Creating a development environment using an already existing store

[tallinn]

Hi.

 

I am trying to get my local copy of an online store up and running. 

The steps I have taken so far:

1. Installed XAMPP.

2. Downloaded all the folders and files from the host where the store is hosted onto my local machine.

3. Installed a fresh default PrestaShop called "first" and that one is working. Version 1.6.0.14 because that is the one used on production.

4. Created a backup of the database where the store is hosted and downloaded the .sql backup file.

5. Imported the .sql file into a database on my local machine.

6. Moved the folders and the files downloaded in step 2 to C:\xampp\htdocs\projects\mystore

7. Changed lines 2-6 in the "settings.inc.php" file to reflect my information.

 

 

I have not seen any import anywhere. I am pretty surprised how little information I can dig up about this.

 

Does someone have an idea?

[bellini13]

You don't need Step 3 to create a copy of an existing store.  The other steps you did look fine, I would just add

Step 8.  Remove the .htaccess file located in C:\xampp\htdocs\projects\mystore

Step 9. Log into back office, go to SEO & URL page, and change the domain name to localhost and save

[tallinn]

I am so glad and thankful that you are taking your time to help me with this. I am going crazy over how much time this has taken.

Alright now something is happening.
 

Not sure what that .htaccess file is but deleting it made some progress. 

 

Now when I load the back office log in screen it shows without any style but I can see the text boxes, the log in boxes, and the buttons so I can enter my credentials.

But it tells me:

1. The Employee does not exist, or the password provided is incorrect.

I already have user account to the back office of the actual production website. Am I supposed to use that log in information?

[bellini13]

I already have user account to the back office of the actual production website. Am I supposed to use that log in information?

 

yes, because in step 4 and 5 you created a copy of your production store and imported that to your local database. 

[tallinn]

That is weird because I can not log into the admin console. 

 

 

It is also weird how it looks. This is how it looks:

 

[tallinn]

Is there any way I can confirm that my user access is there?

[tallinn]

Okay. I discovered that my database was very much incomplete. It was missing a lot of tables. The database backup in the backoffice does not back up everything apparently. I downloaded the entire database through workbench and now I have a complete database and can confirm that my user is present on my local machine.

 

STILL. I get the same error message. I am baffled....

I can also confirm that step 9 which you suggest I do is needed.  When I try to go to the store locally it redirects me to the actual address of the website.

[bellini13]

usually you can log into the back office and change the domain name to localhost, however you may need to go directly into the database and manually change it

 

search the ps_configuration database table for your production domain name, and change that to be localhost instead.

[tallinn]

I tried that but to no avail. 

The names of the configurations are PS_SHOP_DOMAIN and PS_SHOP_DOMAIN_SSL.

I tried "localhost" and "localhost/projects/mystore" 

But neither worked. 

 

It should work immediately after I change the values right? 

[tallinn]

I copied all of the shops file to my machine again from the hosting server.
I deleted the .htaccess file.

I changed the settings file to point to localhost and entered all the correct information for the sql server.

 

Now I can log into the admin console. Yey!
 

I can finally also see the local version of the store. Phew!

 

The store refreshes every second or so.  If I browse to some category and then scroll down, the store refreshes and takes me back to the top.

 

EDIT:
I will make a separate thread for the refreshing problem.

Thank you sooooo much for your help bellini13. Really appreciate it.

Edited August 13, 2016 by tallinn (see edit history)