Mambo Migration

[Stephen]

We recently were building  Mambo intranet/ internet sites. My HoD made the intranet site live within the school before we actually had finished working on it. Naturally I didnt want my changes to the site to show up until I was sure they were working correctly so I created a test site. However I had to migrate the intranet site to my test site before I could start developing it.



The easiest way I have found so far, and if anyone knows any way that is better please post it, is as follows.



1. download and install the component com_dbadmin - this component allows you to backup and restore your database file

    (I would recommend saving your file to your workstation in a Gzip format.)



2. Backup your site database to your workstation



3. FTP your entire site to a sub directory on your workstation



4. Remove the configuration.php file from the root directory of the site you just copied to your workstation (not your actual site), I also remove the configuration.php-dist file but I dont think it is neccessary.



5. FTP the site to the new location



6. Run your mambo administrator panel and restore the sites database to the new location



I have found that for some reasons you get silly errors for the first day but the next day everything is fine.



Note: you do of course have to have com_dbadmin installed in both mambo sites. I would recommend the first time doing this do it as a test run, then the only thing you can muck up would be the test site as you change nothing on your main site.

[casper]

Does your intranet work of an internal server? If so how do you get it integrated with the C2k system?

[Stephen]

We use the HP hosting service for the intranet and internet. Although my head of department has told me you can integrate an internal server but it has to be done by C2k for loads of cash. He was on tip of doing this in his last school.



The HP service to use can be annoying at times, particulary when you cant work from home and we would rather have a seperate web server here but we decided in the end to go for the HP choice (as at the time we got an offer of being part of the trial service).

[casper]

I didn't know HP offered this service - must look into it. I've used mambo on a number of sites and it would be perfect for an intranet.

[casper]

In fact when I can get some time I'm going to upload Mambo as the frontend to this site. The site will then contain tips and advice that have been posted in this forum. The forum will then become a sub-section of the site - if that makes sense

[Stephen]

How do you migrate your sites?

[casper]

I don't. They're all unrelated sites. Never had a reason to move to another server.

[Stephen]

on HP web Hosting look at http://www.c2kni.org.uk/schools/hosting.htm#hp



I was trying to find a copy of the details and cost for you but cant find where I put it. At the minute the Frontpage extensions are not working but they have promised they willo as soon as they can get northgate to change some directory permissions to allow Frontpage to write them.

[ballsricky]

If you install a webserver on the local side of a machine and leave it to run does this not get around having to pay c2k?



I am not sure but I can't see how you would be breaking any of their rules as its their machine thats connected to the network.

[ballsricky]

I never used mambo before and started doing a bit of reading after your post.



I have a couple of questions if you could help me out.



You mentioned that you are using mambo on both your intranet and external website, do you have to run two instances of this or how does it work?



I was sent a copy of a room booking system by a friend of mine, open source, using php and mysql.  do you know if the HP service would allow this to be run on the intranet site?



If this worked I think I could talk the bursar into spending the money.  Would mean I could set up booking for minibus, av equipment etc. instead of the current system with bits of paper being handed about.

[Stephen]

You mentioned that you are using mambo on both your intranet and external website, do you have to run two instances of this or how does it work?

With HP you control your site using Plesk. In the case where you are using both Intranet and internet you can have 2 seperate plesk accounts for the 2 seperate sites. In the Plesk console you have an applications button which allows you to install whatever extra applications HP have allowed - mambo being one of them. So in effect I have two sites on the intranet site I have installed mambo into 2 seperate areas 1. on my main what the people see page and 2. in a sub domain which I use for testing new modules and experimentation. On the internet site I have only installed mambo once as I can use the test area in my intranet site for rough work.



I was sent a copy of a room booking system by a friend of mine, open source, using php and mysql. do you know if the HP service would allow this to be run on the intranet site?

Yes you can use php and mysql, mine is using active server pages and an access database. At the moment there are 6 Site Applications :- bbclone - counter with features, 2 versions of mambo, osCommerce - online shop solution, phpBB -web forum (that should interest Casper), phpBook - simple guestbook.



If you want to check out the school site that the HoD and myself just finished (if they ever get finished) you'll find the link on my profile. We started the site at the start of January and finished it by the start of Feb. However we are of course keeping our eyes open for better modules and ideas.





It is useful to note I have set up sub domains for the UVI and LVI (or years 13 & 14) pupils individually to allow them use for their web site projects. For this to work right you do need to add virtual directories and reset the permissions for the users so the databases can be written to properly. If you get to that stage I will make out a set of notes on how to make a students subdomain (I intend doing it for myself for setting up next years lot) and will either paste the instructions to here or if I include screen shots post an addy where it can be downloaded from.

If this worked I think I could talk the bursar into spending the money. Would mean I could set up booking for minibus, av equipment etc. instead of the current system with bits of paper being handed about.