Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Joomla version 1.5 is end-of-life and are no longer supported. Please use Joomla 3.x instead.

Moderator: General Support Moderators

Forum rules
Forum Rules
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Joomla! <-- please read before posting, this means YOU.
Forum Post Assistant - If you are serious about wanting help, you will use this tool to help you post.
Locked
ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:42 pm

I am having trouble copying a live site to my WAMP server. (I know, this sounds backwards, but I need to be able to demonstrate the site in areas without Internet access.) I'm running Joomla 1.5.9 on a hosted Linux server. I created a new MySQL database on the WAMP server using phpMyAdmin, then imported an SQL dump I downloaded from the hoster server. I then I copied all of the files from the hosted server to the WAMP server.

Now comes the problem. I edited the configuration file for the new file location and new database name. The default user name created by phpMyAdmin for the new database on the WAMP server was "root" and it didn't ask for a database password. So I changed the configuration.php file to show "root" as the user, but the password is the same as the password on the hosted server. When I try to log onto the Joomla site on my WAMP server, I just get a blank screen with no error message. If I delete the password and try to log on, I get an error message "Can't log onto SQL Database."

I've read everything I can find and cannot correct the problem. I believe it has to be in the configuration.php file, but I have no idea where, although the password is certainly suspect. The only other thing I suspect may be the different versions of PHP and MySQL used on the hosted server and on my WAMP server. Here are the specifics:
  • Icdsoft:
    MySQL = 2.0.67
    PHP5 = 5.2.8

    WAMP:
    MySQL = 5.0.51b
    PHP5 = 5.2.6
Has anyone run into this before?

Thanks,
Chas.
Last edited by ccotton on Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
devilboy_1989
Joomla! Explorer
Joomla! Explorer
Posts: 350
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 8:22 pm
Location: In Front of My Computer
Contact:

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by devilboy_1989 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:26 pm

Just Leave The Password Null means var $password = ' ';

var $dbtype = 'mysql';
var $host = 'localhost';
var $user = 'root';
var $db = 'mydatabase';
var $dbprefix = 'jos_';
var $mailer = 'mail';
var $mailfrom = '[email protected]';
var $fromname = 'mysite';
var $sendmail = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
var $smtpauth = '0';
var $smtpuser = '';
var $smtppass = '';
var $smtphost = 'localhost';
var $MetaAuthor = '1';
var $MetaTitle = '1';
var $lifetime = '15';
var $session_handler = 'database';
var $password = ' '; *** THIS IS MY CONFIGURATION FILE DEMO WHERE PASSWORD IS NULL WAMP SERVER DOESN'T REQUIRED PASSWORD SO JUST LEAVE IT NULL...

Enjoy!:(
“Speak of The Devil and I Appears”

My Blog - http://www.rajputbrotherhood.com
Joomla - The Mighty CMS.

User avatar
toivo
Joomla! Master
Joomla! Master
Posts: 17354
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:48 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by toivo » Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:37 pm

You can create a new user in phpMyAdmin, give a password, add the host 'localhost', assign all privileges to your database and then use the same username and password in configuration.php.

Regards,
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:16 pm

Thanks, I'll try that and let you know if it worked. I just noticed something. The configuration.php file from the hosted server as "secret" that is a long alpha/numeric string. Could that be a problem, or would that have been imported into the WAMP-created database?

Chas.

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sun Feb 01, 2009 11:45 pm

I'm pretty sure I'm getting a connection to the database, because I'm not getting an the error message "Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL" as I do if I change either the user or the password. I've also connected "manually" using the MySQL console using the same user id and password.

However, when I use Firefox and enter http://localhost/demo/ it returns a blank screen. It doesn't appear that I'm launching Joomla, but I have no idea why. Rather than delete the installation directory, I had commented it out. Just to see what would happen, I removed the comment and entered http://localhost/demo/ in Firefox and it returned the Joomla warning to delete the installation directory. I'm not sure what this means, if anything, but at least some portion of the Joomla installation is running.

I'm stumped.

Chas.

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:49 am

I started over, downloaded the files again, created a new database and imported another dump. I'm still having the same problem. I'm able to connect to the MySQL database on the WAMP server, but all I get is a blank screen.

I was wondering if the WAMP server just wasn't going to properly render a Joomla site, so I did a new install and it worked fine. I just can't get an existing site copied to the WAMP server.

Any ideas?

Chas.

User avatar
dpacadmin
Joomla! Champion
Joomla! Champion
Posts: 6029
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 1:46 pm
Location: the Bat Cave
Contact:

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by dpacadmin » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:57 am

Are you using the Live Site var in the configuration.php file from the hosted site? Try leaving it blank. Are you using a htaccess file from the hosted site, it may not be valid on your Wamp install. Did you have a SEF extension installed on the hosted site? It may still be using links that are only valid on the hosted site.

User avatar
tisrach
Joomla! Intern
Joomla! Intern
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:59 pm
Location: Granada: SPAIN
Contact:

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by tisrach » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:16 pm

This the long winded way of doing it when all else has failed!

1. Install a new site on your local server. (make sure this works frontend/backend- if not there's a problem with your WAMP setup before proceeding)
2. Copy the resulting configuration.php file (keep safe).
3. Delete all files
4. Replace files with your original site
5. Overwrite the configuration.php file with the one from stage 2
6. Go into phpmyadmin - Dump your database / import your original database.
7. Remove any .htacess files that may have been copied from your original site
8. Go in Global configuration and check everything is OK.

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:45 am

dpacadmin wrote:Are you using the Live Site var in the configuration.php file from the hosted site? Try leaving it blank.
The Live Site var is blank.
dpacadmin wrote:Are you using a htaccess file from the hosted site, it may not be valid on your Wamp install.
Yes, there was an htaccess file that I never thought about. I commented it out, but I get the same result, i.e. a blank page. It took quite a bit more time to render a blank page without the htaccess file.
dpacadmin wrote:Did you have a SEF extension installed on the hosted site? It may still be using links that are only valid on the hosted site.
No, I didn't have an SEF extension installed.

Would it help if I posted the configuration.php file?

Thanks,
Chas.

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:49 am

tisrach wrote:This the long winded way of doing it when all else has failed!

1. Install a new site on your local server. (make sure this works frontend/backend- if not there's a problem with your WAMP setup before proceeding)
2. Copy the resulting configuration.php file (keep safe).
3. Delete all files
4. Replace files with your original site
5. Overwrite the configuration.php file with the one from stage 2
6. Go into phpmyadmin - Dump your database / import your original database.
7. Remove any .htacess files that may have been copied from your original site
8. Go in Global configuration and check everything is OK.
Thanks, I'll give that a try also.

Chas.

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sun Feb 08, 2009 5:54 am

Now I feel really foolish. I can get into the back end; only the front end returns a blank page. I checked the see which template was set as default and was surprised to see there were no templates showing at all! I have no idea why the templates are not showing or why the default template on the host server didn't download to the WAMP server. All of the modules related to the templates are present and enabled and all articles are there. At least I think I have identified the problem; now I have to try to get the template to show. I tried reinstalling one, and it didn't work.

Thanks for the help folks. Man, I feel mighty stupid right now!

Chas.

User avatar
navbgsim
I've been banned!
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:39 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by navbgsim » Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:07 pm

Hi Chas,

Just visited this post by chance, Its always fun when ppl "feel mighty stupid" :p. Jokes apart so did it work??

User avatar
tisrach
Joomla! Intern
Joomla! Intern
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:59 pm
Location: Granada: SPAIN
Contact:

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by tisrach » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:08 am

Glad its sorted!

Often things aren't as obvious as first impressions would lead to believe us they are. Always check for back end access too.

:)

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:33 pm

navbgsim wrote:Hi Chas,

Just visited this post by chance, Its always fun when ppl "feel mighty stupid" :p. Jokes apart so did it work??
Unfortunately not. All of the modules for each template were present, but no templates appeared in the menu. When I tried to reinstall them, I got an error message they were already installed. However, when going back to the template menu, each template I tried to reinstall did appear, but setting them as default changed nothing. I still have a blank page on the front end.

I'm out of ideas and it's taking more time to run this down than I have to put into that part of the project. I guess I'll just have to make sure I have Internet access when demonstrating this site. Thanks again to everyone who tried to help.

Chas.
Last edited by ccotton on Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
dpacadmin
Joomla! Champion
Joomla! Champion
Posts: 6029
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 1:46 pm
Location: the Bat Cave
Contact:

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by dpacadmin » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:08 pm

Try copying the full install file set for 1.5.9 over you wamp site. Do not copy the installation folder from the full install set to your wamp site. It may be that one or more files from your live site were not copied or became corrupt, overwriting with the full version may fix it.

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:47 am

dpacadmin wrote:Try copying the full install file set for 1.5.9 over you wamp site. Do not copy the installation folder from the full install set to your wamp site. It may be that one or more files from your live site were not copied or became corrupt, overwriting with the full version may fix it.
Thanks, I'll give that a try.

Chas.

castus
Joomla! Explorer
Joomla! Explorer
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:00 am
Contact:

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by castus » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:01 pm

i have the same problem.. I used to be able to transfer j1.0 very easily. But now j1.5 shows the white screen at front end, and everything works fine in the back end.

I am wondering if i have all of the apache and php extensions enabled that i need

castus
Joomla! Explorer
Joomla! Explorer
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:00 am
Contact:

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by castus » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:10 pm

Try enabling the memcache module in your WAMP, or change the cache handler var in your config file.

Code: Select all

var $cache_handler = '';
This worked for me

User avatar
toivo
Joomla! Master
Joomla! Master
Posts: 17354
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:48 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by toivo » Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:15 am

Check the PHP error log php_error.log in c:\wamp\logs. PHP fatal errors usually explain what is going wrong, or at least give a clue where to start looking if blank screens occur.
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator

ccotton
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:09 am

Re: Trouble copying site to WAMP server

Post by ccotton » Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:49 am

castus wrote:Try enabling the memcache module in your WAMP, or change the cache handler var in your config file.

Code: Select all

var $cache_handler = '';
This worked for me
Enabling the memcache did it for me too.

Thanks, I had given up.
Chas.


Locked

Return to “Migrating and Upgrading to Joomla! 1.5”