[How To?] Copy of Existing Forum to Localhost

[Halfling]

I think I just need a "nudge" in the right direction. My goal is to get an exact copy of my production forum in it's entireity onto a localhost where I can test plugins, modifications and other such things PRIOR to rolling them out to production.

I have successfully installed XAMPP for setting up my localhost.
I have been able to successfully install and run MyBB.
I have been able to create a new database for that install.
I have imported all of the production structure from a backup.
I have imported all of the production data from a backup.

What I can't seem to do is to get an exact copy of my production forum installed on my localhost (that works) for testing.  

I think it may be as simple as copying the files from production to the localhost and then making they appropriate edits in the config and settings files but that didn't seem to work (may have missed something).

Am I missing something obvious? Are there specific edits I need to make within some of the files to make it access the existing information. Does anyone know of a step by step process for this type of evolution? It would seem to me that this would be a common practice.  

[Zack Magee]

I think it may be as simple as copying the files from production to the localhost and then making they appropriate edits in the config and settings files but that didn't seem to work (may have missed something).

This is what I would do. What was it doing\not doing that led you to believe it wasn't working?

[.m.]

as you might be knowing,
./inc/config.php file consists of database connecting details and ./inc/settings.php file contains board url & cookie settings.

replies at this thread might help.

And after logging into admin panel,
you may have to put again correct board url & cookie settings at General Configuration settings

[Halfling]

I think it may be as simple as copying the files from production to the localhost and then making they appropriate edits in the config and settings files but that didn't seem to work (may have missed something).

This is what I would do. What was it doing\not doing that led you to believe it wasn't working?

I'm not in front of my system right now but it was failling to launch and came back with an error statement that line 26 of the config.php file had a problem, I think it said it did not recognize the 'admin' directory setting. I will probably have to carefully go back through my edit process step by step to make sure I got everything correct. Actually, I was hoping for some kind of instruction of checklist that could be used to make sure all of the settings are properly edited.

Thanks for the quick response!

---

I think it may be as simple as copying the files from production to the localhost and then making they appropriate edits in the config and settings files but that didn't seem to work (may have missed something).

This is what I would do. What was it doing\not doing that led you to believe it wasn't working?

I'm not in front of my system right now but it was failling to launch and came back with an error statement that line 26 of the config.php file had a problem, I think it said it did not recognize the 'admin' directory setting. I will probably have to carefully go back through my edit process step by step to make sure I got everything correct. Actually, I was hoping for some kind of instruction of checklist that could be used to make sure all of the settings are properly edited.

Thanks for the quick response!

---

OK, I went back and did the entire process again without interruption this time. I found all the places I needed to make changes and did so however it should be noted that the cookie domain is blank for a local host installation (at least mine needed to be).

Also, for some reason my database prefix on the production site was "mbb_" and my new local host install was set at "mybb_" . Until I realized the difference it wasn't picking up any of the existing data.

Bottom line is that I  got it working, thanks for the pointers!