Uploading Your Site to Production Server
I'm making this note to the forum because I found little existing articles regarding building your site on your local server, then moving your completed site & database to your production server. This instruction is in contrast to the WebAssist tutorial, which has you install the template to your local, then move the files up and let the wizard install your database. That certain works, but you'd be developing your site on a production server which will give your unfinished site unwanted access.
For anyone who wishes to develop their entire site on their local, then move the entire site and database to the production server, this is what I learned.
1. move all your files and folders from our local server to your production root folder
2. open up your database on your local and export your files (typically in .sql format) to a location on our HD you'll be able to easily locate.
3. via your production site's control panel, you'll want to set up a database on your production server. I use the phpmyadmin tool for this. If you're not familiar on how to do this, I'm sure your web host will have a tutorial or you can contact them directly.
4. once your database is set up, you can import the *.sql file you saved to your HD in step 2 above.
5. Once complete, log onto your production site to confirm your site is up and running
6. Check your access to your CMS under <site_url>/admin ** your user and pw will be the same as on your local server. **
A few issues I encountered
I had to request my PHP be upgraded to version 5. My host accommodated this in a matter of a few minutes with the update.
Admin Log-In Trouble: each time I entered my USER NAME & PASSWORD, my log-in page just refreshed, not allowing me access. If you encounter this, contact your host and have them check that the session.save_path is correctly set up. I believe this is located in the php.ini file. I don't profess to understand this aspect of php installation, that is why good hosting companies have technical support. :-)
The above brushes through a lot of detail that a uber new user may not understand. If that is you, I apologize this didn't go deep enough into the nuts and bolts. Just keep asking your questions on this forum and you'll eventually find your solution.
