Thread

Hello,

I’ve been trying to transfer my site from a prior host to a new one. On the new host I successfully installed EE (1.6.9). Then I tried importing my database via this incredibly confusing article In the host’s phpMyAdmin page I imported the database, when I did things blew up.

I tried deleting EE off of the server, creating a new fresh database and reinstalling. I get gibberish that toward the end says that EE is not installed. See here:

Link removed

This whole thing has taken hours and hours and hours of my time.

Please help.

It doesn’t appear that I will be able to transfer my site if it is so much of a hassle. Are there any easier docs on this? My old host and new host do not have cPanel. I stand to loose literally several years of work.

Thanks
Pete

[Mod Edit: Link removed for security reasons]

Pychap,

Personally, I’ve never used cPanel to import a database - I just use phpMyAdmin to import.

If neither host has cPanel, are you just using PHPMyAdmin to import?

How big is your EE database? I find that when I have a reasonably sized EE database (say 10MB or less), I never have problems with importing via PHPMyAdmin… then everything just works.

It sounds like you might’ve installed a fresh copy of Expression Engine on the new host… was it the same version and build number as the one on your old host? I think that installing a newer version on the new host while transferring a database from an older version will cause problems.

Is there no possibility of just keeping your site alive on the old host while you fiddle with importing on the new host? Personally, when doing a transfer, I always keep what I have running on the old host “alive,” just in case importing to the new host doesn’t work out. Usually, the new host will give you an IP number or a temporary URL for you to work with, so while you’re setting up the new location, you don’t run into domain name conflicts with the site on the old host (on the new host, you just need change your URL variables in the EE config.php file while you’re doing this.)

Any chance your new host could help you out? As a last resort I often ask hosts to do the importing of a database.

Rob

Hi Oxygen,

Thank you for the detailed reply. In handling this mess a step at a time, the one thing I did not know that you mentioned is that my host could import the database for me. My new host is ICDSoft, they’ve been really good so far, I imagine they’ll help with this as well. I choose them specifically because of their rating on hostjury.com and their compatibility with EE.

My database is only 1.1 MB.
Yes, the EE install is the same version and build across both hosts, I have the latest for both.
Now I have an embarrassing confession that I realized after my post here: in my haste to delete EE and reinstall (after the attempt to import my database), I forgot to set permissions on the various folders & files - most likely the reason for the current php code. So I will be setting them in the next retry.

Yes, you are correct about maintaing my old site until all was done. I actually have done that but here’s the problem: I have two domains, creativepy.com and pyentcreative.com. I used creativepy.com when I exported the database, and all my settings in the Admin > General Configuration were based on creativepy.com.  So I transferred this domain to the new host, FORGOT to change my General Config. settings in the Control Panel to pyentcreative.com and now I can’t access the CP. Is their some workaround or do I have to redirect creativepy.com long enough to access the old site?

I will be traveling all day today and most likely won’t be able to get back to the re-installation till tonight or tomorrow. Will post conclusions or additional questions.

Thank you again.

pychap,

I can’t say for sure whether your new host will help you to that extent, only that mine have. If they boast EE support they should be able to do it. A small database like that, though, should be easily importable with PHPMyAdmin.

Most of the important settings related to your control panel URL, mySQL passwords, etc. can be found in the config.php file in your system folder. There’s this important one:

$conf['cp_url'] = "http://www.mysite.com/system/index.php";

.. which you should plug your new site’s Control Panel URL into.

These settings always override what you’ve put into the control panel (whenever you make changes in the control panel, it writes back to this file, too.) It prevents you from “locking yourself out” in just the situation you’re in.

Once you do that, you should be okay.

The permission settings will make a real difference though — check those too.

Rob

Hi pychap,

As Rob says you can override much of what is stored in the DB by using configuration file settings. The one Rob posted above should let you log into the CP unless you have perhaps set a specific cookie domain within your control panel. If you had done that then you can override it with:

$conf['cookie_domain'] = '';

For reference a full list of the overrides available is in the Wiki here.

Where are you with this? Have your hosts helped you import the DB so that it is available on your new domain? Don’t forget that you will also need to copy the system/config.php file from your old site to your new one and change the db_hostname, db_username, db_password and db_name values appropriately. Again, your host should be able to help with those.

Cheers

Greg

@Rob, thanks very much for helping out.

I’m back. Thank you both, Rob and Greg.

First, I just reinstalled EE on the new host and all went well (set proper permissions et all). That’s now up and running. Cool.
Secondly per Rob’s direction, changed the URL on the config.php file on my old host and I am able to get back in to the Control Panel!! Quite stoked about that.

Now what I am going to do is request the new host import the db for me and I’ll most likely attach the config.php file and have them help with that.

Will let you know. Again, thank you.

We’ll be here.

Hi,

I’ve imported the db to my new host per their instructions and I altered the config.php file per above instructions. Now, I’m getting an HTML version of my site, it looks like the CSS is not linking, see here. Further, and worse, my Control panel is not visible. I get a non-(CSS) styled login screen, when I enter my pw and un it simply goes blank. All white.

What have I done wrong? What needs to be done?

pychap,

In your sites config.php can you try and add this line and see if it brings back styles for your control panel

$conf['theme_folder_url'] = 'http://www.creativepy.com/themes/';

Next the blank page which usually indicates an error of some sort so can you edit the /system/index.php file, and change the value of

"error_reporting(0);"

to

"error_reporting(E_ALL);"

Now, I’m getting an HTML version of my site, it looks like the CSS is not linking,

The response headers for those stylesheets are coming back as text/html as opposed to text/css. Can you confirm when you are in if those template types are set to CSS

Okay, I added the themes line to config.php, no success with CP access.

Changing the error warning I get this (altered to change out my system name):

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/creativepy/www/www/system/config.php:27) in /home/creativepy/www/www/system/core/core.functions.php on line 742

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/creativepy/www/www/system/config.php:27) in /home/creativepy/www/www/systen/core/core.functions.php on line 742
  ExpressionEngine v 1.6.9

That’s before I log in. Logging in I get 8 of them, 1-7 are identical to the above, the last warning the line ends with

... on line 315

This is the code from /home/creativepy/www/www/systen/core/core.functions.php on line 742 -

setcookie($prefix.$name, $value, $expire, $path, $domain, 0);

And this is the code from line 315 -

default        : header("Location: $location");

Hope this helps.

pychap,

Regarding the errors, ensure there’s no blank lines or spaces after the closing

?>

in your config.php file. Does that help?

That did it!! The site is working, see here if you’re interested. Thank you, thank you!!

However, I’m not getting styles for my Control Panel, I see everything, I can now get in, but it looks like no styles applied. What to do there?

Finally, light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you.

Glad some of your issues are resolved.

Did you add this line:

$conf['theme_folder_url'] = 'http://www.creativepy.com/themes/';

Yes, that line was added to my cofig.php file.

Is it possible that I could provide you with admin information through email to speed this along some?

Hi pychap, this is generally a simple fix. Move your themes/cp_themes folder inside the system folder. Only move the cp_themes folder. Usually that solves any path restrictions that might cause your control panel to appear unstyled. Does that help?