Copying over a website...

[rainbow_pixie_star]

Hi,
I have a fully working site which I am copying over to another webdomain so that I can just easily edit it without doing a full install then having to copy the other files bit by bit anyway which would take ages.

Will this work?

If so, do any of the files have my admin name in the code that will need to be changed to my new admin name in order for it to all work. If so and it is just a few files, do you know whaich ones i need to go into or is it just the admin folder name?

Thank you
A

[mc12345678]

If your current site has been built and modified using ZC best practices, then really only information in two files will need to be modified: includes/configure.php and admin/includes/configure.php for the software to work, then when backing up and restoring the database, there are things in the configuration menu within the admin to modify. My store, email, etc. Then perhaps information in the payment modules area (paypal?).

But there is a FAQ about moving to a different server, which ideally is about keeping everything. The same about the contents of the store, just somewhere else...

[rainbow_pixie_star]

Cheers, will give that a try.

Thanks
A

[rainbow_pixie_star]

Hi,
Just realised, dont I have to change anyhting that says home/(host login name)/public_html/...?
I went into includes/configure and I could not find any sign of my admin name in there to change.

Have i missed something cos i am starting to think this might not be as easy as I thought it might be

Would it work if I installed zencart and then tried copy everyhting accross except these two files you mentioned?

Sorry I have absolutely no idea what to do. Just spent 2 hour on chat with my web host who basically just mearly completely messed all my files um which I have had to spend all evening putting right.

Thanks
A

[PatClay]

Do you have a test server you can copy it to to test? This can be as simple as installing apache, php & mysql on your computer, it doesn't have to be powerful (I had it on my netbook for a long time).

It removes a lot of the pressure about buggering things up. Oh, and do a backup first!

But no, you should be able to copy everything from the old domain to the new one, change the two configure.php files, copy the database and you are done. In theory at least.

The configure.php files give the location of your store on the server - '/home/user/public_html' or whatever.

It might be worth testing that www.yourdomain.com' is working first - just put a simple index.html page to test. If it displays as expected, go ahead with zc.

Your admin name is stores in the database, once zc is installed, you can update it through the admin panel.

[rainbow_pixie_star]

Ah ok cool,
Just need to check a couple of things with you then...
- When you name your admin (the name you give so that you can log in to your admin ...mywebsite.co.uk/myadmin) am I creating this when I am changing the names in the config files. WHat i mean is that as i have not pre installed zencart to then make my own admin name and link, is this what is created then when i change the config files?
- In the 2 config files i cant find my admin name, on either, do you know waht line of text they are in as I have looked and searched and cannot find them.
- "Your admin name is stores in the database, once zc is installed, you can update it through the admin panel."
I did not pre install zencart as from what I understood, it was fine to just copy accross, change files and it should be ok.

My web host, when adding a new domain to my account puts my original site under public html, then there is a folder in there that relates to my new site which is where I am putting all my files.
This is what they have told me to do and still that doesnt make sense to me. If you ask me, the whole thing sounds like a giant mess!

Thanks
A

[rainbow_pixie_star]

Sorry, one more thing...

So in one of the config files it says...
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://mysite.co.uk');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://mysite.co.uk');
define('HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER', 'http://mysite.co.uk');
define('HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER', 'https://mysite.co.uk

Do these links need changing to my new sites name also? Or shal I leave them?

I have just tried to go to the admin which would be www.mysite2/adminname2, the link changes to mysite1/admin name1. coming up with adminname1 is understandable as I have not changed it yet but the site changes to mysite1 so I should also be changing where it needs to be done to www.mysite2 ?

Thanks
A

[mc12345678]

If your ZC was installed/upgraded to 1.5.1 or higher, your admin directory is not/should not exist in the admin/includes/configure.php file... It is "auto-sensing". The issue comes with knowing your main site's direct folder path to populate: DIR_FS_ related constants.

As to your HTTP_SERVER related entries, that all depends on how you want to present your store. If it has a new domain name available, then yes you want to change those entries to match your new domain name. Otherwise if your new "store" will always be referenced from your existing domain name, then things are a little different.

As far as the admin folder name itself, don't make it admin and now I would say not to make it anything you have publicly posted. In fact, should make it as convoluted as you would a strong password.

The other thing not fully discussed is the database. If you copy over the configure.php files as is and don't change the database reference information, any changes. You make before creating a new database will reflect in both stores... Just be careful.

[rainbow_pixie_star]

Hi,
I have not pre installed zencart.
Is it just going to be easier but more time consuming to just install zencart and try to either move things accross or manually do as much as I can and just go from there?

I think I might be being too adventurous moving it accross and changing all the important stuff. Sorry, not very technical so it is a bit of a struggle to know fully what i am doing.

Thanks
A

[mc12345678]

Not sure what you mean by not having ZC pre-installed as it appears from the discussion that you have it installed in one place and want to duplicate to another... But no matter.

Yes, the easiest would be: goto the main page of this website (https://www.zen-cart.com), download a vanilla copy of the ZC version you want to duplicate (not discussed yet), upload the contents of the zip file to your new directory. Go into phpmyadmin or similar database utility and create a new database with a user and password, take note of all of those things. Look in. Your old store's include/configure.php for DB_PREFIX, take note of the contents. Then through the new ZC site, access zc_admin install to that new database do not add the demo product using the contents of DB_PREFIX for your new database's prefix. If it was '' then don't enter anything for the database prefix while installing.

Then copy all of your files from your old site to your new site except for includes/configure.php, admin/includes/configure.php and any files in includes/local and admin/includes/local. Do not copy over the .htaccess file that may exist in your original store's root directory.

Backup your old sites database, drop the tables in your new database and import your old database to your new database.

There are FAQs to cover just about every step of this...