Need advice on new cart, Hostgator reseller server, and no domain name

[beyre]

I have a customer who currently has a Volusion cart ... everything is over at Volusion: cart, site, domain, etc.

I am going to be building him a new site on my Hostgator reseller server. I am wanting to build the complete site so all we have to do is transfer the domain to another registrar and be done with it.

However, the only way to view a site on Hostgator that does not have a domain name attached is: http://IPaddress/~cPanelusername

I recently went that route for a pure HTML/CSS small website but quickly found none of the styling was rendered. It looked like a 1994 website. This leads me to believe that I won't be able to design a zencart site in that environment.

So, how can I handle this?

I guess I can always buy a plain domain name for testing purposes and create the site there. But when I go to move everything over, what changes will I have to make to have the cart recognize the real domain name at that time - just the 2 configure.php files?

[stevesh]

I guess I can always buy a plain domain name for testing purposes and create the site there. But when I go to move everything over, what changes will I have to make to have the cart recognize the real domain name at that time - just the 2 configure.php files?

That's the way I'd do it, since I need test domains as a reseller, anyway, though I don't know why the IP address route wouldn't work.

[beyre]

Case in point - the plain HTML/CSS website I started to create:

http://174.121.38.190/~goldinc/

And here is how that is supposed to look (mind you, I am still building it, so there are still things to do):

http://www.godsgracegifts.com/

I'm building it on a domain I own but have not been using.

FYI - this website is not the one I'll be doing the zencart for. But just an example of how the styling is not showing, so I am hesitant on building the zencart when I can't see the design.

[stevesh]

Looking at your stylesheet, there's a lot of HTML in there, but no CSS.

If I remove everything from the stylesheet, and then add a rule (ex: .solidblockmenu {font-size:2em;} ) the styling shows up, so the problem may be there, rather than with the IP thing.

[beyre]

I'm sorry, but I am not understanding you.

How can there be HTML in the sitestyle.css ???????

I uploaded the exact same files to the godsgracegifts.com and all came out as normal. Both are on the same server.

Ya know ... I went and did a view source on the http://174.121.38.190/~goldinc/ page just to make sure the .css was referenced (as it should since it's working on the other page) and noticed that it's referencing the real domain name ... it just occurred to me that I should substitution the temp IP name and that should do it. Give me a moment to do that and see if that solves that problem.

EDIT: OK .... never mind then. THAT worked! LOL

Ok, so that means I CAN create the new zencart site on my server.
Will I need to do any special editing of any zencart files until we change the nameservers to point to my server?

[stevesh]

I should have seen that.

Just the two configure.php files. Search the Tutorials/FAQ section for move .

[beyre]

Thanks for much for helping out with a non-ZC issue, but which also helped me with a ZC issue.

Always learn something new each day.