uploaded site but cannot find the cms

Hello,

I am seeking some basic help.

I am building my site on Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, with Site Sculptor. Windows XP.
I do not have a testing server, so my site is uploaded direct to my server.
I will not be setting up a testing server.
The server website database should be sufficient to handle this program

The site was created using Site Sculptor.
Most of my site has been created over the last few months.
Allowing CMS to be part of my site and files saved as php files.

Now mostly complete, I have uploaded my site to my server. The complete upload went satisfactorily as far as I can tell. I did not receive any error messages.

I simply used the upload/put files that came with CS3.

On my first visit to my site (on my local site CS3 copy on my computer) following upload, I cannot find the the CMS windows and the prompts as per your instructional video.

I am not sure where I should be looking. My live website address simply still shows a former holding page I created a few months ago.

I am hesitant to click Site Sculptor buttons in CS3, as I do not want everything overwritten and my work lost.

Trusting there is a simple solution to this.

Thank you in anticipation for your guidance.

With regards
Alan

Hi Alan,

When you say that you are testing the site on your local site on your computer, - if you do not have a testing server installed, the CMS pages (which are dynamic and require a php/mySql database environment to render correctly) will not be able to be compiled and you will not see them, or the functionality they provide, and you will not be able to test your site locally. Even if you have managed to set up a remote connection to a database on your hosting provider's server, the pages will still not render on your local machine.

Setting up a testing server (are you Windows or Mac?) is fairly straight forward, and you would get considerable support from the folks on this forum if you required it.

Check out this post You will find links that should be useful to you.

In my experience, I have set up a self-install testing-server on a new machine, installed Site Sculptor, and uploaded a basic working CMS site in just under 45 minutes. It would certainly be worth your while if you are planning ongoing development of dynamic sites!

Regards,

Hello nelio,

Thank you for your advice and time.

Also for your confidence in my abilities, however this has been my experience;

I have tried three times to set up a testing server and spent many many hours without any success. Sorry it seems beyond me, as IT is not my area of expertise and I work alone. I am on a PC running XP. Unfortunately it is a busy time of year for business here and so I am afraid I do not want to spend any more time on that route.

My needs are simple...

I simply want to get the Site Sculptor site working live on my server. Then I can alter and improve the site when it is functioning live.

I can access php/mySQl database via C panel, as long as I do not have to learn a whole lot of extra coding.

Do I understand from your help that I will not be able to run fully functioning Site Sculptor with CMS simply from my CS3 on my computer as a live site?

Perhaps I am confused!

Is there some way I can complete the installation process and see my site live?

Thanks for your input
With regards
Alan

Hello Alan,

First of all, - apologies - I think I misunderstood your post, I understood you to be saying that you wanted to run the site from your local machine.

Having re-read your posts, (somewhat more carefully) I understand what it is that you are asking, I hope.

If you have created all the pages in Dreamweaver, and uploaded them to your remote hosted server, you should indeed be able to see the CMS screens - by browsing to your remote site - in order to go through the checks and set up the database (entering the information for your MySql database that you will have created for Site Sculptor to use - via your control panel), select an admin login and password, and then get directed to your CMS Admin pages.

That should all happen automatically when you browse to your remote site.

My guess as to why this doesn't seem to be happening, is that the holding page you created some time ago is preventing your server from looking for the index.php which it would normally select as the 'starting' page, as it is seeing your holding page (index.htm or index.html or default.html) and is serving that as your 'home' page.

To check, please could you first browse to your site, and when your holding page shows up, type 'index.php' after the address of your site, so it would be in the form of: http://www.yoursite.com/index.php

If you now are able to see the CMS set up screens, then you will be good to go. You will need to delete the old holding page you created at some point, - probably best to do this before going through the set up.

I am sorry I misunderstood your original post, and wasted some time.

Hello neilo,

Thank you for getting back to me and for your assistance.

You have managed to be a great help with your answers.

I tested my site going online to index.php and was relieved to find all the CMS inplace.

The holding page index file was also the problem as you surmised. By going into Cpanel I was able to remove it and upload the current index page for my full site.

Today I have been able to progress with setting up the MySql database requirments. I can
now see my site online and have access to the CMS on my computer. I am now editing my site accordingly as 'work in progress'

Thank you again for your help.
With regards
Alan

You're welcome, - glad to hear you got it sorted.