Quickstart

Replace your SITE_ID in settings.py to:

from multisite import SiteID
SITE_ID = SiteID(default=1)

Add these to your INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'django.contrib.sites',
    'multisite',
    ...
]

Add to your settings.py TEMPLATES loaders in the OPTIONS section:

TEMPLATES = [
    ...
    {
        ...
        'DIRS': {...}
        'OPTIONS': {
            'loaders': (
                'multisite.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader',
                'django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader',
            )
        }
        ...
    }
    ...
]

Edit settings.py MIDDLEWARE:

MIDDLEWARE = (
    ...
    'multisite.middleware.DynamicSiteMiddleware',
    ...
)

Append to settings.py, in order to use a custom cache that can be safely cleared:

# The cache connection to use for django-multisite.
# Default: 'default'
CACHE_MULTISITE_ALIAS = 'multisite'

# The cache key prefix that django-multisite should use.
# If not set, defaults to the KEY_PREFIX used in the defined
# CACHE_MULTISITE_ALIAS or the default cache (empty string if not set)
CACHE_MULTISITE_KEY_PREFIX = ''

If you have set CACHE_MULTISITE_ALIAS to a custom value, e.g. 'multisite', add a separate backend to settings.py CACHES:

CACHES = {
    'default': {
        ...
    },
    'multisite': {
        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache',
        'TIMEOUT': 60 * 60 * 24,  # 24 hours
        ...
    },
}

Development Environments

Multisite returns a valid Alias when in “development mode” (defaulting to the alias associated with the default SiteID.

Development mode is either:

• Running tests, i.e. manage.py test

• Running locally in settings.DEBUG = True, where the hostname is a top-level name, i.e. localhost

In order to have multisite use aliases in local environments, add entries to your local etc/hosts file to match aliases in your applications. E.g.

127.0.0.1 example.com
127.0.0.1 examplealias.com

And access your application at example.com:8000 or examplealias.com:8000 instead of the usual localhost:8000.

Domain fallbacks

By default, if the domain name is unknown, multisite will respond with an HTTP 404 Not Found error. To change this behaviour, add to settings.py:

# The view function or class-based view that django-multisite will
# use when it cannot match the hostname with a Site. This can be
# the name of the function or the function itself.
# Default: None
MULTISITE_FALLBACK = 'django.views.generic.base.RedirectView

# Keyword arguments for the MULTISITE_FALLBACK view.
# Default: {}
MULTISITE_FALLBACK_KWARGS = {'url': 'http://example.com/',
                             'permanent': False}

Templates

If required, create template subdirectories for domain level templates (in a location specified in settings.TEMPLATES[‘DIRS’].

Multisite’s template loader will look for templates in folders with the names of domains, such as:

templates/example.com

The template loader will also look for templates in a folder specified by the optional MULTISITE_DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_DIR setting, e.g.:

templates/multisite_templates

Cross-domain cookies

In order to support cross-domain cookies, for purposes like single-sign-on, prepend the following to the top of settings.py MIDDLEWARE (MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES for Django < 1.10):

MIDDLEWARE = (
    'multisite.middleware.CookieDomainMiddleware',
    ...
)

CookieDomainMiddleware will consult the Public Suffix List for effective top-level domains. It caches this file in the system’s default temporary directory as effective_tld_names.dat. To change this in settings.py:

MULTISITE_PUBLIC_SUFFIX_LIST_CACHE = '/path/to/multisite_tld.dat'

By default, any cookies without a domain set will be reset to allow *.domain.tld. To change this in settings.py:

MULTISITE_COOKIE_DOMAIN_DEPTH = 1  # Allow only *.subdomain.domain.tld

In order to fetch a new version of the list, run:

manage.py update_public_suffix_list

Tests

To run the tests:

python runtests.py