help setting up local testing server

[m3rk0rd]

This is my first time trying to set up a local testing server, and I could really use some help! I already have a live site, but now I want to do some development without screwing it up.

Here's what I've been able to do so far:

• installed Wamp Server 2.4, 32-bit, with Apache 2.4.4, PHP 5.4.16, and MySQL 5.6.12
• installed ioncube (the installer chose the version for me)
• on my live site, created backups of my home directory and sql databases
• imported my sql database on my local server (localhost) using phpmyadmin
• put a copy of my entire home directory at c:wampwwwmysite.org

That's where I get stuck.

In my browser, if i go to localhost/mysite.org/ I see "Index of /mysite.org" and this:

If I click on or type to go to localhost/mysite.org/public_html/ then i see a blank screen. Same if I go to localhost/mysite.org/public_html/forums/

If I add index.html to either of those addresses, i get an error "The requested URL /mysite.org/public_html/index.html was not found on this server."

Am I missing some critical step? Do I need to somehow install the IPS software, or was copying the site directory enough?

If it matters, my site is running IP.Content out of the root, so mysite.org/index.html is an IP.Content file, and my forums are at mysite.org/forums/

I know this is probably no-brainer stuff to many of you, but I would greatly appreciate any tips you could share. Thanks!

[Vanucci]

public_html is your root.

if your egetting a blank screen when directly going into the public_html then it sounds like maybe a databse connection issue.

Try localhost/mysite.org/forums

[Dmacleo]

blank white screen? would look towards a php error there.

really it may be easier to use free vm software like virtualbox and install same os your live site is on.

[Grumpy]

I see you are running cpanel.

First, delete everything other than public_html.

Then move everything inside public_html to your current directory. Now delete the empty public_html directory.

You can keep the dir structure if you like... but they're pretty much junk to you without cpanel.

----------------------------

I'm not running wamp, so I'm not sure where it is, but whenever something goes wrong (like the blank page), look at your error log. Maybe something like wamp/log/error.log

You can also specify where to set error logs in your php.ini.

Make sure to correct your configuration in your forums/conf_global.php to your new db connection as well as your address.

Your new address should be like http://localhost/mysite.org/ (according to you).

You can setup vhosts or change the root of your localhost so it's just http://localhost/ or similar.

[m3rk0rd]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I took Grump's advice and got rid of everything except the contents of public_html, so now my site is all at c:wampwwwmysite.org

Just to be safe, I also ran IPS's compatability checker and apparently passed everything (see attachment).

Also, after googling the problem and finding it to be a possible issue, I checked to make sure no other services were using port 80. None were.

Finally, I took a look at my conf_global.php which is now located at c:wampwwwmysite.orgforumsconf_global.php

I had not done this previously, so your suggestions that it was a database connection problem were probably accurate. I made the following changes:

$INFO['board_url'] = 'http://localhost/mysite.org/forums';
$INFO['sql_user'] = 'username';
$INFO['sql_pass'] = 'password';

where 'username' is the name of the user I created on my local installation of phpmyadmin and 'password' is the password for that user.

I restarted all services and tried again by going to localhost/mysite.org/ and localhost/mysite.org/forums/ and localhost/mysite.org/forums/admin/

All return the blank white screen.

I checked the error logs located at c:wamplogs

In access.log the last entries are:

127.0.0.1 - - [05/Apr/2014:10:25:54 -0500] "GET /mysite.org/ HTTP/1.1" 200 -

127.0.0.1 - - [05/Apr/2014:10:39:49 -0500] "GET /mysite.org/forums/ HTTP/1.1" 200 -

127.0.0.1 - - [05/Apr/2014:10:39:52 -0500] "GET /mysite.org/forums/admin/ HTTP/1.1" 200 -

In apache_error.log the last entries, starting from when I restarted all services, are:

[Sat Apr 05 10:22:47.682403 2014] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 3384:tid 556] AH00422: Parent: Received shutdown signal -- Shutting down the server.

[Sat Apr 05 10:22:49.683517 2014] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 4912:tid 416] AH00364: Child: All worker threads have exited.

[Sat Apr 05 10:22:49.706519 2014] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 3384:tid 556] AH00430: Parent: Child process 4912 exited successfully.

[Sat Apr 05 10:23:23.861472 2014] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 6172:tid 556] AH00455: Apache/2.4.4 (Win32) PHP/5.4.16 configured -- resuming normal operations

[Sat Apr 05 10:23:23.861472 2014] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 6172:tid 556] AH00456: Server built: Feb 23 2013 13:07:34

[Sat Apr 05 10:23:23.861472 2014] [core:notice] [pid 6172:tid 556] AH00094: Command line: 'c:wampbinapacheapache2.4.4binhttpd.exe -d C:/wamp/bin/apache/Apache2.4.4'

[Sat Apr 05 10:23:23.862472 2014] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 6172:tid 556] AH00418: Parent: Created child process 6628

[Sat Apr 05 10:23:24.261495 2014] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 6628:tid 416] AH00354: Child: Starting 150 worker threads.

In mysql.log, starting from when I restarted all services, are:

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use Windows interlocked functions

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: Not using CPU crc32 instructions

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 128.0M

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: Highest supported file format is Barracuda.

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: 128 rollback segment(s) are active.

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: Waiting for purge to start

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] InnoDB: 5.6.12 started; log sequence number 1626057

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] Server hostname (bind-address): '*'; port: 3306

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] IPv6 is available.

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] - '::' resolves to '::';

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] Server socket created on IP: '::'.

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events

2014-04-05 10:23:24 6196 [Note] wampmysqld: ready for connections.

Version: '5.6.12-log' socket: '' port: 3306 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

There's also a file called log_dir which doesn't show anything except log_dir when I open it in notepad.

It does seem like some kind of configuration problem, possibly to do with connecting to the database. Here is my entire conf_global.php, in case it help:

<?php
$INFO['sql_driver']			=	'mysql';
$INFO['sql_host']			=	'localhost';
$INFO['sql_database']			=	'ornithol_ipb';
$INFO['sql_user']			=	'username';
$INFO['sql_pass']			=	'password';
$INFO['sql_tbl_prefix']			=	'';
$INFO['sql_debug']			=	'0';
$INFO['sql_charset']			=	'';
$INFO['board_start']			=	'1279799114';
$INFO['installed']			=	'1';
$INFO['php_ext']			=	'php';
$INFO['safe_mode']			=	'0';
$INFO['board_url']			=	'http://localhost/mysite.org/forums';
$INFO['banned_group']			=	'5';
$INFO['admin_group']			=	'4';
$INFO['guest_group']			=	'2';
$INFO['member_group']			=	'3';
$INFO['auth_group']			=	'1';
$INFO['use_friendly_urls']			=	'1';
$INFO['_jsDebug']			=	'0';
$INFO['mysql_tbl_type']			=	'MyISAM';

define('IN_DEV', 0);

?>

The only things I changed above were the username and password and 'mysite' in the board_url

I've checked in phpmyadmin and the user i created has all privileges

I also tried using 'root' and '' for username and password, because I haven't altered the default setup on my local machine, but that didn't help.

So what should the username and password be set to? Are they for my pma user? Or is there some other username/password associated with mysql?

Thanks again for any help!

[m3rk0rd]

For anyone else who stumbles across this thread, I found an old article that would have helped me get this far at least, had I found it before i started: Installing a "localhost' test board. Most of the information still seems good.

Still doesn't solve my problem though...

[Dmacleo]

do you have nexus?

[m3rk0rd]

do you have nexus?

No.

[Dmacleo]

you turn on error reporting to see whats actually happening?

on second line of initdata just under the <php put

ini_set('display_errors',1);

to see what if any errors there are.

when done can just change it to

ini_set('display_errors',0);

to disable reporting.

if its php error it should show, may help rule that out.

[m3rk0rd]

you turn on error reporting to see whats actually happening?

on second line of initdata just under the <php put

to see what if any errors there are.

when done can just change it to

to disable reporting.

if its php error it should show, may help rule that out.

I tried that, but no errors show. Still a blank browser window. http:// localhost/ shows just fine, but http:// localhost/mysite.org/ is blank. However if I go to http://localhost/mysite.org/file-that-doesnt-exist.html I get a file not found error message.

Besides ini_set('display_errors',1); what other options can I turn on to help localize the error, and what error logs do I need to check? This is all new to me, so I really appreciate your help.

[m3rk0rd]

I just came across this topic. Could my problem be that IPS does not allow test installations for those of us with an IPS-hosted community?

[Dmacleo]

ahhh that IS the issue.

they are encrypted so someone cannot sign up for a cheap plan and then download and have full board on their own.

honestly its worth paying and having the full control of self hosted.

[m3rk0rd]

I opened a ticket and IPS staff confirmed that you have to purchase a full license to have a test install. So my problems likely have nothing to do with my setup other than that.

IPS just added a bullet to this KB article clarifying it for others who may have the same question: Development Site License Key

[m3rk0rd]

As a final note, I really don't see why IPS can't do something for us hosted communities. At the rate I pay, they get more out of me as a hosted community than they would from a license, after the first year or so. Maybe for communities who've had a hosted community for a while they could offer a test install?

[m3rk0rd]

Thank you Dmacleo, Grumpy, and Vanucci. I really appreciate you all taking the time to help me with my problem.

[Dmacleo]

no prob, glad to help.

[Kbassil]

So since you must buy a license, what's the best way to work "offline" with a local copy (where you on't affect your live site)?

[m3rk0rd]

So since you must buy a license, what's the best way to work "offline" with a local copy (where you on't affect your live site)?

Do all the things I listed in my original post. Then read the other links in this thread.

[Kbassil]

Sorry I wasn't clear on what's wrong on my end. I have read the thread multiple times, plus the links. Nothing has covered my error, and I was trying to problem solve that.

I can see my board at localhost/MySite.com/forum/

However, I can't log in, When I click the "Sign In" Link, it just sits there. Doesn't do anything.

EDIT: went straight to the admin folder for log in. seems to be working.