Introduction to Launching Sites via Your Hub

Launching a New Site via Your Hub.

Once you have signed up for Dollie and you've connected your Hub you're able to launch sites via your Hub. Initially these sites are launched under a temporary domain, but once you've connected your own domain, everything will be 100% white-labeled for you and your customers. So let's walk through the process.



The Launch Site Form.

Quick Launch

Visit the Launch New Site page in your Hub. The Launch New Site page was created automatically when your installed the Dollie Hub plugin so you should also see it in your Page listing in your WordPress admin.
On this Page you'll see a form to launch a new site. Start by entering the URL of your site. For example my-new-site.your-domain.com.
That's all you need to lauch a site, pretty simple huh? Press "Launch New Site" and you're done.

Advanced Options

There is also a checkbox to show the advanced options. This is useful if you want have a bit more control over the default settings of the site you're about to launch. You can fill in a username, password and site name + description. Additionally you can also assign the site directly to one of your existing customers/clients which is very useful if you're setting up a site for them.

Deploying a Site Based on a Blueprint

Blueprints are re-usable WordPress sites built by you (or your team) with a set of plugins and themes all set up and ready to go. Once you have created one it can be used in a various ways depending on your needs. Blueprints are extremely powerful and form the foundation for many of the businesses using the Dollie Platform.

Please visit our dedicated documentation for Blueprints to learn everything about Blueprints and how to use them.

Restricting Who Can Deploy Sites Based on Access Groups

Based on how you're planning to build your platform you can control who can launch sites via your Hub. For example you could only allow customers with specific access rights level to launch sites. Or if you're running an Agency that offers white-glove service you can only allow your team to launch sites on behalf of your customers. Or maybe you have something in mind that combines self-service features but without being able to access more advanced site management features.

Learn more about Access Groups here ->

Bonus Geeky Stuff - What Happens Behind The Scenes When You Deploy a New Site?

Every time you or your customer/client deploys a new site through your Dollie Hub, a sequence of events happens behind the scenes to ensure a perfectly deployed WordPress site. Your Hub sends secure API requests to our Private Cloud, which then starts the site deployment process. Here is a simplified breakdown of this process.

You go to the “Launch Site” page inside your Dollie Hub and fill in mynewsite.yourdomain.com
A secured API request is sent to the Dollie Private Cloud API layer to launch mynewsite.yourdomain.com under your partner account.
An isolated Docker container is created and configured in our Dollie Cloud infrastructure. Each site has its own dedicated environment, optimized specifically for WordPress. Not only does this maximise performance, it also protects it against bad neighbours like with so many shared hosts.
Once this process is complete our Dollie Cloud API sends a request/signal back to your Hub saying the site is ready to be used.
Your Hub can now use the same Dollie Cloud API to retrieve all of the site details, which is presented through the Site Dashboard. You are now ready to use your site!

Now every time you visit the “Site Dashboard” of your new site, the Dollie API retrieves all of the details of the WordPress installation (plugin, themes, backups available, security status) to build out the dashboard that’s used by you and your customers to manage their site.

Updated on: 27/02/2024