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We have a Joomla 2.5 test site running in a subfolder on a site that's currently live with Joomla 1.5.

We want to replace the live 1.5 site with the new 2.5 site. Can the new site be run from its subfolder and not have to completely move and overwrite our existing 1.5 site?

I know there are other threads here dealing with some variants of this issue, but they all seem to be dealing with Joomla 1.5, not 2.5.

Alter your webserver configuration to point the document root to the new folder. Easy as pie.

This is how I'm developing a new site for one of my clients. Right now they can test and configure it live and when it's ready it's only a slight configuration and done.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know how to "configure the web server" to point to the root. Is there a file to edit for that & if so, how is that done?

If you're running apache, it's httpd.conf, probably located in /etc/apache2, or /etc/httpd (somewhere in /etc)

Lets say your website lives in /var/www (pretty common)

somewhere in the httpd.conf, you'll see /var/www

If your new site is in /var/www/newsite, then you would just modify the line from /var/www to /var/www/newsite and restart the webserver.

I use Hostgator, so not sure I have access to the linux files you suggest.

My live site is in ..public_html/cayeresorts.com. The new site I need to go live is in ..public_html/cayeresorts.com/joomla25.

How does this equate to what you are talking about?

Oh, yeah - they're not going to let you do that.

Um, you'll have to actually move the contents from your joomla25 directory.

Create an .htaccess file that will sit in your web_root/ directory and you can add modifications to this to achieve the redirection along with other aspects that you may want to consider.
Read this example http://docs.joomla.org/Htaccess_examples_%28security%29 and refer to other pages on "htaccess" in the docs for further details.

Yikes, a redirect? I'd rather do it the hard way than the ugly way.

I really appreciate both of your suggestions, but I'm afraid there's not enough specifics for me to feel confident about doing this. Here are some of my main questions:

1. If I go the copy route, then I just copy all the files & subdirectories from the new installation (../joomla25) to the root and not worry about overwriting the existing joomla 1.5 installation there? That done, should it work without any further modifications?

2. If I go Andy's route, do I just modify the .htaccess file to point to the ../joomla25 subfolder? If so, what entries need to be made in that file to do that? And, if I go this route, then can I assume no other files need be moved or altered?

All this would be done after a backup, of course, but we can't afford for this site to be broken for an indefinite period.

Thanks again for the help -- if both of you can be a bit more specific, it would be great. I would have assumed that this is a common need, since most folks would develop a new site in another folder until it's ready to run. But I haven't found any directions to follow in the Joomla documentation yet. Maybe I'm not using the right search terms...

I just realized I should clarify what we're trying to do a bit more:

We have a live Joomla 1.5 site (www.cayeresorts.com) that we wanted to run a joomla 2.5 template on, so rather than upgrading the current 1.5 installation, we just duplicated the content in a Joomla 2.5 site in a subdirectory in the same public_html. Now we need to get this 2.5 version live: www.cayeresorts.com/joomla25

Hope that helps!

If you want to dispose of the 1.5 site entirely which was not too clear previously with all the other dribble that had been going on then:

1. Simply (for security/safety sake) take a back-up of the 1.5 site and database, and keep this safe.
2. Simply (for security/safety sake) take a back-up of the 2.5 site and database, and keep this safe.
3. Delete the files relating to the 1.5 site from its current position. (do not delete any non-Joomla files that might exist in the web_root/ directory
4. DROP the database relating to the 1.5 site.
5. Move the files for the 2.5 site to the previous 1.5 location. (either with the host control panel if it allows or with an ftp client)
6. Edit the configuration.php file for the 2.5 site to show the change of location to any paths if applicable.
7. As the database is not being moved there is nothing to be done to that or its settings in the configuration.php file.

Thanks Andy --

Yes, we want to REPLACE the existing 1.5 version site with the 2.5 version (new template, some new content, etc.). Sorry if that wasn't clear before.

I've backed up both the existing and the new site with Akeeba, so it looks like I'm ready to bite the bullet...