How do I Test Mods & Hacks without Messing up my Live Site?

[Lynne]

Originally Posted by NashChristian

Thanks again for all the help Lynne! I'm working on the .htpasswd file now!

One question does come to mind, with the .htaccess protected directory (my entire test site), how do I request help from others on public forums such as this one and vbadvanced? I have a lot of situations where I post a link to demonstrate the problem I am encountering, for whoever reads and responds to my post.

Is there a work-around for this with .htaccess, or do I need to temporarily disable it in times like this, or what do most admins to to facilitate this?

Thanks!
Jeff

Hmmm, I've never had to do that. I'd be interested in a response from a vB Staff member on this. I would think it would be OK to temporarily disable the htaccess just for someone to see what is going on. You just want to make sure that the test forums are suddenly being 'used' as a forum. Either temporarily disable the htaccess, or PM the person who wants to look at the site with the username/password to get into your test site.

Originally Posted by NashChristian

Hello Lynne! I think that I understand what you are saying here, but I'm unsure of the syntax. I use vBadvanced, so I have many links (for style graphics, etc...) that I hardcode to my root folder (or have to provide the full URL to). Are you saying that instead of using http://mysite.com I can use "$vboptions[bburl]/" and that will direct it toward my root folder for that website?

Thanks again for all your help!
Jeff

If the links don't matter for testing purposes, then I'd just leave them alone. But, if "$vboptions[bburl]" is the same as "http://mysite.com", then I would replace them just because it does allow you to move to a test site and have the links still work. I like to make my stuff as generic as possible so I don't have to change anything when I move it to the real site.



I see a few people have said they don't even use a test site. I'd love to hear about how they upgrade their sites without first doing things on a test site. My site would have been down for a month if I didn't use a test site to rewrite all my mods when I upgraded from 3.0.12 to 3.6.8! Sure, I found some plug-n-play mods here to replace others I had installed, but I had to totally rewrite the mods I have made on my own for my site. That took quite some effort and a LOT of testing (and added a few gray hairs)!

--------------- Added [DATE]1203358309[/DATE] at [TIME]1203358309[/TIME] ---------------

Jeff, are you sure all the files are uploaded (the ones your error messages say it can't find)? Also, make sure the permissions are OK - the ones you reference above "following check boxes for each category: Read/Write/Execute." See what they were marked as on your live site and make sure they are the same on your test site.

[NashChristian]

Hello Lynne,

For me it stands to reason that a test site is the only way to go, without excessive downtime. Now I'm just trying to learn the most painless way of doing that.

I'll double check the files, but I FTP coppied the entire site and it said that it coppied fine. I'll manually check though.

Thanks again!
Jeff

--------------- Added [DATE]1203359446[/DATE] at [TIME]1203359446[/TIME] ---------------

Dang! FileZilla let me down! A bunch of files are missing on my test site.

I will have to download and re-upload again.

(I probably should have thought of that one on my own... I automatically figured it was a configuration issue.)

Thanks for the help Lynne!
Jeff

--------------- Added [DATE]1203364612[/DATE] at [TIME]1203364612[/TIME] ---------------

Hello again.

I deleted and completely re-uploaded my test site and all contents. I've compared directories, and according to FileZilla, they are identical.

Now when I try to log into my AdminCP, it all appears to work fine, with one small exception: after I type in my password, and it gives me the "Thankyou for Logging In" splash screen, it goes directly back to the log in screen, as opposed to entering the Control Panel.

I've tried this with the Moderator CP and it is doing the same thing.

Anybody got any ideas what the heck is going on here???

Thanks for any assistance!
Jeff

[bazzup]

heres what i done download this http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...ckage_id=48193 its basically a desktop server for local testing purposes copy all your site over to it just as good as testing on your live site

[NashChristian]

Ok, so I tried this with Firefox instead of IE (which I primarily use) and it actually DID log into my Control Panel, but STILL a problem (I thought that maybe it was a cache issue, but apparently not):

Although the path in my browser told me that I was in the Control Panel for my TEST site:

http://test.nashvillechristian.com/f...incp/index.php

all of the changes that I made actually occured on my LIVE site as well.

http://nashvillechristian.com/forums/admincp/index.php

So I went back and forth between the two control panes (live and test site) and any changes which I made on the one, would show on the other. So for some reason, I'm obviously logging into my live control panel, though it says it is on my test site. I have no idea in the world why!

To add insult to injury, I discovered that my .htaccess protected directory was extending beyond my subdomain directory and for some reason including my primary domain directory, though they are completely separate and unrelated folders. I have several other domains/sites in the same shared hosting root directory as these two folders are in, however none of my other sites were affected by the password protection.

I've had to temporarily disable the .htaccess password protection of both directories until I can figure out what is going on, and how to only apply it to the test folder.

I'm lost!

Can anyone help???

Thanks.
Jeff

--------------- Added [DATE]1203366838[/DATE] at [TIME]1203366838[/TIME] ---------------

I'm finally getting desperate enough to read the vB users manual!

I'm seeing that vB recommends performing backups through the AdminCP > VBulletin Options > Backup/Restore Settings and INDIVIDUALLY backing up each product including vB, then restoring them in a simular fashion.

Is this what I NEED to do, or can this be done via FTP? FTP seems like a much quicker and simpler method IF it will work correctly, but so far I've not had any luck.

Please advise.

Thanks!
Jeff

--------------- Added [DATE]1203367652[/DATE] at [TIME]1203367652[/TIME] ---------------

These are itty-bitty xml files that seem to include standard settings and values, but don't appear to include any hacks or phrases that I've modified, etc...

Surely this isn't the best way to do this. FTP must be the way to go, but why won't this work for me???

Please help!
Jeff

--------------- Added [DATE]1203368660[/DATE] at [TIME]1203368660[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by bazzup

heres what i done download this http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...ckage_id=48193 its basically a desktop server for local testing purposes copy all your site over to it just as good as testing on your live site

Hello Bazzup,

Thanks for the feedback.

Is it easier to use a local test site than one online? Do you just copy the entire site via FTP to your local machine? After you download that server package, are you ready to start working on your site right away, or do you have to do something special to configure your site for your local machine? (Change paths, etc... ?)

I'm also wondering if the programs in this server download package will continually run in the background on my machine (taking up resources) or just launch when I'm working on my test site?

Thanks again for the help!
Jeff

[bazzup]

hi jeff,

I'll quote these instructions from another site.

There is Nothing like working on your site and trying out the latest tricks or making a layout change and having the whole thing just come crashing down around you. The dreaded "page not found" or pages being rendered wrongly can be costly. Not only in time but in visitors that have tried to view your site, only to see its gone now! We have all been there at some point in time and know its pain. 1st impresions are important and chances are once they attempt to visit your website, and its down- or looks all wierd, they wont be back. Lets try to avoid that by setting up a test server.

Usually setting up servers is a little more complex on the windows OS and cross platform problems begin to appear. This is because most web servers use Apache running on Linux or Unix. XP/ME/98 all use a diff format then the *nix Operating Systems (OS). Therefore most of the time it was best to have a dedicated pc or seperate partition running linux and apache. Making the simple desire to have a test server, a complex problem with a steep learning curve. Well that time has passed.

With Uniform server, its so simple that if you can setup a forum or run a CMS like joomla you CAN run a test server using Uniform. Its so easy and believe this, there is nothing to install. You can even fit it on a flash drive, or a cd and run it from there.

Step 1->
The first thing to do is download the latest version from here. You want the most recent version (right now it is 3.3) so download either the .exe or the .zip if you prefer zip files. The .exe will just extract the files for you on its own. The download is only 5.8mb so its really small for a fully functional server.

Step 2->
Once downloaded go to the location you saved the file and double click to start the extraction. It will ask where you want it to extract the files to. Choose your desktop or somewhere else that you can find it easily (if you downloaded the .zip file then use winzip, winrar or similar to extract the files).

Step 3->
Once extracted the files will be in a folder named "Uniform Sever". Thats it! There is no installation at all. It runs right from that folder so you can put it anywhere on your hdd. It will emulate a new hard drive W: as your website drive when its running. You can move this "Uniform Server" folder to a cdrw, flash drive any portable media even and take your test site with you! Great for site backups too.

Now that you have the folder (actually the server) lets set somthing up once to see how it works.

Open the Uniform Server folder now. Inside you will find 1 folder and 3 files.
"Server_Start.bat" will start apache and everything needed for the server just by clicking it.
"Stop.bat" will shut the server down and all programs its using (mySQL, php, apache etc,).
"Disk Start.vbs" you wont do anything with so ignore that file.
"diskw" is the folder for the emulated hard drive w that the uniform server uses. This is where all your website files are saved.

So its really as simple as clicking Server_start to start it up and Stop.bat to shut it all down.

O.K. now your wondering "where do all my site files go then? On vistapages I put them under my www folder so where do they go here?"

Open the folder named diskw. Now THIS should look familiar. If you use a FTP program or the cpanel file manager youve seen these folders before. Open the folder named www. Youll see a few files here. The only one you need is the .htaccess file! The other three are the files used for the default site http://localhost/. You can delete "favicon.icon" "index.php" and the "images" folder if you want to. Now its just like the www folder on vistapages. Anything named index on the homepage will be the site loaded when going to http://localhost/

So if you have a folder say named "album" on your vistapages site, you would have one in your test server aswell under www folder. To then open that folder in a browser its also exactly the same http://yoursitename.com/albums/ becomes http://localhost/albums
Its the same file structure in everything you do so no confusing changes aside from the domain name becoming localhost on your test site.


Now that the file structure is explained lets move onto getting it up and running. So lets get it started. Double click Server_start.bat Youll see a black box popup then diapear in a flash, this is the .bat launching all the "stuff" the server needs. Now your browser will automatically open to the address http://localhost/apanel/

"what is apanel?"
Think of apanel as Uniform Servers version of Cpanel we are used to here at vistapages. apanel is where you control your server and the services it runs. By default everything you need for basic websites is started.

If you have a CMS, Forum or any data base (DB) driven software then there is one more thing to start. If you closed the browser earlier when it opened just go there now. Open your browser (Internet explorer for instance) and put http://localhost/apanel/ in the address bar. Click go. Now your in the apenl. On the left of apanel youll see a column you can scroll down. Up at the top left where it says Server Start click the 3rd link under it Run MySQL
This will start MySQL for those DB driven sites. If you look further down that left column under tools youll see the all familiar phpMyAdmin. Here you can easily insert/update/copy tables, run querys, you name it. Its a full featured phpMyAdmin.

On your live site, open phpMyAdmin, choose the DB you want to use. once that opens select the export tab. Now choose .sql and save as file. Save this to your desktop.

Open Uniform servers phpMyadmin. Create a Data Base (DB) with same name as your live sites DB. Now you have a test DB but no data in it. In phpMyAdmin on the left side under databases: select the db name you just created. It will open that db, now at top you see tabs, these let you do diff things with the currently selected data base. Click the SQL tab. In here you want to either enter SQL as text or in our case just under that area that looks like a text box you see "OR location of teh text file. Click the "browse" button there and point to the file you downloaded earlier from your live site. Now simply click "go" under it. You now have a clone of you database thats online. Neat huh.

Next Uniform server guides will tell you how to setup a domain name on the uniform server, use redirects, how to access your test server from other networked pcs on your lan by editing .htaccess, and adding security by chaning the default username and passes. I hope this guide helps some in over coming the intimidation of setting up their very own test server.

its a bit outdated this as the post i quoted it from is a cople of years old but its very easy to setup and use

regards

bazz

[Lynne]

Jeff, did you make sure to change your includes/config.php file to point to the test database and not your live database?

[NashChristian]

Lynne,

Actually I didn't remember where to find the Config.php file, until you just told me, in the includes folder. Now I have gone ahead and implemented that, and double checked the settings. Now, thankfully, I am no longer pulling the data from my LIVE site on my TEST site, however, instead I am getting a slew of database errors:

Database error in vBulletin :

Invalid SQL:

SELECT *
FROM NCdatastore
WHERE title IN ('','options','bitfields','attachmentcache','forum cache','usergroupcache','stylecache','languagecach e','products','pluginlist','cron','profilefield',' maxloggedin','acpstats','mailqueue','pluginlistadm in');

MySQL Error : Table 'db235309784.NCdatastore' doesn't exist Error Number : 1146
Date : Monday, February 18th 2008 @ 05:35:37 PM
Script : http://test.nashvillechristian.com/f...incp/index.php
Referrer :
IP Address : 69.180.197.225
Username :
Classname : vb_database

After getting this message, I double checked my database settings in the Config file, and they are correct. I STILL haven't imported my database data from the LIVE site, as I'm unsure how to do this. I thought that I should do it through the AdminCP, however with the current database errors, its not allowing me to access my AdminCP for my test site.

Am I supposed to go into phpMyAdmin through my server control panel to first import this data?

How should I proceed?

Thanks again for all the help!!!
Jeff

(I feel like we are getting CLOSER!)

[Lynne]

Jeff, if you aren't using a copy of your live database, exactly what database are you using for your test site? You need to use a populated database or you will get errors such as "table doesn't exist"

[NashChristian]

I setup a new database through the same ISP (1&1). It just doesn't have any data in it yet. I thought that the order of events was to create the database, path it, and import my data from a backup of my live site.

I already have the backup of my data from my live site, now how should I go about importing that into my new TEST database?

Thanks!
Jeff

--------------- Added [DATE]1203379139[/DATE] at [TIME]1203379139[/TIME] ---------------

I'm guessing that this is the answer to my question: Restoring the Database via phpMyAdmin.

I'm currently trying to do this, but having problems. I'm going to contact my ISP for support.

I would still be interested in hearing people's reasons for prefering either online or local Test sites vrs. the other.

Bazzup, thanks for the info on Uniform Server. After I get this work online (if I can), I'm going to look into that for local presentations of the software. It definately appears to be a simple and low load solution!

Thanks again for everyones help!
Jeff

[Lynne]

Originally Posted by NashChristian

I setup a new database through the same ISP (1&1). It just doesn't have any data in it yet. I thought that the order of events was to create the database, path it, and import my data from a backup of my live site.

I already have the backup of my data from my live site, now how should I go about importing that into my new TEST database?

Thanks!
Jeff

Yes, you should now go import a database and then run the upgrade script located in your install folder. But, what I was saying is that you tried to hit the index.php page and were mentioning errors but of course you will get errors because it is trying to get data from tables that don't exist.

Did you backup the live database through ssh? you should have done a mysqldump doing a call like: "mysqldump --opt -Q -uUSERNAME -p DATABASENAME > /PATH/TO/DUMP.SQL" where USERNAME is the mysql server username from your config.php file and DATABASENAME is the name of your live site database from the live server config.php file. It should ask for a password, also the same from the config.php file. Then to import it you would do something like: "mysql -uUSERNAME ?p TESTDATABASENAME < /PATH/TO/DUMP.SQL" again with only this time the name of the database is NOT the live site database name, but the TEST SITE database name (from the TEST SITE config.php file). It probably has the same username and password, I would guess.