The term multisite refers to running multiple Web sites from a single ATG instance, with the sites sharing certain resources. For example, consider a clothing manufacturer that has two brands, a bargain brand and a luxury brand, and wants to run separate sites for the two brands.

In the simplest case, these sites may share only user profiles, so a customer registered on one site is also registered on the other. In more complex implementations, the sites may share shopping carts, so a customer can include items from both sites in a single order. The bargain-brand site might also include upsell recommendations for (and links to) items on the luxury brand site, or the sites might share gift lists.

This section provides an overview of multisite concepts and ATG’s implementation of multisite functionality. Its intended audience consists of business users, developers, and system administrators who are designing and developing multisite applications.

The chapters in this section include:

Note that most of the topics discussed in this overview are covered in greater depth in the other sections of this document.