More efficient ExpressionEngine server moves

Question

I'm trying to find a better way to move my Expression Engine 2 sites from development to live servers. I have a checklist that I go through, starting with running a find and replace for the old/new URLs and server paths, then I update the database config file. This however misses out a huge amount of settings that I then have to go through and change manually, but I don't see why I should need to (unless these are encrypyed somewhere).

For example, I have to change the "Basepath to Template File Directory" in the Global Template Settings manually, along with member settings and a handful of others. There must be a file or entry with these in somewhere that I can change before I upload but I can't find it.

Does anyone know where these are stored?

Answer 1

Those are stored in the database, unless you are using global config variables.

I would highly recommend looking into some sort of config bootstrap. There are quite a few solutions to this, but it's really up to you to pick what's right for your development style / environment(s).

Take a look at the following articles:

• http://eeinsider.com/articles/creating-a-robust-config.php-file/
• http://boblet.tumblr.com/post/68095239/ee-localhost
• http://eeinsider.com/articles/multi-server-setup-for-ee-2/

I've tried those solutions, but in my opinion the best option is NSM config bootstrap.

Check it out here: [http://ee-garage.com/nsm-config-bootstrap][4]

The only thing (currently) missing from these solutions are new config vars regarding file upload paths and locations. You can add those to any of these solutions by adding the variables detailed in this article:

http://expressionengine.com/user_guide/cp/content/files/file_upload_preferences.html#overriding-upload-paths-and-urls-using-configuration-variables

Answer 2

I know I'm late on this one, but for anyone else searching, this plugin is very useful and I have used it on numerous occasions.

ExpressionEngine stores your website URL and Server Path in a ridiculous number of places.

REElocate helps you update these in one simple step.

https://github.com/expressodev/reelocate