moving from directory to root

[guybr]

Hi, I'm using VM 2.6.6 and Joomla 2.5.28 in the same directory (they were installed together from the VM site). If I now want to move Joomla alone to my root, and leave the VM store in the present subdirectory, what do I move/don't I move to the root?

[jenkinhill]

I don't think you understand the integration between Joomla and installed components. What you suggest is not possible. You could make it appear that the store is in a subdirectory by using Joomla's menu system and maybe assign a different Joomla template to VM, but I wonder why you would want to do such a thing.

[GJC Web Design]

just to add - VM is an installed component of Joomla - impossible to separate them - and as jenks asks - why?

[guybr]

I have a 'hand made' site that I'd like to transition over to CMS: I assumed that if VM was set up to present the ecommerce part of the site, I'd be using Joomla-only for all the other site content. Example: VM is presently in the directory "online store", so I thought I'd use Joomla for all the other parts of the site.

What would you suggest I do? I want to replace all the existing hand-made site pages by putting their content into the CMS. I have a template for the VM pages and a different one for the planned non-VM pages...

[jenkinhill]

Joomla is probably best considered as a CMS that can contain different components, plugins & modules. VirtueMart is there as com_virtuemart and for articles (your other web pages) you will be using com_content  - both components within Joomla.

Adding your webpages into Joomla as articles is the logical approach. If you needed different templates for this part from that used for the store there is no difficulty. Just assign the different templates through Joomla's menu system.  All you need to know about this is in the Joomla documentation.

[guybr]

...so if I want to migrate my whole site to Joomla (and VM), and so place Joomla in the root, you're saying I need to move *everything* that I presently have in my subdirectory into the root - VM and all - and create Joomla article pages to house the content that I presently have on the 'hand made' pages?

If my above comment is correct, how can I retain the VM store address at its present subdirectory name? Or if that's not possible, what do I have to do to ensure the VM store gets displayed once migrated to the root?

[GJC Web Design]

copy your root html site somewhere safe
move the sub directory to the root
check it all works and correct if not
add your plain html site as articles in Joomla

[guybr]

...and to keep the appearance of VM as being in the directory "online store", how would I do that?

[PRO]

...and to keep the appearance of VM as being in the directory "online store", how would I do that?

thats your joomla template & virtuemart css

I would setup a test domain,. or development environment before moving forward if I were you.

[guybr]

Hi Pro, I didn't mean appearance as in the design, but rather, after migrating everything to the root how do I keep the VM address at /online-store/ like it is now?

[bluezeyes]

...and to keep the appearance of VM as being in the directory "online store", how would I do that?

Assumed you have installed Joomla in a subdirectory "/joomla" of your webroot and your startpage is http://www.domain.com/joomla/index.php
and your online store is accessible via http://www.domain.com/joomla/online-store

Moving the content of the joomla subdir to webroot / will result in that your startpage is now http://www.domain.com/index.php
and your online store is accessible via http://www.domain.com/online-store/index.php
The backend is accessible then via http://www.domain.com/administrator instead of old http://www.domain.com/joomla/administrator

So the Menu Entry "Online Store" in the Startpage main menu will still point to the VM-shop after moving the Joomla installation.
(the "subdirectory" online store   is a kind of virtual directory which will be resolved by Joomla and depends on the alias/slug of the corresponding Menu item of your main menu in the Joomla Menu Manager)

Hope i went not to far with this

Kind regards,

bluezeyes

[guybr]

Thanks Bluezeyes!
...both my VM and Joomla installations are in /online-store/ - it looks like moving them to the root will mean my VM store won't remain in /online-store/. Is there a way I can still keep it pointing to that directory?

[bluezeyes]

Thanks Bluezeyes!
...both my VM and Joomla installations are in /online-store/ - it looks like moving them to the root will mean my VM store won't remain in /online-store/. Is there a way I can still keep it pointing to that directory?

There are two possible ways:

As example you have 2 Main Menu Items "Home" (alias: home) & "Online Store" (alias: online-store)
- If you set "Home" as Default in Menu Manager, it will be startpage when calling http://www.domain.com/
  Your shop will be reachable then under http://www.domain.com/online-store

- If you set "Online Store" as Default, it will be the startpage when calling http://www.domain.com/
  Your "Home" will be then reachable under http://www.domain.com/home but not when just calling http://www.domain.com/

Its just a matter which Menu Item should be the "Default" page, and how their corresponding alias is
You can even do such weird thing like giving the "Home" Menu Item an alias: "online-store" and your Menu Item "Online Store" an alias: "shop"
When in this case "Home" is Default, you have your old behaviour, but VM as shop would reachable under http://www.domain.com/online-store/shop

(hope your'e not that confused like me at moment  )

Kind regards,

bluezeyes

[guybr]

I really appreciate your help! I'm looking over the suggestions you made, and I have 2 followup questions:

1. If I get cold feet and don't want to move the files to the root, is there a way to make the non-VM pages link from the root address anyway? eg. the "home" link would be set to mysite.com/home.html, and any non-VM page would be mysite.com/some-other-page.html?

2. No place has written this, including my hosting provider, but if I do move Joomla to the root, do I have to make any changes to the database/mySQL location?

[jenkinhill]

1. Yes you can manually code all links.
2. No. It is a simple drag & drop using FileZilla to move joomla to root amd it should work straight away.

This was written for VM1 but the basics still apply:  http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=86923.0