Development environment for lots of websites with Git

Question

I have 5 different websites that use exactly the same code, apart from they have an uploads folder with different contents (AKA images that aren't consistent through every site) and also a config file which has a few settings like whether this is a production environment, which database to use etc.

My problem is I have 5 different versions of the back-end system that should be the same for every site.

So, cue Git. I've just started learning and now understand the basics and need to choose a workflow for my development environment. This workflow will ideally allow me to swiftly switch between one website to another (with the same back-end, different images/config file).

My thoughts on how to achieve this

My idea is to have a branch for each of the different websites. On the master branch is where the back-end code will sit and will have all commits related to the back-end code. Then, create 5 other branches which contain the unique uploads' folders and the config file for each site. Then, when I want to view a different site I just git branch site3 and all the uploads load and the correct database is selected etc.

Does this sound like the right sort of approach? I'm looking for a reliable development workflow that I can use to scale up to 50 sites that I can maintain with ease. The idea is to have all the sites feed from the same back-end, but still be visually different when I switch to the relevant site branch (so I have an accurate representation of each website).

Answer 1

It sounds like you are trying to get the site configuration into your version control system (git). This sounds like a bad idea, especially if you want 1 branch per config.

You'd be best served by only storing the source code in git, and keep the rest as configuration on the server, outside of git. Either as a config file (database credentials), site-specific templates, or where possible: in the database. Every look&feel should be decoupled from the code, and where things differ per project, make a customization hook in the config.

Alternatively, if you really want this in git, I'd suggest having per-site settings in separate directories/file, and use a simple symbolic link with the name current to point to the specific configuration directory/file.

One of the projects I worked on has two separate branches for two specific layouts, and it already turned into a maintenance nightmare a few months in. Bad idea.