Building a site using a Temporary Web Address

[PrestaNoob852]

I currently have an outdated site up that I am going to update completely (new host, new webcart, and everything) but while I'm building the new site, I want to keep this old one live. So I purchased my new host, and they have an applications manager that allows me to install PrestaShop 1.5.2. So I did that using my domain name and set it up as if I was ready to start using it now.

 

The problem is, I'm not ready now and wanted to access it using my temporary web address so I can keep my domain name with my old host and webcart while I work on this new one. I was planning on setting up all the folders as normal and just typing in my temporary web address with the /index.php to take me to my cart. But it wants to redirect me to my real domain name even though I am typing in my temporary web address.

 

I've gone into the settings file in my hosts installation of PrestaShop and see the web address that it's going to use. I tried changing it to my temporary address, but that didn't change a thing. It still wants to resolve to my real domain name. Is there a way to change behavior?

 

I tried playing around with the settings.inc.php and putting in a '__PS_BASE_URI__' in, but it just added whatever I put there after my real domain name (i.e. realdomain.comtemporarywebaddress). Is there a way to tell it that for now I want it to use my temporary web address and then when I'm done building it, have it go back to resolving to my real domain name?

 

Thanks!

[PrestaNoob852]

Has no one come across this type if install before?? There has to be a way to do this using a temporary url before you have your nameservers pointed to your host's servers.

[PrestaHeroes USA]

just use the ip address you were given by your hosting provider

[PrestaNoob852]

The IP address is the same as using a temporary web address.

 

What I'm typing into the address bar of my browser is:

 

temporaryWebAddress/store/index.php

 

and when I hit ENTER it redirects me to:

 

realDomainName/store/index.php

 

Which of course doesn't work, because the old host doesn't have a link like that, so I get a 404 error. What I'm trying to do is make the store not redirect me to my real domain and just let me use the temporary web address as my actual address for right now. I'll change it back to the real domain name once I'm done building and can actually transfer the name server from the old host to the new one. Hope that makes a little more sence?

[PrestaNoob852]

AH! After 3 days of trying to figure this out I finally got the answer! For anyone else that comes across this, you have to go into the database and make the change there. I used my hosts phpMyAdmin to log into my database and then looked for the table named:

 

db(prefix)_shop_url

 

db(prefix) is the prefix that was used when the database was set up, so it will be something like 'ps_shop_url' or whatever. Go into that and edit the urls that are listed in that table. With my host, my temporary address was something like:

 

tempAddress/~accountName/

 

So the database didn't like me putting the /~accountName/ into the URL sections. So just put the temporary address into those (should end with .com or .net or whatever your site uses and no / ). Then below those will be a URi folder area which you put the /~accountName/ into (that is of course if your temporary address is like mine). I installed my cart into a folder called store, so this blank had /store/ in it. So I just amended it to be /~accoutnName/store/ and saved these new settings. Once I did all of that, everything worked like a charm. I can now see the page and log into the admin back end. So I can finally get started! lol

Edited November 29, 2012 by PrestaNoob852 (see edit history)