How do you (re)develop an exisiting live site?
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- Robert D. Wagers
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- Full-Time Cancer Fighter!
- I hope I made sense and was helpful.... ??? ;D
- "Everyone has to get knocked-down every once-in-a-while, otherwise you'll never learn how to get-back-up!
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A quote attributed to my Grandpa Wagers
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- Matthew
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I think that the question is how to merge the "new" data back into the production database.
The workflow should look like this:
1. Create a working copy of the site and database using any of the techniques enumerated above.
2. Develop the new site, until you are happy with it.
3. Note differences between old and new site with regards to module locations, etc.
4. Take the current site offline (it will only be offline during the transfer - also, I would NOT use the Joomla offline function for this, as those files will be changed during the process .htaccess, or something similar is the best way to go)
5. Copy all of the site files from the "new" site to the production environment.
6. Update config.php (connect the new design to the original database) and make sure to double check all module settings, etc.
7. Put site back online.
This will work just fine, if the only thing that you are doing is a template update (templates can simply be dropped into the templates folder). If you are going to overhaul components and/or menus, then you will need to follow a slightly different workflow:
1. Create a working copy of the site and database using any of the techniques enumerated above.
2. Develop the new site, until you are happy with it.
3. Make a note of the database tables that are being updated by USER activity (forums, etc.)
4. Take the current site offline (it will only be offline during the transfer - also, I would NOT use the Joomla offline function for this, as those files will be changed during the process .htaccess, or something similar is the best way to go)
5. Copy all of the site files from the "new" site to the production environment.
6. Update config.php (connecting to the NEW database for the new site) and make sure to double check all module settings, etc.
7. Manually copy the tables identified in step 3 from the old DB to the new DB.
8. Put the site back online.
In either case, make sure that everything is backed up so that you can roll back if anything goes wrong. Also, try to do the cutover in the wee hours (or whenever analytics indicates that you get the least amount of traffic) - this will keep you effective downtime to a minimum. - www.gofftech.com Web Design
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- Robert D. Wagers
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- Full-Time Cancer Fighter!
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Cheers Matthew
- "Everyone has to get knocked-down every once-in-a-while, otherwise you'll never learn how to get-back-up!
"
A quote attributed to my Grandpa Wagers
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- David York
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Oh yes! Thank you all so much. I felt kind of silly thinking that I should have been able to figure this out. Anyways, I hope it will help out anyone else going through the same thing.
Matthew, your first work flow fits my needs most appropriately as I have updated and kept components, extensions, etc. that I intend to keep using. Where I kept getting hung up was the database part in preparing to go live with the dev site. You answered it well with:6. Update config.php (connect the new design to the original database) and make sure to double check all module settings, etc.
I just didn't understand it to be that simple.
Thank you all again! Now, I can finally get rolling with Dimensions and the RocketWerx special edition variants!
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- Matthew
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David York wrote:
Oh yes! Thank you all so much. I felt kind of silly thinking that I should have been able to figure this out. Anyways, I hope it will help out anyone else going through the same thing.
Matthew, your first work flow fits my needs most appropriately as I have updated and kept components, extensions, etc. that I intend to keep using. Where I kept getting hung up was the database part in preparing to go live with the dev site. You answered it well with:6. Update config.php (connect the new design to the original database) and make sure to double check all module settings, etc.
I just didn't understand it to be that simple.
Thank you all again! Now, I can finally get rolling with Dimensions and the RocketWerx special edition variants!
It pretty much is. After getting the module locations and publishing all set, you'll want to go through the site and double check everything.
The most common problems that will show up:
1. file permissions might need tweaking depending on how you do the site transfer
2. graphics from your template customization might become broken if you used absolute links instead of relative links - www.gofftech.com Web Design
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- The Wingman
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I don't know if this will help, but I use JoomPack - it is a free component on joomla.org extensions. I use it to copy or move my website to another hosting (that was a life saver for me). I also developed a new version of my site (as you are talking about doing) within the site itself...then when I was ready I joompacked the original deleted it after I made sure it was packed right (never can be too safe) then I deleted the original and copied the new site into its place. Then after making sure the new one worked - I removed the new site subfolder and deleted the data base.
It is a lot easier than what I probably typed above...JOOMPACK ROCKS.
Hope that helps.
Here is link - extensions.joomla.org/component/option,c...k_id,1606/Itemid,35/
William - "You can learn a lot from a dummy. So, pay attention to yourself." Quote by me.
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- GollumX
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William the Artist wrote:
...JOOMPACK ROCKS.
!!! - Say no to Internet Explorer 6.
twitter.com/mark_up
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- The Wingman
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GollumX wrote:
William the Artist wrote:...JOOMPACK ROCKS.
!!!
Sorry GollumX - I am referring to an extension that has made working with Joomla a lot easier. I have experienced only good things with it...how about this - it has saved me over 300 man hours to date when working with Joomla.
Again, if you noticed in the previous post I included the link to JoomPack. I respect your feedback and comments (your comments and post have been key in some of my decisions of what direction to go with a site - and I wish I could be half as good as you - your sites rock!!! That means your sites are goooood). So, if there is something I am unaware of with regards to Joompack - please let me know. I am still a newbie at website design and joomla.
William - "You can learn a lot from a dummy. So, pay attention to yourself." Quote by me.
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- Franck
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I have for some big websites a clone installed in another domain name. I regularly update files and DB in the development site. My robot.txt is configurated to stop Search Engines; I don't want duplicated content on the web
In the development site I can work as I want. All upgrades of components and new joomla version are tested first in the dev site. When I make some changes in the design I just copy the new files and install in my live site.
I some cases, I can redirect temporally the main domain to the dev site when I need to make maintenance for few hours.
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