health check all shards
• sitehive:cdn:purge — Purge CDN cache (--site, --urls)
• sitehive:cache:health — Health check cache policies
• sitehive:cluster:status — Cluster node status with metrics
• sitehive:migration:run — Execute migration job (--id)
• sitehive:migration:list — List migration jobs
• sitehive:compliance:export — Generate compliance export (--type, --format, --scope)
• sitehive:compliance:retention — Enforce retention policies

Admin Interface

• 24 views with complete CRUD
• 24 submenus in admin menu
• Full dark mode with CSS variables
• Responsive layout
• 7 language packs: en-GB, it-IT, de-DE, fr-FR, es-ES, ru-RU, ja-JP

1.5 Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	PHP 8.4+, Joomla 6 MVC, PSR-4 autoloading
Database	MySQL/MariaDB + PostgreSQL, InnoDB/JSONB, JSON columns
Admin Frontend	Joomla Bootstrap 5, Chart.js, custom CSS, vanilla JS
Distributed Cache	Redis (LZ4), Memcached (SASL), APCu
CDN	Cloudflare, CloudFront, Bunny CDN, Fastly, Custom
AI	HTTP client with provider factory + Joomla AI Framework bridge
SSO	JWT tokens, SHA-256 hashing
Build	PowerShell script (build.ps1) → ZIP package

1.6 Configuration (9 fieldsets)

Fieldset	Key Settings
General	site_id_column, default_language, enable_sso, enable_multisite
SSO	sso_token_expiry, sso_hash_algorithm
Quotas	default_storage_mb, default_max_users, default_max_articles
AI	ai_provider, ai_api_key, ai_model, ai_temperature
Maintenance	audit_retention_days, screenshot_driver, cache_ttl
Sharding	shard_enabled, shard_health_interval, shard_failover_enabled
CDN	cdn_enabled, cdn_auto_purge_on_save
Cache	distributed_cache_enabled, cache_default_ttl
Cluster	cluster_enabled, cluster_heartbeat_interval, cluster_stale_threshold

---

PART 2 — IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP

Phase 1 — Stabilization (v1.1.x) ✅ COMPLETE

#	Task	Status
1.1–1.7	MVC, SQL, dark mode, UI, blueprints, help	✅ Done
1.8	Test on clean Joomla 6	⬜ Pending
1.9–1.13	Blueprint apply/AI, PostgreSQL, AI Framework, CCM	✅ Done

Phase 2 — API & Automation (v1.2.0) ✅ COMPLETE

#	Task	Status
2.1	Full REST API (30 endpoints)	✅ Done
2.2	Webhook events (19 types, HMAC-SHA256)	✅ Done
2.3	Full CLI (23 commands)	✅ Done
2.4	Batch operations (CSV/JSON, max 500)	✅ Done
2.5	API authentication (sh_ keys, 19 scopes)	✅ Done

Phase 3 — Frontend & UX (v1.3.0) ✅ COMPLETE

#	Task	Status
3.1	Frontend site switcher module	✅ Done
3.2	Super admin panel with KPIs	✅ Done
3.3	Dashboard analytics (7 Chart.js charts)	✅ Done
3.4	WYSIWYG blueprint editor	✅ Done
3.5	Site provisioning wizard (5-step)	✅ Done
3.6	Real-time notifications (SSE)	✅ Done

Phase 4 — Enterprise Features (v1.4.0) ✅ COMPLETE

#	Task	Status
4.1	Multi-network management	✅ Done
4.2	Network-level ACL	✅ Done
4.3	Billing/subscription plans	✅ Done
4.4	White-label branding	✅ Done
4.5	Staging environments	✅ Done
4.6	Scheduled operations	✅ Done

Phase 5 — Scalability (v2.0.0) ✅ COMPLETE — CURRENT

#	Task	Status
5.1	Database sharding (AES-256, failover)	✅ Done
5.2	CDN integration (5 providers, auto-purge)	✅ Done
5.3	Distributed cache (Redis/Memcached/APCu)	✅ Done
5.4	Cluster management (weighted round-robin)	✅ Done
5.5	Migration tools (Drupal, TYPO3, job manager)	✅ Done
5.6	Audit compliance (GDPR/SOC2, anonymisation)	✅ Done

Phase 6 — Future (v3.0.0) 🔮 PLANNED

#	Task	Priority
6.1	GraphQL API	Medium
6.2	Multi-region replication	Low
6.3	Plugin marketplace per site	Medium
6.4	ML-based health predictions	Low
6.5	Terraform/IaC provider	Medium
6.6	Joomla 7 core integration	High

---

PART 2.5 — JOOMLA GSoC 2025 INTEGRATION

GSoC 2025 AI Framework (joomla/ai)

JoomlaAIAdapter bridges Joomla\AI providers behind SiteHive's AIProviderInterface. Automatic fallback, zero config, backward compatible.

AIProviderFactory::createProvider()
  ├── 'openai'     → OpenAIProvider (native)
  ├── 'anthropic'  → AnthropicProvider (native)
  ├── ... 6 more native providers ...
  └── unknown      → JoomlaAIAdapter → Joomla\AI\AIFactory

GSoC 2025 API — CCM Content Migration (com_ccm)

CCMFormatHandler enables export/import in Common Content Model format for cross-CMS interoperability.

---

PART 3 — JOOMLA CORE INTEGRATION PLAN

3.1 Strategic Premise

Propose SiteHive as Joomla's official multisite framework (WordPress Multisite equivalent).

3.2 Integration Phases

PHASE A — Standalone Extension (NOW): Publish on JED, build community, stabilize.
PHASE B — Core Libraries (Joomla 7): Port SiteAwareDriver, QueryInterceptor, SiteResolver, SiteContext, TenantScope, SiteManager to Joomla\CMS\Multisite namespace.
PHASE C — Native Multisite (Joomla 7+): Global Configuration toggle, System → Sites, admin toolbar switcher.

3.3 Competitive Advantages vs WordPress Multisite

Aspect	WordPress	SiteHive
DB Architecture	Duplicate tables	site_id column
DB Sharding	No	AES-256, failover
CDN	Plugin only	5 native providers
Distributed Cache	Plugin only	Redis/Memcached/APCu
Cluster	No	Weighted round-robin
AI	No	8 providers + bridge
Content Sharing	No	3 modes
SSO	Plugin	Native JWT
Staging	No	Built-in
REST API	Basic	66+ endpoints
CLI	wp-cli	32 commands
Compliance	No	GDPR/SOC2/HIPAA/ISO

---

Appendix A — File Inventory

Admin Controllers (22)

Core (10), Phase 4 (6), Phase 5 (6: Shards, Cdn, CachePolicies, ClusterNodes, MigrationJobs, AuditExports)

API Controllers (21)

Core (9 + ApiAuthTrait), Phase 4 (6), Phase 5 (6)

Library Classes (60+)

AI (18), Audit (1), Auth (3), Batch (1), Blueprint (1), Cache (2), CDN (1), CLI (32 commands), Cluster (1), Content (1), Context (2), Database (3), Extension (2), Health (1), Language (1), Middleware (1), Migration (5), Quota (1), Resolver (1), Scope (1), Search (1), Site (2), User (1), Webhook (1)

Database Tables (27)

Core (15), Phase 4 (6), Phase 5 (6)

---

[alikon]

sounds like a good plan
my 0.2 eurocents:

• why not postgresql too?
• there are already some works done for migrations from WP (GSoC 2025)
• there are already some works done for AI (GSoC 2025)

did you consider to fully replace that or to integrate ?

[Druskus]

It needs to be implemented, and I will take it into consideration. Development is difficult and complex, and it will take time, but everything is feasible.
For GSoC, I will consider both options, and if it is implemented, we will evaluate it as a team.

[alikon]

to clarify i was referring to these:

• https://github.com/joomla-projects/gsoc25_ai_framework
• https://github.com/joomla-projects/gsoc25_api

[Druskus]

I realized that I had included the updated documentation and added the points you had pointed out to me, implementing them.

[HLeithner]

Thanks for the description, I personally will need some time to look at it, so don't expect too much the next time from me.

[Druskus]

No problem, I can wait. Thank you for your answers. If it is possible to integrate it, I would be delighted.