Testing a new setup

avantime4mike

I've recently successfully upgraded my forum from Vanilla 1 to vanilla 2 but have done it whilst the forum was live, which, as a total novice, created some interesting visual effects for my users. My current setup is at mysite/vanilla and I was wondering whether I could make a completely new install at mysite/forum using the same database as the original. The purpose being to allow my members to continue using the forum "as is" whilst leaving me the space to tinker with an embedded version without disrupting the users experience.

Linc

I highly suggest making a separate copy of the database as well and keeping the entire thing isolated from your main forum.

avantime4mike

Thanks @Lincoln, Not what I was hoping as my host only provides two databases in my package and they are both in use. I'll just have to persevere and try not to disrupt users too much ;-)

I assume I could set up a database locally but that sounds even more complicated to me.

Linc

I would consider upgrading your hosting package or switching hosts. That's an extremely arbitrary limit. I know of hosting plans for $10/mo that offer unlimited MySQL databases.

avantime4mike

My second database is used for a gallery application which to be honest is not that great. If I free up the second database and setup a new forum in mysite/forum, get it setup exactly as I want it, can I then simply swap databases and tell my users to use the new url?

Linc

I would copy the files back to your current forum rather than changing the URL or you'll end up with a bunch of confused users (unless you set up an automatic redirect).

Personally, I always have an isolated copy of all my sites for testing. When the test copy is good & ready, I move it to the production site.