Client wants a website makeover!

I have a question for you all...

The client already has a MODx website, has done for a number of years but its come to the point where it would make sense for a back-end rebuild and also a front-end redesign - The site has many articles and many pages, lots of users and comments; but all the Docs, Chunks, TVs and Templates are a bit of a mess.

At the moment I’m thinking of setting up a subdomain "new.domain.com" and installing the new Evo 1.0; then building the design and back-end fresh - but then I’m a bit stumped when it comes to migrating the site’s data and content...

I could upgrade their current install to Evo 1.0 and then remake the site alongside the current site, but that would get messy when there’s two versions of the Ditto chunks, old Templates and new Templates and old TVs and new TVs...

What approach do you feel is the best way to go about doing this?

I’ve done this several times. I put an exact copy of the existing site on another server (usually just a local development server, but sometimes on another publicly accessible server if the client wants access as well) and then upgrade this copy to the latest MODx, then start working on the other changes. Once everything is all set up the way I want it, then I simply upgrade the original site, using a data dump from my copy’s database to update the original database. The only thing that gets kept is the original config.inc.php file’s settings. So far I’ve never had any problems doing this.

That sounds like a good way of doing it!

I know the Terminal command to make an exact copy of the site onto another server, but would you happen to know the command to SVN the latest build (Evo 1.0) to merge into the site for upgrading? - I always make the mistake of using the SVN and overwriting the site - Evo 1.0 is now about 15MB and takes forever to upload for upgrading...

anybody else got any tips for upgrading and rebuilding a site?

Since you’ll be starting over, you might consider Revolution if the necessary snippets have been converted.

Bob is there a list of the Revolution compatible (necessary) snippets?

Quote from: charliez at Jun 18, 2009, 06:30 PM

Bob is there a list of the Revolution compatible (necessary) snippets?

I don’t know. The only way I know of to see what’s available is to install Revo and look in Package Management. There may be a list somewhere.

I know that Ditto and MaxiGallery are not there yet.