Going live
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I am fairly new to concrete5 though I have successfully created and installed one custom-themed site without any problems. I am now getting ready to go live with my second site and have had some serious problems and would like some advice prior to going live.
I had the beta site working beautifully on a BlueHost temporary IP address (what they give you for development until you are ready to go live). As soon as I pointed the DNS to it, the edit bar went missing throughout the site, and generally it became a mess. Prior to the DNS change, I had followed the recommendations in the Moving a Site tutorials (update the site.php, turn off pretty URLs, etc).
After it was broken, I then pointed the DNS back to the client's old hosting company in order to regroup and troubleshoot the problems.
I contacted the hosting company but eventually ended up deleting and re-installing the entire CMS and recreating it by importing the data, theme, etc. Now I have it working again but am nervous about going through that whole experience again. But I need to go live with it asap.
This website does have some javascript on it. Should I disable it all until after going live?
Does anyone have advice for how to make this beta site go live smoothly once I point the DNS to it?
Thanks,
-Sherri
I had the beta site working beautifully on a BlueHost temporary IP address (what they give you for development until you are ready to go live). As soon as I pointed the DNS to it, the edit bar went missing throughout the site, and generally it became a mess. Prior to the DNS change, I had followed the recommendations in the Moving a Site tutorials (update the site.php, turn off pretty URLs, etc).
After it was broken, I then pointed the DNS back to the client's old hosting company in order to regroup and troubleshoot the problems.
I contacted the hosting company but eventually ended up deleting and re-installing the entire CMS and recreating it by importing the data, theme, etc. Now I have it working again but am nervous about going through that whole experience again. But I need to go live with it asap.
This website does have some javascript on it. Should I disable it all until after going live?
Does anyone have advice for how to make this beta site go live smoothly once I point the DNS to it?
Thanks,
-Sherri
It's possible it was just a cache issue. If it does it again, try clearing the cache.
Thanks for the reply. I cleared the cache about a thousand times, well, at least twenty or so, in order to not pull out my hair. Then I gave up and ended up re-created it, though now have it in two places, on the root and also in a sub-directory in case I have to go through the painful process again.
I did think it was cache-related though did not get any help from the tech support at the hosting company as none of them knew anything about concrete5.
I did think it was cache-related though did not get any help from the tech support at the hosting company as none of them knew anything about concrete5.
Couple of ideas:
1. The base URL in config/site.php didn't get changed to match the DNS change.
2. Some theme PHP or javascript files were using full URL's or incorrect paths and broke when you switched the DNS.
I'm not sure though, usually going from development to production is fairly seamless. One thing I do frequently is change the hosts file on my computer so I can preview exactly how the site will function after the DNS change. Then you can fix any problems you find without the added pressure of the site being down.
1. The base URL in config/site.php didn't get changed to match the DNS change.
2. Some theme PHP or javascript files were using full URL's or incorrect paths and broke when you switched the DNS.
I'm not sure though, usually going from development to production is fairly seamless. One thing I do frequently is change the hosts file on my computer so I can preview exactly how the site will function after the DNS change. Then you can fix any problems you find without the added pressure of the site being down.
I thought the base url was correct. This is what I had (though their actual domain name is not this one)
I am thinking perhaps your second suggestion, though I used the wherever a reference was needed for the base url. The site does have a google RSS feed which could be it, but if it worked fine until the DNS was changed, I am not sure how javascript would affect it. I don't disagree, I just don't understand what it would be doing and what I could do to prevent it.
I like your idea of changing the hosts file on your computer in order to simulate the live site though I have never done it. I am on a mac and will have to research how to do that.
Thanks.
I am thinking perhaps your second suggestion, though I used the
<?php echo DIR_REL?>
I like your idea of changing the hosts file on your computer in order to simulate the live site though I have never done it. I am on a mac and will have to research how to do that.
Thanks.
I'm not sure if this was the problem or not, but if C5 is installed in the root directory, I think DIR_REL is supposed to be an empty string, rather than '/'.
Actually, you're right. I had figured that out and fixed it on the server copy. I copied the local code in my previous post by mistake. That was my original. But it didn't help. Though, by then, perhaps it was already in the cache. I'm going to try to understand more about how concrete5 handles caching since it seems to be part of most recommendations for fixing any problems or moving a site, etc.
My guess is that the problems I encountered were due to either caching or javascript, but I am not sure which. I like the idea of simulating the live host environment if I can figure out how to do that.
There are so many people with similar questions about missing edit bars, I'd like to be able to solve this and possibly help someone else.
My guess is that the problems I encountered were due to either caching or javascript, but I am not sure which. I like the idea of simulating the live host environment if I can figure out how to do that.
There are so many people with similar questions about missing edit bars, I'd like to be able to solve this and possibly help someone else.
Well, the site is finally live:http://mybaysidepeds.com/
I believe the solution was to:
1. install the static version of the old site on the root of the beta server (so that the site will never appear to be down)
2. (re-)install Concrete5 in a sub-folder on this server and make sure everything works fine
3. change the DNS to point to this server (thereby changing it from a Bluehost IP address and subfolder URL to the real one)
follow the instructions to the letter on this:http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/developers/how-to-mo...
Then, it finally worked.
I believe the solution was to:
1. install the static version of the old site on the root of the beta server (so that the site will never appear to be down)
2. (re-)install Concrete5 in a sub-folder on this server and make sure everything works fine
3. change the DNS to point to this server (thereby changing it from a Bluehost IP address and subfolder URL to the real one)
follow the instructions to the letter on this:http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/developers/how-to-mo...
Then, it finally worked.
