How do you set up a Testing Server?

[Guest]

My Local and Remote settings have been working fine for years but

now I have the need to set up a Testing Server and I'm not sure

what to enter in the fields when editing my site. Attached are

my settings for Local, Remote and Testing. When I published to

the Testing Server this morning  overwrote the Remote Server

and had to ask fat cow to restore my original site. Please advise.

Thanks.

[David_Powers]

Thread moved to the Dreamweaver Application Development forum, which deals with server-side issues.

rorygirl1 wrote:

When I published to

the Testing Server this morning  overwrote the Remote Server

and had to ask fat cow to restore my original site.

That's not surprising. Although Dreamweaver lets you use a remote server as the testing server. It needs to be a real server, and it overwrites what exists on the server.

You don't say which server-side technology you're using, but there are detailed instructions on how to set up a PHP testing environment here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/setting_up_php.html.

[Guest]

Thanks David. Is there another way of enabling someone

off-site to preview my website?

[bregent]

What many developers do is create folders on their own website so that clients can preview from there.

[Guest]

Can you explain how I can set this up in Dreamweaver?

[David_Powers]

You create a folder within your website, and call it something like "testing". Put all your test files in there so they don't overwrite the main website.

[Guest]

Thanks, but I just need a little more direction on

my Testing Server settings in the Site Definition

area.

[David_Powers]

Your website is at http://bigcowmusic.com/. You want to use http://bigcowmusic.com/testing/ as your testing server.

Create a folder called testing in your site root.

In the Testing Server category of your site definition, set Host directory to point at the testing folder. Since you left that field blank before, it suggests that leaving it blank points to the site root. So enter "testing/" (without the quotes) into that field.

Set the URL prefix for the testing server to http://bigcowmusic.com/testing/.

To test that it's working, create a file in the testing folder, and make sure that you give it a name that doesn't already exist in your site (this will avoid overwriting a live page if anything goes wrong). Test it within Dreamweaver. Then go to your live site, and see if the page exists in the testing folder. If it is, you're set to go.

[Guest]

David,

Thanks for your assistance.

Best,

Glenn

[Guest]

David,

One more question. In the Testing Server site definition,

should I enter ftp host: ftp.fatcow.com and login info

as well?

Thanks,

Glenn

[David_Powers]

Yes. If you don't enter your FTP details, Dreamweaver has no way of communicating with your testing server.

[Guest]

David,

I'm receiving errors when I try to publish to the Testing Server.

See attached screen shots of the error message and my

Site Definition settings.

Thanks,

Glenn

[RJweb]

I am lost, why aren't you using your local computer  for your testing server, install xamp or wamp, and good to go.

[David_Powers]

Your Host directory is pointing to your local hard disk. If you're using your remote server as the testing server, it must point to the testing folder on your remote server.