Test Environment

[Chris Rice]

I am attempting to create a test environment in order to make some website changes/testing without affecting the production environment. Is there a good way of copying the production environment into a test environment. I installed a fresh copy of phpvms and overwrote most of the files, but doesn't seem to bring all the formatting over properly.

Thanks!

[simpilot]

When you move a copy to your local server make sure you change the site url in the loacl.config.php file as well as the database settings to connect to the local mysql. If you are using absolute links in your header for the css they would need to be changed as well.

[Chris Rice]

I did all of that and it still doesn't have everything appear properly for some reason. I was just curious if there was some kind of documentation out there explaining the process of moving a website or copying it to another location.

[stuartpb]

I did all of that and it still doesn't have everything appear properly for some reason. I was just curious if there was some kind of documentation out there explaining the process of moving a website or copying it to another location.

Any content like images will have a URL directing the browser to that file. If you have relocated the site, then all these URL's need to be changed to reflect the new location.

[Chris Rice]

I understand that. What is the best approach? Start a new environment from scratch and then copy data or not? Basically what I'm trying to do is copy the site over to a test environment so that I can test some menu changes without playing with the production site. What files should be copied over?

[stuartpb]

I understand that. What is the best approach? Start a new environment from scratch and then copy data or not? Basically what I'm trying to do is copy the site over to a test environment so that I can test some menu changes without playing with the production site. What files should be copied over?

The way I built my site was to create a sub folder on the production site, install phpVMS into that subfolder, and then work on that to create the styling. Once I'm happy, I'll move the contents over to the main public_html folder, and make the necessary changes to links and file URL's.

[Chris Rice]

Do you have to create all the pages manually in the admin center on the new site or is there a way to just copy the production pages into the test environment?

[stuartpb]

Do you have to create all the pages manually in the admin center on the new site or is there a way to just copy the production pages into the test environment?

You have to create the pages in the admin panel, and then phpVMS will create the links to these pages. What I do though is to create a page in the admin panel and then download the pages file, edit it manually, and then upload it to the production site, overwriting the one present.