Karl Steltenpohl Development

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1) KSD Logo “Square”

2) KSD Logo (for use on light or white background)

3) KSD Logo (for use on dark or black background)

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I recently had to move an osCommerce website to a new server. It was quite a messy transition, so I wrote a guide to make it easier for everyone. Hire us to do it for $160.

Difficulty:
Moderate, somewhat technical, advanced for someone who isn’t familiar in the LAMP environment.

Requirements:

• Know how to FTP, and have FTP Login Information
• Familiarity with SQL, Database Login Information
• Your New Hosting or a New Server with PHP and SQL
• Know your Absolute Hosing Path  ex. /home/content/y/o/u/yourabslutepath/html
• Some knowledge of PHP, SQL, and Linux Servers

Files Edited In This Tutorial:

• osCommerce/catalog/includes/configure.php
• osCommerce/catalog/admin/includes/configure.php
• osCommerce/catalog/ includes/functions/sessions.php
  
• osCommerce/catalog/admin/includes/functions/sessions.php
• .htaccess
• osCommerce/catalog/.htaccess
• osCommerce/catalog/admin/.htaccess
• index.html
  

1) Copy Your Website Files

FTP to your current website root and copy your entire website. The root is usually your starting directory, or the top most directory, or called something like public_html/. Make sure you copy your entire website.

2) Export and Import Your Database

Login to your database manager, usually phpmyadmin. Click on your database, and select export. Export all of the tables in the database to an sql text file. You should remove the very top portion of code in the exported text where the database is created ex. CREATE DATABASE yourdatabase. It is unnecessary since you usually need to create a new database and user manually on your new server. Once your new database is created on the new server, select sql or import. Then copy the sql text from the export you just did into the textfield.  Your database connection information replaces the old connection information in the catalog/includes/configure.php, and the catalog/admin/includes/configure.php files.

3) Change the Website Redirect

If your URL is different make sure you replace the old URL with the new one in the meta redirect of the root index.htm file, ex. URL=http://www.yournewurlhere/osCommerce/catalog/.

4) .htaccess File Configurations

If your URL is different you need to replace it with the new one in the .htaccess files. Be very careful not to change anything except the URL, ex. www.yourwebsite.com. Change these files:

• .htaccess
• osCommerce/catalog/.htaccess
  
• osCommerce/catalog/admin/.htaccess

5) Check Register Globals

One of the first errors people get is easily corrected by placing a file named php.ini in the root directory of the new server. The following code must be placed in the file, register_globals = ON. Godaddy servers require that the file be named php5.ini. You may want to check with your hosting provider if there are any requirements or restrictions regarding the php.ini file on your server.

6) Replace Configuration Settings

Replace all of the old configuration settings with the new server’s URL, Absolute Hosting Path, and Database Connection Information, in these files (your URL may be the same):

• osCommerce/catalog/includes/configure.php
• osCommerce/catalog/admin/includes/configure.php

7) Administration Passwords

Depending upon the original configuration, your administration passwords may not work.  To fix the issue change the admin/.htaccess file. Make sure it is pointing to the correct passwd file for the osCommerce/catalog/admin directory. Make sure the password you are using is in the passwd file. It is easy if you can locate your old passwd file and copy it to the correct location on your new server.

8) Session, Cookie, and Header Errors

Session and Header errors sometimes occur depending upon your original configurataion. You may need to recreate a directory called phpsession in the root of the new site, and then replace the session_save_path with the absolute hosting path and your new phpsession directory.

9) SSL Errors or Long Load Times

If you do not have an SSL set up yet on the new server you can prevent a lot of errors by disabling the SSL connection. Start by making sure your URL paths in the configure files are not pointed to https:// in both of the configure.php files. Next turn off SSL in both of the configure.php files, define(’ENABLE_SSL’, false); define(’ENABLE_SSL_CATALOG’, false); .

Additional Help…

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, or need any assistance let us know.

- Karl Steltenpohl

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We believe that clear communication and planning are the most important parts of any development project. To increase our proficiency in both of those areas KSD has just launched a project management application available to our clients.

http://karlsteltenpohldevelopment.com/projectpier-0.8.0.3

Many different project management software was considered, in the end we decided that Project Pier was the best choice.

The lead developer or designer on a project can now interact with anyone else involved in the project. Most importantly the client [you] can track the status of To-Do lists and keep an even closer eye on the progression of your project.