Thread

I have searched and can’t seem to find any results that address the issue that I am having.

I am attempting to set up EE on a server here in the office for use as a dev machine.  the history is that we had work done and deployed on our public facing server by a third party and then took over the maintenance of the site.

This meant that any changes were done to the live site.  This hasn’t been a problem until now.

At this point we are redesigning the navigation and that will affect every page we have (and quite a few that are generated from data into templates).  I don’t really want to do this on the live site, so am attempting to set up a local server on the network in-house.

The IT person that installed EE the first time (on the public facing server) installed it exactly the same way on the internal server, and it appears to work just fine except that the paths seem a bit different, and the home page is simply blank.  This really isn’t a problem, though, unless it points to an incorrect installation. (question #1 - Does it? - point to an incorrect installation? Or is the installation ok?) The CP appears to show up just fine. I think I need to install a couple plug-ins that we’re using, but otherwise, it seems fine.

The next step, so I thought, was to export the data from the live site’s DB and import it to the dev site’s DB ... all seems to have gone fine - no errors - and yet, when trying to access the site, it’s still a blank page.  I go to the CP and look for the imported templates via the template manager, and there are none!  Obviously, I have something wrong.  I’ve checked the connection to the DB with dbtest.php and it runs just fine.

Is there a documented, standard procedure that I’ve missed someplace for creating a dev server?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

JavaMan,

You would use nearly the same checklist as moving a server as for creating a dev server.
Are you saving templates as files?
Have you updated your template basepath?

Hmmmm ... I’ll have to check - those are all great ideas for me to take a look at.

The only one that I can really answer this early in the morning is the one about saving the templates - I believe most are saved as files, but I know there are a few that are saved in the DB.

While I’m thinking of it - one thing that I’d like to see as a feature (perhaps it exists and I don’t know it) is a template “rename” feature.  I’m thinking that way I could “rotate” the file I’m working on in and out of the production system if need be. But I’m guessing “Feature Requests” go into a different forum category!

I shall check the other items you’ve suggested, John, and let you know what I find out.

Thanks!

Hi JavaMan,

Glad John Henry was able to point you in the right direction here. And yes, we do have a Feature Request forum. You should definitely post you idea there!

If there’s anything else we can do, let us know!