How to move your Joomla web site to our servers.

Copying the files with FTP

One method of copying the files from one Joomla! installation to another is to use standard desktop FTP software to first download all of the files comprising your Web site from their location on your Web server, then upload these files to the location of the new Joomla! installation. Depending on where you're placing the copy of your Joomla! site, the new location could be a different directory on the same Web server, or it could be a new location on a completely different Web server.

It is important to maintain the same directory structure for all of your folders and files as you move them from one location to another. Fortunately, desktop FTP software will handle this automatically as you upload and download sets of files and folders. (Your FTP software should contain Help documentation which explains FTP and how to use the FTP software interface.)

Note that after you move the files from one location to another, you may still need to edit Joomla! configuration files to get your copy of Joomla! working at the new location; you may also need to change settings for aspects of your Web server to get the copy of your Joomla! site working.

In rare instances, a file may become corrupted during an FTP transfer, where only part of the file is successfully transmitted. If you encounter strange or unexpected errors with your new Joomla! installation after you copy over the files, you may want to try re-uploading your files in case of corruption during transfer.

Download files from server to your computer

1. Use FTP software (e.g. FileZilla) to connect to the server
2. Select the directory you want to download (mostly /public_html/ or /htdocs/)
3. Right click + select files/folder to download, or drag + drop the folder from the "Remote site" view to the "Local site" view
4. The downloading of the remote files will start
5. After you've downloaded the files, check the "Failed transfers" to see if there weren't any errors

Upload files from your computer to a server

1. Make sure that configuration.php has the right settings for the server (especially: localhost, database, database user, database password, log_path, tmp_path)
2. Use FTP software (e.g. FileZilla) to connect to the server
3. Select the directory you want to upload, that is /public_html/
4. Right click + select files/folder to upload, or drag + drop the folder from the "Local site" view to the "Remote site" view
5. The uploading of the local files to the remote server will start
6. After you've uploaded the files, check the "Failed transfers" to see if there weren't any errors

Copying the database with phpMyAdmin

The phpMyAdmin tool can be used to export and import a database, providing a simple way to duplicate a copy of a database using a different name on our servers.

Exporting a copy of the database to your computer

1. Login to the database that you want to duplicate using phpMyAdmin
2. Click the database name on the left-hand side of the page.
3. Select the Export tab
4. Select the Save as file option
5. Click Go

You'll then be prompted to save the database file on your personal computer.

Importing the copy into a new database

You'll first need to create the new, empty database on your server using the account control panel. It needs to be UTF8 (utf8_generic_ci). After the new database has been created:

1. Login to the new database using phpMyAdmin
2. Click the database name on the left-hand side of the page
3. Select the Import tab
4. Click the Browse button under "File to import", then select the database file from your computer
5. Click Go to import the database

Hint: If you see a "No database selected" error, it's probably because you forgot to first click on the database name in the left-hand column.

Changing configuration.php

In order to get Joomla to work on the new server, you should make the necessary changes in configuration.php to reflect the new server settings. You should check/edit the following to

        var $host = 'localhost'; // usually "localhost". 
        var $user = 'the_db_username';
        var $db = 'the_databasename';
        var $password = 'the_db_password';
        var $live_site = ''; // is usually empty.

Joomla will work, even if $log_path and $tmp_path are wrong, though you won't be able to install extensions. Login into the back-end of your new Joomla site.

In Joomla 1.5 goto: Help > System Info > Directory Permissions. Look at the bottom 4 rows:

Cache Directory /var/www/example.com/cache/ Writable
Cache Directory /var/www/example.com/administrator/cache/ Writable
Log Directory ($log_path) /var/www/some/other/folder/example.com/logs/ Unwritable
Temp Directory ($tmp_path) /var/www/some/other/folder/example.com/ Unwritable

If the $log_path and $tmp_path are "Unwritable", you'll need to change the values in configuration.php.

Use the values of the "Cache Directory" without the "/cache/" part and change $log_path and $tmp_path to

   var $log_path = '/var/www/example.com/logs';
   var $tmp_path = '/var/www/example.com/tmp';

If the Directory Permissions show that $log_path and $tmp_path are "Writable", then you should be able to install extensions.

Now the last step. Go to your domain registrar and change the dns record.

Replace the old name servers with the new dns we have send you.

You are done!

Your Joomla site will be visible on your new web hosting account with us, as soon as the domain is propagated in about 24 hours.