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Question: I installed the shopping cart on my test website. Then I customized the design, added products, defined taxes and configured other settings. Now my test store is all ready to go live. How do I transfer it to my working site?
Answer:
Before we go any further, let’s define some terms.
A test domain or server is where your customized store is hosted now.
A live domain or server is where you want to transfer your store to go in production mode.
There are two ways you can transfer your store from a test server to a live server.
Option one:
| 1. | Download the necessary content from the test server to your local computer, including: |
| 1. | Download the following folders and files: |
| • | Avactis-downloads – this folder contains the files that customers download when they purchase E-Goods. You can skip this if you don’t have any E-goods. |
| • | Avactis-images – contains your product images. |
| • | Avactis-templates – contains the storefront templates. |
| • | Avactis-uploads – the files your customers have sent you when placing their orders (if any). |
| • | storefront-files – other storefront files (images, JS scripts, style sheets, etc.). |
| • | all *.php files from the root folder, excluding init.php. This file is created at the time of installation and is linked with the particular server it is installed on. Therefore, the test server and the live server will have their own unique init.php files. |
| a. | Create an SQL dump of the shopping cart database on the test server and download it to your computer or server. There are several ways how to create an SQL dump: |
| • | Use the phpMyAdmin application, which is usually installed on most hosting accounts. Consult your hosting provider for details. |
| • | Use other tools available from your hosting provider for creating backup and database dumps. Consult your hosting provider for details. |
| 2. | After all the necessary files and database dump are downloaded to your local machine or server, start transferring the software to your live server. |
| a. | Install the default shopping cart software to the live server from the installation package. You can download the installation package here: http://www.Avactis.com/support.php
Select User Type "I'm an existing customer and I want a fresh version", and enter all the required data. The download link will be sent to your e-mail address.
IMPORTANT! Make sure that the downloaded installation package is the same version as the one installed on your test server. |
| b. | Take all of the folders and files downloaded to your local computer or server from the test server and upload them to your live server, overwriting the newly installed folders and files. As a result, the following should be overwritten on the live server: |
| • | Avactis-downloads – this folder contains the files that customers download when they purchase E-Goods. You can skip this if you don’t have any E-goods. |
| • | Avactis-images – contains your product images. |
| • | Avactis-templates – contains the storefront templates. |
| • | Avactis-uploads – the files your customers have sent you when placing their orders (if any). |
| • | storefront-files – other storefront files (images, JS scripts, style sheets, etc.).
IMPORTANT! Do not overwrite the file init.php on the live server using the test server copy. This file contains an absolute path to the shopping cart software and is unique.
This operation overwrites the design files, product images and other files on the live server. |
| c. | On the live server, import the database from the test server SQL dump saved on your computer or server. |
| d. | Clear the cache in the Admin Area (go to Admin >> Clear Cache). |
This completes the transfer to the live server.
Option two (possible if both servers are *nix systems and you have SSH access – ask your ISP):
| 2. | Download the backup file via Admin Area >> Admin >> Backup/Restore. |
| 3. | Upload the backup file to the live server. |
| 4. | Decompress the tar.gz file. |
| 5. | Manually modify the following files: |
| • | In init.php, change the include path to 'Avactis-system/store.php'. |
| • | In Avactis-layouts/storefront-layout.ini, change the values of SiteURL and SitePath. |
| • | In Avactis-system/config.php, change the values of DB_SERVER, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME, and HTTP_URL. Do not change the value of DB_TABLE_PREFIX – it should be kept as is. |
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