Joomla(or Mambo) test site?

[Hezeel]

Trying to wrap my head around all the options for building a site around here. Up till now I've just been using the basic sitebuilder, but now I'd like to have a go at making something with Joomla. Is there a way to practice by making a website just on a local PC so I can get the hang of it before I go live over my existing site?

OR

if I have to host it up & go through cPanel etc, can I install Joomla in a subdirectory (eg www.mydomain.com/joomla/) for my test site, with no live links to it & then delete all that & move/reinstall it to the root directory when I've got the hang of it?

I've downloaded the v1.0.8 zip from www.joomla.org & extracted it, but can't see a way to install locally.

[Liam]

Hello Hezell,

the best way to test Joomla is to install it through the Fantastico in a subdirectory of you account and test it live. Your main website will not be affected and you will see how Joomla realy works and looks like on the web.

As you said you will be always able to delete the test Joomla once you finish the test. Moreover, if you are happy with the results it will be easy to move your new Joomla outlook of your website in your main directory. All you need to do is move all the files and folders from the subdirectory in the main one and make some minor editing in the configuration.php file of the Joomla. You may get help with the configuration file editting by our Support.

[Hezeel]

ok I've got my "test site" up & running in a folder I've called "mydomain.com/joomla" but at this stage it's still really messy & not ready to go over the live one yet.

I'm trying to install Coppermine & go through the integration with Coppermine, SMF & Joomla but I'm wondering what directories everything needs to be installed in, so it can all be moved over together onto the live site.

I understand the SMF forum has to be installed in the same MySQL "database" as Joomla for them to work together, does this mean I have to install it into a folder called something like "mydomain.com/joomla/smf" for it to work? (the tutorials don't go into a lot of detail)

And what about Coppermine? To be bridged properly does it also need to be installed under the joomla directory, cos Fantastico in cPanel only seems to install it in a single level directory, like "gallery" not "joomla/gallery". Or can I put it in plain "mydomain.com/gallery" bridge it now & then just change the relative links in the bridging tool once Joomla has been moved?

And now that I've gone through all that, I don't really need a forum on the site - is there a way to integrate the user logins for Coppermine & Joomla without using SMF in the middle?

Finally - for my sanity's sake, should I just wait until I've moved Joomla in the root directory for the site before I add all these other bits?

[Dyjital]

install everything as usual.

When it's come time to change things over to your new joomla site, just tell the index.html to redirect to your /joomla/ folder using some javascript or another redirect code.


simple nuf. Then you leave everything intact how it is and if you want to change back, just edit the index.html back to the old site.

Image Gallery's:
If your looking, try Community Builder and their CB Profile Gallery, you can customize that for image uploads and such so everyone has their own gallery. Coppermind would allow people to put images but you'd have to specify a lot.

am I off in left field here?

[Hezeel]

am I off in left field here?
lol no more than the rest of us ;)

I guess I was trying to find out what "normal" is for the folders when it's not in the root directory.

I do have zOOm gallery working fine on the test site, so I've got the option to just leave it with that one too...

Don't think I'll need many user galleries, but I want (some of) my members to be able to post pics into the galleries I set up.

hmmm lots to think about. thanks for the reply

[marie4jade]

You can also leave it in your subfolder and do a redirect through cPanel, instead of adding a index.htm page that redirects the user from the main site.

I used to have the extra file there, but found that it sometimes took my dial-up users a bit to get redirected to my Joomla site. Doing it via cPanel took that loop right out of it for users and it's superfast.

Hope that helps!

[Hezeel]

All you need to do is move all the files and folders from the subdirectory in the main one and make some minor editing in the configuration.php file of the Joomla. You may get help with the configuration file editting by our Support.
Thanks guys for the ideas. I'm making real headway now & I think I'd rather have the site in the root directory, rather than the /joomla subfolder. The new one's going to be heaps better than the old one ever was, so I won't need to worry about rolling back ;)


A few more questions though:
1) What parts of the configuration.php file will need editing? Is it just the web addresses that point to the old "/joomla" folder (that won't exist anymore)?

2) What about the database & all that - will it just copy over into the root directory ok?

3) & what about Fantastico in cPanel? at the moment it's recognising the current installation & giving me the option to upgrade. Will it automatically find Joomla in the new directory?


I can see I'll also have to go back through & change a few images etc that have absolute url's pointing to the joomla folder.

Re the image gallery - I'm still torn. I do like the way Coppermine works once there are a lot of images in & I'll probably only have a few select admin type users help me load up the pics into set public galleries... hmm might leave that descision until I move the site & then see if I can sort out the integration with the user/login doubling up that's currently going on.

Thanks,
Hez.

[kenny]

1) All lines that contain system paths or URLs have to be edited. These are:

$mosConfig_absolute_path = '/home/username/public_html/joomla';
$mosConfig_live_site = 'http://domain.com/joomla';
$mosConfig_cachepath = '/home/username/public_html/joomla/cache';

2) If you want to use both Joomla installations you MUST create a new database for the second one, and update the database details in configuration.php. Having 2 instances running off the same database is disastrous! If you don't need both, it is safe to delete the joomla installation you do not need, and leave the database details untouched.

3) No. Once you move the installation, you will not be able to use Fantastico to remove/upgrade it.

[Hezeel]

Thanks Kenny - that was all the lines I could see in the config, but wanted to be sure :D

2) If you want to use both Joomla installations you MUST create a new database for the second one.... Having 2 instances running off the same database is disastrous!...

What will happen if I have the 2 installations running parrallel for a couple of hours, with a redirect in cPanel to the original install (still in my joomla folder) while I update the configuation.php, test photo links etc on the new install before deleting the redirect & the original Joomla folder/install? i.e. only one site should be "public accessable" at a time.

At this stage there are no registered users other than me, so no one will attempt to log in while they are duplicated. Is that the only concern?

If all else fails, I guess the site can just go down for an hour or 2 till I get it all sorted...

Thanks heaps,
Hez.

[kenny]

You can run both installations from the same database for a while, however, you should not add/modify content, install, upgrade or remove components, mambots, modules or templates or apply any other changes on the site -- this will surely lead to discrepancies and complications.

[Hezeel]

Only changes I was thinking about making were the configuration.php file & sorting out a few photo links....

But it probably won't take me long to delete the old site, move the directory over & modify the config file to at least get it back up again. Sounds like having only the one copy might be safest - might save me from going off with half the information & making a rather large mess of it all anyway :D

Thanks for the help.

[Hezeel]

OK all done & no it wasn't hard & didn't take the site down for very long at all :D

For general information - another couple of things I had to do:
- In "File Manager" in cPanel I had to change permissions for the configuration.php file so I could make the changes we were talking about above (it was read only), then change the permissions back to "755" when I was finished.
- Also had to change the permissions on the empty ".htaccess" file in the root directory from "644" (which had it totally locked so I couldn't edit, move or delete it) so I could bring the ".htaccess" file over from my joomla folder.

Oh & a side note - I made a backup folder & put a copy of all the files & folders from my original (non-Joomla) site from the root directory in there before I started deleting stuff & moving Joomla in ;)

[mel_akey]

Oh & a side note - I made a backup folder & put a copy of all the files & folders from my original (non-Joomla) site from the root directory in there before I started deleting stuff & moving Joomla in ;)

I would back up everything anytime you are working on the site... take it from me! I was messing with my forum site... trying to install an adsense MOD and OOOOOPS... I deleted the wrong thing and poof my whole site was gone! :( I'm not kidding when I say I was hysterical... I had to start all over!
Back up is super important if you are new at using these CMS's!