Quick Drupal question

[MrsPWN]

My website is a Drupal one and the person that made it/maintained it isn't available anymore so I am going to try and do "stuff" to it. As a precaution I want to create a totally duplicate site, so when I scre up, all is not lost, is this possible at all?

Not entirely sure what I want to do but I am having some signwriting/banners made so before I attract more customers I want to overhaul it

 

[iksol]

Yes, that's a good approach. Best to make changes on a test website, and when you're happy it works and does what you want, you can then transfer it across.

I usually do this on my PC using xampp & Drupal.

Or you may want to use a free webhost temporarily - e.g. http://www.000webhost.com/

 

[RX Host]

Best thing to do is just download a copy of your public directory via ftp to backup all your files.

Then log in to the control panel for your site and make a backup of the database.

Should you screw anything up you can always restore the database and upload the files you downloaded and it'll be like nothing happened.

Most hosts also take regular backups of your site (you should ask them if they do and if so, how often).

If you want to set up a seperate "test" site, you can always copy your drupal files (from the root of your public folder on your hosting account) into a sub folder. e.g. yourdomain.com/testsite

I don't remember off the top of my head where drupal stores its database settings but you'll want to:

1) copy the current database and use it to make a new one (your host will most likely provide cPanel + phpMyAdmin to make this easy, if not ask them how best to do it)
2) in the testsite directory edit the drupal config files to use the new database.

This way any changes you make to the content/look and feel in the testsite will not have any impact on your main site.

If you need any more help please do not hesitate to get in touch.

 

[MrsPWN]

Thanks very much, I am girding my loins as I speak

Was wondering why you are up at 4am.....

 

[LicensedToTrade]

Thanks very much, I am girding my loins as I speak

That's a little more than we needed to know...

I'd second Iksol's suggestion of hosting a development site locally with xampp. That way if you do make a mistake your visitors will never know about it and transferring files to and from the locally hosted site will be a simple case of drag and drop.

If you've ever installed any software in your life then you will be able to setup drupal on a xammp instance quite easily.

Guide here http://drupal.org/node/75537

 

[MrsPWN]

Ah poop I clicked on the link and was lost by number 3, more girding needed

 

[RX Host]

I tend to work crazy hours. Like I said, if you need more help feel free to let me know...although I am going on holiday in a few hours...so replies may be slow.