Moving a website from one host to another

Using Concrete / Help
1

I am assisting this client with a move of their Concrete5 website from one hosting provider to another.

I copied the files to a new sub-directory
I have created a new MySQL database and imported the database

Changed the script.php file to point to the new db etc. But I am not familiar with Concrete5 - can it be run on the same instance where we have Wordpress running for another website?

I am getting this error:

This page isn’t working

www.domainname.com.au is currently unable to handle this request.

HTTP ERROR 500

Any assistance here would be most appreciated.

2

Some things to check:

  • you’ve mentioned script.php. I’m assuming you actually mean /application/config/database.php, that’s where the database credentials need to be changed
  • often you need to manually clear a site’s cache after moving a site. Sometimes you can log in to do this via the ‘clear cache’ page in the dashboard, but if not, I normally delete the folders within /application/files/cache except for the thumbnails folder
  • make sure that where you’ve moved the site is using a compatible PHP version. Occasionally you may also need to enable some PHP modules too.
  • If you are moving a site to a sub-folder, you may also need to adjust your .htaccess file. Inside will be a line
    RewriteBase /
    If you’ve put your site in a folder, say /newsite, you’ll need to adjust this line to be
    RewriteBase /newsite

To answer your question, yes, you should be able to run Concrete in the same hosting space as a Wordpress site. But if there is some sort of Wordpress conflict due to .htaccess, an idea is to just set up a temporary subdomain and preview the new site off that.

3

If you have moved from one hosting provider to another, you should also change the DNS settings to point to the new hosts server.

4

Thanks for your message. Its actually in the file:

/config/site.php

where it defines the database, the user, password, etc

It might be a very old version of Concrete. You can see a copy of it here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230302050910/http://www.exclusiveoutdoors.com.au/

Really appreciate your help thus far.
Tania

5

Yes I have updated the A Records and it is definitely pointing to the new server
Thanks
Tania

6

That’s going to be a version 5.6.x site then.

The biggest issue running older sites is the PHP version.
If it’s the very latest 5.6.x available, so 5.6.4.0, it should be able to run on PHP7.4.

But if it’s an earlier than that, it’ll likely require PHP5.6.
PHP5.6 is very outdated, so many hosts simply don’t offer it anymore. But often it’s still an option in cPanel. You could try PHP5.6 to get the site running, then consider updates to get it to run on something more recent PHP wise.

7

How can I find out wht version of Concrete it is?
I can select PHP 5.6 however I think this will then be an issue for the Wordpress installation.

8

For an older version, you’d either look:

  • in /updates, and there might be some folders there with obvious version numbers
  • or in /concrete/config/version.php

If the top level has about 4 folders, you’re looking at a version 5.7+
If it’s got more like 20 or so folders, you’re going to be looking a 5.6.x site.

For an older site you might simply have to put it on a different hosting account so it doesn’t conflict.

Sometimes you can run multiple sites through the same account, but with different PHP version for each site/folder, but that all comes down to the hosting.