My Environment

I am running JSM-1.2.60 (patched to .64) on Joomla 1.7.0 in an Apache/Unix environment with working sym-links ...etc.

My Configuration

I am setting up a MASTER site with components only (no configurations). Using a template in JMS, I am creating the first Slave which will be fully configured, then used for the creation of new slaves.

My Questions:

I wish to manage *all* site themes (/templates) from a single directory for all of the sites in this chain. I don't want them copied to each slave. However, "SL" is not an option associated with /templates under the "Folders and Files" tab in the JMS Template screen. Is it possible to share all site themes from a single location for easier management and updating?

Also under "Folders and Files" I do not see my .htaccess. When I created my first slave from the JMS template, there is no .htaccess file copied or sym-linked in the new site. Is this normal?

Joomla 1.7 appears to no longer use the /images/stories directory. When I created my first slave from the JMS template, /images/stories was created in the new slave, with /banners and /sampledata under it, even though it does not exist in the master site ... ???

--Thanks

You mentioned that you are using Apache/Unix with symbolic link but after you mentioned that the Symbolic Link is not available in the "folder and files".

So that mean that the Symbolic Link is NOT allowed.
Check the "settings" menu like presented in the video 6
www.jms2win.com/en/tutorial#jms12x-6

Perhaps that you have a problem of configuration on your master that does not accept the symbolic links.
Check the "tmp" and "logs" folder path as described in the video 4 to 7

If you don't see the ".htaccess" or other files, you have to verify that you have the permission. Perhaps the file system does not return these files when the directory is scanned.

Edwin - I believe you misunderstood. From my post above - SL is ONLY not available for /templates. It is available for all other folders and it works just fine when I create a new site. The drop-down of options next to /templates does NOT have the SL option. Is it possible to manage the templates from a single folder?

My .htaccess is set to 644 - should it be different? I uploaded the .htaccess via FTP and it belongs to me - not Apache.

Same questions apply as posted above.

Thanks!

For the "/templates" directory, when the Symbolic Link is available in your environment, you have to use the "Special Copy" that will create Symbolic Link or Physical copy depending on your environment. SL is not an action available for the "/images" and "/templates" directory because there are specific processing attached to these directories.

Oncerning the "htaccess", in general, it is better to do a copy instead of a SL
The same for the "robots.txt".