Dev Store

Hello,

I currently have a dev store (v4.8.2) which I want to upgrade so it is the same version as my live store (v4.9.2 SP1). I think this would be a good idea as I will be making a lot of changes soon, so it should be better to test on the same version?

I don't know if I am correct in my thinking but could I just rename the folder on my server for the dev site to something else, and then perform STEP 1, 3 & 4 from this guide to pick up all the latest files from my live store? Or would it not working with the existing database from the dev store?

https://docs.cs-cart.com/latest/install/useful_info/copying_store_to_subdirectory.html

Yes, after making a copy of all your directories, rename it do dev or whatever you want, but esnure whatever you call it, the names gets changed in the config file etc.

A full backup is advised before you do anything

Yes, after making a copy of all your directories, rename it do dev or whatever you want, but esnure whatever you call it, the names gets changed in the config file etc.

A full backup is advised before you do anything

Yes that's what I thought to do, I just realised I didn't actually include the link (https://docs.cs-cart.com/latest/install/useful_info/copying_store_to_subdirectory.html) in my original post so you wouldn't know what "steps" I was referring to!

A full backup of the dev store? Would you advise doing this through the administration panel in CS-Cart or through the cPanel?

If you don't need anything special from your current dev store, you could maybe better just make a complete copy of your live store?

If you don't need anything special from your current dev store, you could maybe better just make a complete copy of your live store?

I think I might just do this, thanks

Looking at step 1.2 (from https://docs.cs-cart.com/latest/install/useful_info/copying_store_to_subdirectory.html),it says to make a subfolder in the same directory as my CS-Cart install. Would this be a folder in the root folder or a subfolder in "public_html"?

Looking at step 1.2 (from https://docs.cs-cart.com/latest/install/useful_info/copying_store_to_subdirectory.html),it says to make a subfolder in the same directory as my CS-Cart install. Would this be a folder in the root folder or a subfolder in "public_html"?

yes

yes

Yes to which one? In the root folder or in the "public_html" folder?

Yes to which one? In the root folder or in the "public_html" folder?

the one and the same

Yes to which one? In the root folder or in the "public_html" folder?

"public_html" is your root folder. this is where your cart is installed.

My bad, I logged into my cPanel and the root folder I see contains other folders. Now I understand. So assuming I do all of the steps correctly, will closing the storefront stop any Google bots from listing the dev site?

If all you're worried about is Google crawling your store, you can just use robots.txt (they will honor it). But to prevent all unknown entities from accessing your store, you should simply close the storefront. The backend is password protected.

So assuming I do all of the steps correctly, will closing the storefront stop any Google bots from listing the dev site?

https://docs.cs-cart.com/latest/user_guide/look_and_feel/changing_attributes/store_closed.html

If all you're worried about is Google crawling your store, you can just use robots.txt (they will honor it). But to prevent all unknown entities from accessing your store, you should simply close the storefront. The backend is password protected.

I have closed the storefront as mentioned, and set up an access key so I can still view what I'm doing. What do I need to do with the robots.txt file, just so I can be sure Google won't crawl it. And also, as my dev site is "www.example.co.uk/dev" will Google pick that up as a subpage of my live store?

I've just added this into my robots.txt file. Is this right?

Disallow: /dev

I have closed the storefront as mentioned, and set up an access key so I can still view what I'm doing. What do I need to do with the robots.txt file, just so I can be sure Google won't crawl it. And also, as my dev site is "www.example.co.uk/dev" will Google pick that up as a subpage of my live store?

With the closed store-front you should not do anything with robots.txt file. If you see the store-front

- you have already entered store access key earlier

or

- you are logged in the store-front under admin account

So just use incognito window in your browser to check the result

Agree with Ecom...

I have now managed to get the dev store set up and installed UniTheme v1. However, I'm having a weird issue where a lot of the pages return a 404 error. It has auto-populated my products onto the home page and if I click on them, it returns a 404 error. The same happens with category pages. Weirdly, the 404 error shown links back to my old theme but on the same dev store?

If I search for the products, they do appear in the search results and quick view works, but I can't open them? I have tried resaving the product and category but this still doesn't work. Any ideas?

Update: If I disable the SEO addon, it all seems to work fine. Re-enabling the addon stops it working. Any ideas why this is?