first nervous upload

[john harding]

My site (www.ourtext.co.uk) is in place, but with ordering initially suspended because all my computers had chosen launch date to go toes up.

With my designer on holiday, I now need to (a) upload in test mode, with ordering enabled, (b) then upload in production mode, if it works, or (c) restore the original, if it doesn't.

Can anyone tell me the following?

1. How do I enable/disable ordering, making the add to cart buttons appear/disappear?

2. How does test mode work? At my end is the sequence: Switch to Test Mode > Import Snapshot > Upload > Test > Switch to Production Mode > Reimport Snapshot > Upload ??

And when it's in place in Test Mode I presume that I test it by simply going to its URL in the normal way, and that anyone else who happens to go to the site at the same time gets the same experience. Have I got that right? Or is the test site hidden from the rest of the world, with some separate means of access for me?

[Duncan Rounding]

The test site would be http:// www. ourtext .co.uk/acatalog/test/

Note that I've broken the link above with some spaces so the search engines don't find it.

[leehack]

Buy a cheap test domain for around £50 a year and use that instead, so much easier.

[Duncan Rounding]

...and develop on a separate pc if you can so you don't need to go in and out of test mode.

[Darren B]

To answer your question (Lee & Duncan )

To suspend ordering this is done under business settings remember you need to do an upload for this to be shown online.

Test mode works by fixing your network settings and changing the script id's these will all start with a 9 so as to not effect live site scripts. As Duncan said it will upload it to a different directory so will not effect your live site.

You must import your snapshot 1st then switch test mode on, snapshots over write all previous site settings.

hopes this helps

[john harding]

Many thanks.

I don't have the snapshot for the site that my designer disabled, so I don't know how it was done, but I imagine he just deleted all the Add to Cart buttons - that would do it.

[leehack]

If you disable ordering in business settings and then upload, that removes the add to cart buttons so that noone can buy anything, perhaps this is what you are referring to?

[john harding]

Ah. I'd only tried it offline, and what I was seeing was the buttons still there and CATALOG SUSPENDED or something in red. So evidently the online behaviour is different. That would certainly be better than deleting cart buttons.

[leehack]

Online won't be different, what the preview shows you is what will go online, the suspended message usually replaces the add to cart button, so maybe something is screwed up on your design.

[john harding]

Right. Well, since the test site won't disturb the disabled one, I can side-step that issue.

I did try uploading, but expected to fail, if only because I've changed my cPanel password and I didn't seem to be able to change it in Network Settings. I was hoping to get a prompt during upload.

It did fail, over a permissions issue (Actinic thought I might be running out of disk space, but I suppose it might be the password).

And does anybody know what was meant by the error message: "200 TYPE is now 8-bit binary. 501 Sorry, but I won't connect to ports <1024" ??

[pinbrook]

sort out your password, nothing will happen until you do this

I did try uploading, but expected to fail, if only because I've changed my cPanel password and I didn't seem to be able to change it in Network Settings. I was hoping to get a prompt during upload.

take it out of test mode, change the password, then put it back in test mode