Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

[mattgsx]

Hi. I hate to be the guy that makes his first post a plea for help, but I've been working on this for a while, and I can't figure it out.

I created a website (www.egstratt.com), and on this site, I first installed Soholaunch, but my boss (who was doing most of the design at the time), didn't like it, and instead of un-installing, he just did everything through BlueVoda.

Now, we've added a new domain through the control panel (www.strattapparel.com), and I still want to use Soholaunch. Using the existing install, I created all my products. Soholaunch recognizes my homepage as egstratt.com, and I'm not sure how to change it. I was playing around in FTP, and I found a soholaunch config file (named egstratt.com), which had reference to home domain and document root. I changed that information to reflect the new domain, but it didn't change anything.

Do I have any way to simply migrate this? If there isn't, I planned on simply making a backup of my soholaunch info (which has over 70 manually added skus, images, etc, etc), removing the installation, re-installing under the new domain, and hoping that importing my backup won't cause any errors in the SQL database already created. I have the feeling, though, that this will cause more trouble than it's worth.

If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know. I'm definitely not technically illiterate, but if I can avoid messing with the SQL database, I'd prefer that (which is why I don't want to do the backup method).

Thanks!

Oh, by the way, this is client 19907, under www.egstratt.com

[mattgsx]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

Okay, for some reason I can't edit my previous post (the edit button is gone), but I do realize now I'll actually have to do a backup and switch it.

What configuration files do I need to edit for this to work? I have /.fantasticodata/Soholaunch_Pro_Edition/egstratt.com|, but I don't think I'll need to edit this, as it's automatically generated by soholaunch with the new install. The file reads like this:

<?
$thisdb = "amntajfb_sope1"; $thisdomain = "egstratt.com"; $thisscriptpath = "/home/amntajfb/public_html/";
?><?php $OIN = 1 ; ?>

under the Soholaunch_Pro_Edition directory, this is the only config file I can find. Are there any other files I'm missing, or am I good to back the site up, remove Soho, install it under my new domain (which I've already created, and I already changed the DNS settings under the domain registrar so it points to vodahost already), and import the backup?

Thanks!

[Vasili]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

am I good to back the site up, remove Soho, install it under my new domain (which I've already created, and I already changed the DNS settings under the domain registrar so it points to vodahost already), and import the backup files?

CORRECT
Soholaunch is a single-install script (meaning it is not able to be "moved"), but the files that hold all your data are standard type, so via cPanel COPY TO all your product, image, and data files down to your own hard drive, and then uninstall Soho from present location. Then install Soho (also via cP) to the properly configured add-on as mentioned above, and then rather than "load" this new installation the tedious way, merely upload the files intact to populate as once was.

Use the link in my signature to research the Official Soholaunch Forum to find specific tips on this procedure, and you may be able to avoid common pratfalls mentioned by others as well!

[Karen Mac]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

You can also run back up and do it from backup or mysql backup and then import it back to the new domain.

Karen

[mattgsx]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

Okay, well, I re-installed Soho under the correct domain, and I restored my site backup. My theme is there, but none of the products are. Do I need to manually add the sql database + relevant files, or did I just lose everything?

[mattgsx]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

Okay, update:

Vasily, I didn't backup from the cpanel; I used Soho's backup tool.
I then first tried importing via soho's backup tool.
The only thing that loaded was my theme.

Using FTP, I've managed to add in images, and many other things. It looks like all the system sql tables were all dumped into a master file, called data_tables.sql. I opened that up in a text editor, and saw that my cart_products, cart_categories, and related tables were dumped in here. How would I go about importing them? We're talking a good 20 hours of manual re-populating if I can't.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Karen Mac]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

If you can go to your mysql and import that data tables you may be able to repopulate your database

Alternately you can try to open it in excel.. open excel first.. then import data from a text file.. click that file.. play with the delimiters (commas, tabs etc) to see if you can get it to format to columns.. and then save it as a csv and then try to import it back to the database.

Karen

[mattgsx]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

Got it to work. In case anyone else ever has this problem, I'm going to describe the steps I took, so hopefully it will be found in a search.

Problem: Moving soholaunch to a new domain without losing information.
example: Soholaunch is installed on my base account (xzy.com). However, I want the pages created with soho to now appear under a new domain (xyzshopping.com), so I can develop xyz.com with a different builder, or to suit a different purpose.
Solution:
1) Back up your soholaunch information. To do this, access your soholaunch admin panel (xzy.com/sohoadmin). Log in, and go to Backup/Restore under the Administrative Functions menu. In here, create a site backup (which will save as a tar.gz archive file). Download this backup, and put it somewhere you won't forget it (if your desktop isn't too cluttered, save it there).
2) Re-install Soholaunch. To do this, you must first remove the installation from your base account. Do this through Fantastico, in your control panel (your.ip.xx/cpanel). Then, re-install soholaunch. Make sure you choose the correct domain in the dropdown box (for example, choosing xyzshopping.com instead of xyz.com). Follow the on-screen instructions to install soho. Set up your administrative user name and password, and DO NOT LOSE IT. For ease of use, I set mine up to match my cpanel user/pass. Soholaunch will inform you it's creating a new SQL user. Write down the name of the user it created, as it will be incredibly important in a little bit.
3. Start the recovery process. First, I logged into my new soho admin page (xyzshopping.com/sohoadmin), and I skipped the wizard, as this isn't essential. Go to backup/restore again, but this time, choose to upload a backup file for restoring. It will open an upload dialog, where you can choose the file you downloaded earlier. Hit the green button on the admin panel, and start the restore process.
----
This is where the fun begins. If your recovery is anything like mine, you will be missing everything pertaining to your plugins. This will restore your theme, user information, company information, and some other random stuff, but your shopping cart will be empty, and all your uploaded files/blog entries/etc will be missing. You can try restoring again, but chances are, you won't get anywhere. Don't panic; you're only three steps away from a complete restore.
1) on windows explorer (or whatever file manager you use), unzip the backupxxx999 (or whatever it's called).tar.gz into a new folder. Open this folder, and you will see another archive (site_files.gz). unzip this as well (Windows users can simply right-click these icons and select "Extract/Unzip here" (the actual language depends on the software you have installed). Linux users using Thunar or Nautilus file managers can do the same. Linux users without a file manager can open a terminal and type (without the quotes) "tar -xyz /path/to/file/file.tar.gz" (in all fairness though, if you're not using a graphical desktop or file manager, you probably already knew that). Mac users... I'm not sure.
2) Using either the file manager in the cpanel or an FTP client, you're going to need to add the missing files back in. Assuming your new domain was created in cpanel as an add-on domain (and not a subdomain), your new document root should be ~/public_html/newdomain.com (where ~ is /home/yourcpanellogin). Find the folders in your file manager (or ftp program) that share folder names with the ones in your backup. I believe mine where in a folder labeled "soholaunch" or something like that. Copy the folders from your backup back into the system (overwrite any files that are prompted). If all goes well, most of your stuff should be back on, but you'll still be missing your database (shopping cart items, promos, etc, etc).
3. re-import your database. Inside your backup file, you should find a file called database_entries.sql or something very similar. If you do a search for this file in your cpanel, or through ftp, you'll come up empty. Where, then, does this file go??? Go back to your cpanel (the vodahost one), and about halfway down the page, you'll see Database options. Choose the one labeled php My Admin (or something similar. It should be the third option). Under localhost, you should see a link labeled "import". Click it. Under "files to import", you will see an upload dialog prompting you to upload a text file. click the Browse... button, and choose the database_entries.sql (or whatever it's called) file. After you have this selected, click the "go" button in the lower right-hand corner of the page. Give it a few seconds, and you should be good. Your new sql database has now been populated with all the information from the first. Since you've already uploaded your artwork and all other dependent files (through your restore and your manual uploads), your site should now work as complete.

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Sorry if there are typos, or if any information is missing. For the record, I'm not sure if SoHo's administrative restore did anything - the theme is also controlled through the database, and the theme files (if not using an included theme) get added during your manual upload, but some people may not need to do the manual restore. Alternatively, you can try to re-create your sql database using the table settings and the info dump that you have on the restore file, but if your database is like mine, it'll be huge and impossible to navigate. Just let the cpanel do it for you!

[Karen Mac]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

Yes.. thats what i said before with the backup.

Karen

[mattgsx]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

yeah. I didn't make the connection that I could import a new SQL database through the php administrative function. I kept looking through the SQL stuff, but I couldn't find what I needed.

[tito]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

Hi,

I created a subdomain and install soho launch because one of my client has a website that uses this site builder and wants to moved out from the current hosting, I followed what is stated above, created a back-up and install soholaunch on my subdomain.

I have imported the back-up files, and now I'm trying to import the database that is present on the back-up file that I downloaded, but the upload has an error.

Is there other method to easily migrate/transfer a website build by soholaunch?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[VodaHost]

Re: Migrating Soholaunch to new domain

Please open a support ticket so we may assist you with the migration!