Multiple domains -> one web site

Strange desire to do something strange...

[hawkeye]

I have a strange desire to do something which I'm not sure can be done. We have taken over the operation of a web hosting company in middle TN. The company managed three community sites for three communities which are about 20 miles apart, situated in a triangle, surrounding a large AF engineering and testing facility.
There are currently three sites and three domain names.
My desire is to encapsulate the three sites into one, such that all three domain names point to the same site. This is easy. The strange part is that I want to change content of the site (easy with php) depending upon which domain name they use to reach the site (this I'm not sure if doable).
This will allow one classifieds, one chat, one news link, one set of company listings, etc...both simplifying maintenance and allowing the three communities to more easily interact.
I am a contract software engineer (more network and database work than web work) with a BS Computer Science, so knowledgable of computing systems.

Any ideas? Thanks...hawkeye

[jdMorgan]

hawkeye,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]!

That approach just adds complexity, IMHO.

If they were my sites, I'd get a fourth domain - named appropriately - and move all the common stuff to that domain, then link the three specific domains' pages to the common stuff where appropriate.

The advantages are that it makes sense to the users, retains the "ultra-local" community feel, and that it scales well (e.g. multiple independent webmasters) if the sites all grow. It also avoids the complication of wrapping php around a bunch of existing sites that were not designed with this in mind. In addition, the fourth domain provides a sensible place to implement your php stuff, with pages designed from the ground up w/php in mind, should you ultimately decide to go that way 100%.

You can, of course, host all the domains under the same server account and let the server sort out the domain-name-to-page mapping -- that's a separate (and usually very-easy-to-handle) issue.

Try a WebmasterWorld site search for multiple domain(s) subdirectory(ies) and variations on that - lots of previous discussion here, some very recent.

Mi dos centavos,
Jim