Howto create a "sandbox" copy of a community ?

[Dexter_X]

Hi,

For testing & development purposes I'ive tried to create a "sandbox" copy of our community. To do so, I've :

. created a second database with a copy of the "online"/production one ;

. copied all the IPS files as they were from the "online"/production one;

. modified the conf_global.php to set the new sandbox web address/subdomain and of course the new - copied - database ;

. modified the .htaccess to match the new domain into the RewriteCond rules.

Everything seems to run well separated from the "online"/production site for a moment. But, by trying to modify the general.css (or global.css ?) currently loaded look file (through the PC admin interface), the entire look dissapeared (!?) ; but that wasn't the worst : the "online"/production website was affected too !

After restoring the last valid hosted files (not de DB), I went back to my "sandbox" space to take a closer look on what hapened there. And I've found there are a lot of absolute link path (of the production website address) used in the .php, .css and .js files. I've tried a "find/sed" to replace all that "hardlinks" but once I got to the sandbox website, the "bad" absolute link paths came back into the community files (!), so I suppose they're stored in the DB and that I'm facing automatically generated files.

So, the question is : is there a way to set up those hard links to be the good ones when creating a clean copy of a community ?

Thank you in advance for your answers,

Z

 

[opentype]

You need to clear the cache after changing the conf_global paths. 

[Dexter_X]

Hi,

Thankyou for your answer !

If you mean my local cache, the observations I've made are directly on the hosted files (absolute paths). If you mean a server or some sort of an IPS/DataBase cache, can you tell me please how do I proceed ?

Thankyou,

Z

[opentype]

ACP → System → Support → Something isn’t working correctly → Continue

Proceed until it says the cache was cleared. 

[Dexter_X]

ok, thankyou, I've "cleared the cache" but still no css call for any skin, even the default ones...

[Square Wheels]

This is for 3.x, but maybe some of it still applies?

 

[Dexter_X]

Hi, 

Thank you Square Wheels, It sounds great, I'll give it a try tomorrow.

[Dexter_X]

So I tried to do something equivalent to the process described in your link, Square Wheels, some thing seems to go better, but at the end I finish always with a big system error making nothing work at all. The server/system path is wrong and I cannot find a way to change it : any suggestions ?

[Square Wheels]

Nope, sorry, I'm a pretty entry level kind of user.  I'd ask support.

[Dexter_X]

Thank you for trying ! I appreciate ! 

[Dexter_X]

Hi, 

I came back again, I'm still trying to create a sandbox copy of our community, but still unsuccessfully...  

At least now I know how to protect the original one. The copy seems to work near to properly but the css & styles are all broken and not re-generated in the cache directory as usual. Of course, I've tried to clear the cache, but nothing happens... I even use the -TESTING key to be sure there is no interference with my original key.

I feel that I'm not far from making it work, but I can't manage to find out what's still wrong...

Do you have some kind of documentation or tutorial explaining how to proceed ? I'm pretty sure I'm certainly missing something simple but essential...

Thankyou in advance for your help,

Z

[Joy Rex]

20 minutes ago, Zorro_X said:

Hi, 

I came back again, I'm still trying to create a sandbox copy of our community, but still unsuccessfully...  

At least now I know how to protect the original one. The copy seems to work near to properly but the css & styles are all broken and not re-generated in the cache directory as usual. Of course, I've tried to clear the cache, but nothing happens... I even use the -TESTING key to be sure there is no interference with my original key.

I feel that I'm not far from making it work, but I can't manage to find out what's still wrong...

Do you have some kind of documentation or tutorial explaining how to proceed ? I'm pretty sure I'm certainly missing something simple but essential...

Thankyou in advance for your help,

Z

You may need to check that the paths to the CSS files are correct for your sandbox domain - they might still be referencing the production domain.

[Dexter_X]

3 hours ago, Joy Rex said:

You may need to check that the paths to the CSS files are correct for your sandbox domain - they might still be referencing the production domain.

Thank you Joy Rex, could you please tell me where should I look for "the pasth to the CSS files", I cannot find (even with a find|grep at command line) any more references to the production domain (?)

[Dexter_X]

Hi there, I've finally succeeded creating a sandbox.

Thankyou all for your help !

[steve00]

4 hours ago, Zorro_X said:

Hi there, I've finally succeeded creating a sandbox.

Thankyou all for your help !

So what was the problem then (might help someone else who may end up with similar problem) ?

[Dexter_X]

20 hours ago, steve00 said:

So what was the problem then (might help someone else who may end up with similar problem) ?

as said by Joy Rex, there was still some remaining paths to change in the ACP. I'll create a new sandbox in a few days and I'll try to take note of all changes in order to create a tutorial : to remind me and show to my colleagues how to create a new sandbox each time it is needed. I'll share it here, but it'll take several weeks before I publish it.

[Dexter_X]

On 13/09/2017 at 11:11 AM, steve00 said:

So what was the problem then (might help someone else who may end up with similar problem) ?

Hi, as promised, I've written a tutorial explaining how I've succeeded on creating a sandbox copy : 

 

[Joy Rex]

3 hours ago, Zorro_X said:

Hi, as promised, I've written a tutorial explaining how I've succeeded on creating a sandbox copy : 

 

@Zorro_X - this is excellent, and exactly what this community needs in terms of community supported assistance! Thank you for following up with a tutorial!