====== New Rotation Multidomains ======

Run multiple domains with different traders, designs, and rotation stats on a single gallery database. Sites can even run on different servers.

The setup: One master site collects galleries; slave sites use the master's database. Changes on the master automatically propagate to all slaves.

In practice: Install the script on all domains. Site 1 is the master with the full gallery database. Sites 2 and 3 are slaves using the master's database. On each slave, go to Rotation - Settings, specify the master's MySQL database, and click "Link to This DB".

**Benefits:**
  - No need to copy thumbnails or galleries across sites; everything syncs automatically.
  - Sponsors are shared across all sites.
  - 10 sites on 1 database create less load than 10 separate databases.
  - Configure content and crop profiles only once, on the master.
  - Custom galleries on the master display with each slave's design.
  - Deploy flexibly—master and slaves on different servers. Even separate MySQL and CMS servers.


**Limitations:**
  - Gallery statuses are shared; you can't have different statuses on slaves.
  - Custom gallery template names must be identical across slaves.
  - Each slave links to one master; a master can have unlimited slaves.

**Shared (master + slaves):**
  - Complete gallery database (statuses, titles, descriptions, tags)
  - Tag database and tag cloud

**Separate per slave:**
  - Click, impression, and CTR statistics
  - Category descriptions and custom variables (categories themselves are shared)

By default, slaves use master descriptions. You can enable "Separate Desc" on a slave to add custom descriptions there instead, saving database space.


**Multiple niches from one master:**

If your master is multi-niche, quickly create niche sites from it:
  - Install the script on a new domain
  - Link to the master
  - Activate only needed categories on the slave

**How:**
Go to Rotation - Settings - Linked DB, select external database, and specify the master's credentials.

===== Thumbnail storage URL (Alt Hosts) =====

If you store thumbnails locally on the master (default: scj/thumbs), tell the slave where to find them. On the slave, go to Rotation - Settings and set Alt Hosts to the master domain (just the domain, e.g., master.com).

Here's why: on the master, thumbnails are at /scj/thumbs/. When a gallery is grabbed, thumb 123 is saved as scj/thumbs/123.jpg. On the slave, specify Alt Hosts = master.com, so URLs become http://master.com/scj/thumbs/123.jpg.

Note: Anti-hotlinking is usually enabled (correctly). Ensure the master allows hotlinking from the slave. Contact your admin if needed.


===== Thumbnail URLs on slave =====

To use slave domain instead of master domain (http://slave.com/scj/thumbs/123.jpg vs. http://master.com/scj/thumbs/123.jpg):

**Same server:**

Create a symlink: /home/slave.com/scj/thumbs → /home/master.com/scj/thumbs. Don't set Alt Hosts. URLs stay as /scj/thumbs/123.jpg and load normally.

**Different servers:**

  * Create a DNS record (e.g., img.slave.com) pointing to master.com
  * Set Alt Hosts = img.slave.com
  * Thumbnail URLs become http://img.slave.com/scj/thumbs/123.jpg, loading from the master via DNS

===== MySQL on remote server =====

Master and slave can be on different servers. Two notes:
  * Ideally, they're in the same data center for speed.
  * MySQL may restrict connections to localhost only. If the slave can't connect, ask your admin.



===== Thumb stats =====

Slaves have their own statistics for thumbs, but when a slave is added the statistics are copied from the master. If you want to start rotation on the slave from scratch - you can reset all statistics in rotation - special.


===== Clone design =====

To create a site identical to the master except for design: on the master, set Rotation - Settings - Own thumb stats = "Use master" and Own descriptions = "Use master". This creates a complete copy with different templates, letting you run hundreds of trading sites on one server.




===== Category and index thumbnails =====

When master and slave trade with each other and use category thumbnails, consider Rotation - CMS - Tube Settings option "Category thumbs: Thumb number". For the slave, set it to 2-3 instead of 1 so sites initially look different. Later, when slave CTR diverges from master, change it back to 1.

===== Link galleries to master =====

By default, slaves link to galleries on themselves. Master and slave can use different templates to display the same gallery differently:

http://master/gallery/cool/index.html (master's design)
http://slave/gallery/cool/index.html (slave's design)

Sometimes you want slave links to point to the master (to boost master PR). Simply changing the template link to http://master/gallery/GALLERY_SLUG/index.html won't work—it redirects without counting clicks.

Instead, route traffic through the slave's click counter:

1. Change the template link from:
<code>
/gallery/GALLERY_SLUG/index.html?<!--THUMB_LINK-->
to:
/scj/cgi/out.php?url=http://master/gallery/GALLERY_SLUG/index.html&link=images/<!--THUMB_LINK-->
</code>

2. Or change the rewrite rule from:
<code>
RewriteRule ^gallery/([^/]+)/index.html$ /scj/cgi/out.php?link=images/%{QUERY_STRING}&url=content&slug=$1 [L]
to:
RewriteRule ^gallery/([^/]+)/index.html$ /scj/cgi/out.php?link=images/%{QUERY_STRING}&url=http://master/gallery/$1/index.html [L]
</code>