Can one root path but different domains be considered as a multi-site solution?

Question

In our project we have a single sitecore root path but the client has configured the same root path in sitedefinitions.config with 4 different domain names. Is this correct?

In the above context can the site be considered as a multi site solution? My understanding is that for a solution to be multi site you need to have multiple root paths in sitecore for example the below sitecore structure.

However we do not have two root paths but still we are using 4 different settings in our site definition. Is this correct?

Following is the way we are using site definitions in our configuration file.

<site name="www.example.org" patch:after="site[@name='modules_website']" 
targetHostName="www.example.org" hostName="www.example.org" database="web">

<site name="example.org" patch:after="site[@name='modules_website']" 
targetHostName="example.org" hostName="example.org" database="web">

<site name="www2.example.org" patch:after="site[@name='modules_website']" 
targetHostName="www2.example.org" hostName="www2.example.org"database="web">

<site name="example" patch:after="site[@name='modules_website']"        
targetHostName="beta.example.org"hostName="beta.example.org"database="web">

The difference between the four configurations is that the last three targetHostName redirect to the first one. I do not understand if this can correctly be called a multi site solution as in actual there are no multiple sites in our Sitecore instance.

Answer 1

You wrote that:

The difference between the four configurations is that the last three targetHostName redirect to the first one

So your configuration looks similar to:

<site 
    rootPath="/sitecore/content/Website1" 
    startItem="/home" 
    targetHostName="www.example.org" 
    hostName="www.example.org" ... />
<site 
    rootPath="/sitecore/content/Website1" 
    startItem="/home" 
    targetHostName="www.example.org" 
    hostName="example.org" ... />
<site 
    rootPath="/sitecore/content/Website1" 
    startItem="/home" 
    targetHostName="www.example.org" 
    hostName="www2.example.org" ... />
<site 
    rootPath="/sitecore/content/Website1" 
    startItem="/home" 
    targetHostName="www.example.org" 
    hostName="beta.example.org" ... />

In this scenario, it doesn't matter if user use www.example.org or example.org or www2.example.org or beta.example.org host name in the url in the browser, they will see exactly the same content.

And all the links generated there will link to targetHostName domain which is www.example.org;

The same can be achieved using pipes separated list of hostnames in a single site config:

<site 
    rootPath="/sitecore/content/Website1" 
    startItem="/home" 
    targetHostName="www.example.org" 
    hostName="www.example.org|example.org|www2.example.org|beta.example.org" ... />

So in fact you could say that this is a single site solution, not a multi-site. But it's just naming.