by moonwalker_repeat » 02. June 2017 06:37
There is a way to download live Joomla sites to your Xampp server. I've done it many times and it's actually pretty easy if you're careful. Dowload the site files, yes, but DO NOT download the database files themselves from the file structure. Use PhpMyAdmin. Export them to SQL file. Then import the file into PhpMyadmin on Xampp. After that, you'll have to manually edit your Joomla concfiguration.php file to reflect your Xampp MySQL username and password. That should be all that's needed if I remember correctly. Once the configuration.php file points the site to the new database location with the correct username and password, you should be able to run your site relatively normally with the exception of files that are pointed to by custom code using absolute paths matching the original server's file structure.
if you try this, double check the version of SQL. They should be the same to avoid conflicts. But even if they aren't, what do you have to lose? It's a COPY of the site, right? You can always make more.
I can almost guarantee you will still have some issues but this has worked relatively well many times for me.
EDIT: Don't forget the Joomla configuration.php also contains a line stating where the home page of your site lives. You need to make sure that line points to the local folder, not the .com address. It sounds like that's what happening.
Hope it helps.
OS X 10.9.5
XAMPP: 5.6.30-1
I'm setting up a proper server and only need advice to repair an old Xampp installation so I can move my sites safely without breaking them. Thanks for understanding.