New important suggestions

MagnuM

MagnuM

Verified User
Joined
Oct 24, 2003
Messages
102
Location
Romania
I am using DirectAdmin from 1 week, and I am very pleased with the easy of use and speed of this interface.

Here are some new suggestions that I'd like you to see, and I try to order them in a way that fit my needs:

1. PostgreSQL support, exactly like MySQL
2. The posibillity to modify each emailbox quota, and the maximum size of the email message
3. The ability to modify the email address, where the output of the cronjobs will be send
4. The posibillity to redirect a subdomain to another URL address
5. The ability to make subdomains available with www in front of them or not.

Thanks, and keep up the good work.
 
MagnuM said:
1. PostgreSQL support, exactly like MySQL
Click to expand...

Im thinking of getting a howto up for installing phpPgAdmin, along with postgre if its not already there! Keep a look our for it :D

MagnuM said:
2. The posibillity to modify each emailbox quota, and the maximum size of the email message
Click to expand...

The mailbox quota has been discussed many times here on the forums, try a search for the information. I think DA might be looking into intergrating the feature into the panel, if not, i sure hope they consider it soon. :D

MagnuM said:
4. The posibillity to redirect a subdomain to another URL address
Click to expand...

Since all DA licenses are unlimited domains which i like, you could just use a meta redirect on the index.html, or alternatively use php which i would guess is more browser compliant.

MagnuM said:
5. The ability to make subdomains available with www in front of them or not.
Click to expand...

Im assuming DA creates subdomains by modifying the sites apache config file, and creating the dns zones under the main domains dns system. I would think the problem could easily be fixed by having 2 A records, one with the www, one without. If thats all there is to it, maybe John / Mark can consider adding the extra A record upon subdomain creation. :)

A few quick fixes there although new features are being all the time and im sure John and Mark will take your suggestions into full consideration.

Chris
 
Redirect of subdomains should be done by DNS

I agree with MagnuM about point four. Redirecting of subdomains must be done by DNS, not by the user putting some code in the directory of the subdomain (the folder is by the way entierly needless if u want to redirect to a page outside your site, if it should be done by the DNS).

The different solutions that i've found at the different forums are all with scripting by the user. For example in javascript, PHP or
.htaccess. This are methods that u don't want to use, because it can be implemented in the DNS very easy. Most of the other adminpanels(even older versions) do support this feature for long time now.

The reason that I need redirection of subdomeins is very easy:

I've got some free,fast webhosting on different servers that i want to use with an easy access method. A subdomain is ideal for this purposes. I also want to link other sites that i've developed bij a subdomain, without creating a needless folder on the server of the hosting provider. BTW i didn't find a way to link a subdomain to another folder that the one sugested by the subdomain. This makes the flexibility lower, which isn't nescessary.

Hopefully will some of those very standard features be implemented very soon.

Greetings Zuijberknaf
 
Im fairly sure with DirectAdmin, upon subdomain creation the folders are automatically made - whether you want to use them or next is your choice. Not exactly sure what you mean redirection should be done with DNS? with most panels im sure redirection is done using apache, .htaccess or manually using php / meta tags.


The only panel based around the unix system that offers redirection (that i can think of) would be Plesk. Unfortunately im unsure of how that does it, although i will check it out when i get some spare time :D

Chris
 
It's not too hard, you just need a VHost like this in Apache:

<VirtualHost ip.ip.ip.ip>
ServerName goelsewhere.you.com

Redirect / http://freebingo.cjb.net/sweet/
</VirtualHost>

All other ways of doing redirects are quite stupid IMHO. E.g. a META tag redirect wastes everyone's time.

Of course if all you want is an alias for another domain (not a redirect to a specific folder within that domain) you can add a CNAME to the DNS.

As to whether/how you can do this in DA that's another question. I guess you can add your own custom bit to the Apache config as above.
 
chuckd said:
It's not too hard, you just need a VHost like this in Apache:

<VirtualHost ip.ip.ip.ip>
ServerName goelsewhere.you.com

Redirect / http://freebingo.cjb.net/sweet/
</VirtualHost>

All other ways of doing redirects are quite stupid IMHO. E.g. a META tag redirect wastes everyone's time.
Click to expand...

why? adding the VirtualHost is probably the best way, although i cant see a problem with meta or php redirects, for a start, site owners can do it, not just people who have access to shell (root / admin). Also, the meta / php / .htaccess ways uses around equal or even less than a virtualhost setup. Finally, .htaccess / php / meta should all be just as quick as the virtualhost setup.

The only time i would consider using a Virtualhost for a redirecter domain is when the control panel intergrates it and the user has *control* over the redirect.n Until then id recommend either php / meta / .htaccess all the way. :)

Chris
 
Sure if you want to hack up a redirect then a php/.htaccess redirect can be fine (although I think META redirects are always a bad choice as they are much slower than any of the other methods and less direct). But in the context of a web host wanting to offer redirects to their customers, redirects inside the Apache config are the only way to go.

There are a couple of issues you raised: namely speed & ease of implementation.

Speed: There is a difference between all of these options, even if it's only slight between some. Actually META is the only redirect method that is too slow. php/.htaccess should be fine. I don't think they're good just because they're ugly. The various options from slowest to fastest:

META redirects are definitely slower because they involve the following extra steps: (1) web server has to read the index.html off disk, (2) web server sends this file in response to the client request, (3) browser reads contents of HTML file, parsing the META tag, then initiates the redirects - users will see the (redirect) page for a moment until the whole thing has been read and the browser works out to do the redirect.

PHP redirects are alright speed wise - no page content is actually sent by the PHP script, only the Location: blah header.

.htaccess redirects are almost exactly the same as the Apache config method I advocated. Only difference is the web server has to read the .htaccess file from disk while it keeps the config in memory all the time.

And inside config file redirects are the fastest...

Ease of use: As someone above pointed out, it's really dumb to have to create a directory structure and files for a user just to redirect a subdomain elsewhere. It's not a huge hassle obviously though so if you want to go for it.

In the end it doesn't matter much either way for your own use, but a DA based implementation should use proper Apache based redirects.

(Also I should have said that it's generally better to use
Redirect permanent / http://newlocation/
If it's a permanent redirection, as most are. This lets Google now for sure that this old URL is an alias for the new canonical one.)
 
chuckd said:
In the end it doesn't matter much either way for your own use, but a DA based implementation should use proper Apache based redirects.
Click to expand...

Spot on!

That is exactly what i was getting across - *DA Based implementation would allow the user *control* as mentioned in my above post. Without having the feature in the control panel, or some kind of script to allow the user control over the virtualhost, the best way would be .htaccess / php / meta with the primary reason being control.

Chris
 
Cool so I think we agree :) . I've just always been a bit frustrated at the lack of use of proper HTTP redirects for moved sites etc. It lets search engines pick up on things straight away, it's much cleaner for the user, etc.

Ditto for cleaning up the [www.]domain.com mess where people use both with and without the www. A proper redirect from www.domain -> domain (or the other way around if you prefer) makes things easier for everyone.
 
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