The ideal approach is to develop on a development system and upload to the live server.

At the very least, you'll want to test your ideas and concepts on a development system before deploying them live. There are always quirks.

In order to develop, you'll need to setup a system that mimics your web host. Some folks, who prefer to develop on Windows, will setup a WAMP server. And, the quickest route to this today is using Microsoft's WebMatrix, which configures your box and has the ability to install Concrete5 with one press of a button.

WebMatrix, I believe, works if you're developing a site from scratch. However, I've found it fragile and ultimately unworkable trying to import a large C5 site into it.

Alternatively, and this is my approach, is to dedicate a system or a virtual server to a LAMP setup. Centos -- a Redhat clone -- is used by about 75% of all web hosts, has a great deal of documentation available for it, and has a GUI which addresses a lot (but not all) of the system administrative tasks necessary for web development. There's a learning curve, if you're not familiar with Linux. On the other hand, using this approach your environment will mimic precisely the environment of your website. Thus, you can test the precise impact of various changes made in areas that are distinctive to Linux.

So, your development environment is essentially the environment of your website. Of course, that's where all the pieces come together.

The pieces will be developed outside of that and incorporated. If you're new to web development, it may be of benefit to purchase a ready-made theme from the marketplace. That can minimize the need for other web/design software such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks.

Of course, for greatest flexibility you'll want to develop familiarity with those packages.

I don't use Dreamweaver personally. Some folks on the forum do use that for design and you could direct questions if you choose that route.

I tend to use Illustrator for vector graphics, Photoshop for photos/raster graphics. But, the lion's share of work is done in Fireworks. This does work roughly comparable, in a sense, to Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver develops the full functionality for websites. Fireworks is a lighter weight tool that focuses on the graphic elements alone and assumes that the environment you're working in will provide the full web functionality.

HTH

I just looked at the webmatrix...I'm not seeing a concrete5 link at all there. Did they remove it?

I just looked also, in vain, to find an English version of Concrete5 in the Windows Web App Gallery.

I installed in last summer.

Perhaps it's removed temporarily while they test the latest version?

Unfortunately, that is by far the easiest way to deploy C5 on a Windows box. You might ask in the forums about WAMP setups and if anyone has any recommendations -- that can get a bit complex.

Thank you!

Kristal James
Sent from iPhone

Transferring your site is basically a 2 step process -- copying your installation program files at the operating system level, and copying your database files through Concrete5's dashboard or phpMyAdmin.

The following is a link to C5's standard documentation on migrating a site:
http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/installation/moving_a_site...

There are issues on case sensitive table names when migrating from Windows to Linux. The following discussion identifies those and an approach:
http://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/installation/site-migrati...

Thank you so much for your help both of you. It sounds like I need to play around a little more with all this information. I am sure I will figure it out shortly. Thank you.

Yes, after surveying the landscape, jumping in is the next step.

If I had any advice, I'd simply say not to take it too seriously. Work on a machine dedicated to the task, if possible. Don't build anything mission critical to begin with. Make backups. Be ready to wipe everything clean and start over at a moment's notice.

Documentation exists, but is incomplete. To be a skilled developer in the area, you'll need to build your own knowledgebase through trial and error.

All the best!

Thank you. I really don't want to be a developer. I truly just want to edit my own site....I guess I have to learn this the hard way since my background is definitely not in this at all:). Thank you all for your help. I appreciate it.

My addon Backup Voodoo can sort out everything you need to do to create a zipped up clone of a site, including integration with the case sensitivity migration addon to sort out windows lowercase table names.

http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/backup-voodoo/...

Using backup voodoo, you can create a zipped clone of your site - files and database. You then need to load the zip file to another server, unzip it, edit config/site.php to point to the new database, import the database dump and off you go.

Of all the rest of the info that you've gained on the forum, being able to make a backup of a site is by far the most important. Second in importance is installing it and getting it up and running.

Very true. Have you had to use a backup copy before?

Kristal James
Sent from iPhone

I often restore backups during development, sometimes to always start a test sequence at a fixed setup. Sometimes to repair something I inadvertently broke.

I also regularly use backups to clone a site, to move it or to make a copy I can experiment with. I have only once needed a backup to revert a failed upgrade. I try to test upgrades thoroughly on a clone and get all the errors solved before doing it on the live site.

Even if it were not for the above, a backup is like an insurance policy: "I am a good driver, so why do I need motor insurance?" ;)

Thank you. This is very helpful!

Kristal James
Sent from iPhone

Rather than creating a site on your desktop, your hosting company likely allows multiple websites.

So, you could easily go through the process of setting a development site up in another folder and just work from there.

That's a great idea too. Thank you everybody. So, if I do that, would I just upload conceete5 directly to my web hosting?

Kristal James
Sent from iPhone

You'd want to create a separate subfolder, underneath the root of your current website. Then, you can simply address it through your normal domain -- wwww.mymainsite/mytestsite -- that's where your test install of "mytestsite" would be located.

You'd want to go through the same process of installing C5 that you did for your website, except locating it in the test subfolder.

That may be a one touch install, or you may need to download C5, save the zip, unzip it, rename the top level folder to the test folder name, and then install -- following the C5 directions.