Big newbie... (Dreamweaver, PHP, MySQL)

How, if I am developing in Dreamweaver MX, do I set up a testing server that is different from my remote server?

I have my testing server connected via LAN connection, physically here in front of me. Now, my remote server is provided via an ISP - I don't have permissions to change DB name or password. Also, on my LAN'd testing server, MySQL will not allow me to change my user name or password - I have to use the one I supplied during the installation.

So, during development, I test with a connection to the "myDB" database on host "oldsystem", user name and password set. When I upload the files to my remote server, I go into the "Connections" folder, and replace the testing server values with the appropriate remote server values (I think).

However, when I visit my brand spankin' new data-driven dynamic web site on the web, I'm told that I haven't selected a database, even though the name of the database is very clearly in the connections file.

I'm completely baffled by this point and ready to start pulling out hair.

I develop on a Wintel box, DWMXv6.1, PHP 4.2.3, MySQL 3.23.38. Uploading to coolfreepages.com as a host server.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Dreamweaver MX's 'local/remote/testing' implementation leaves a bit to be desired.

Here's how I have mine setup:

Local:

Site Name: mysite.com
Local Folder: D:\mysite.com
Http address: http://www.mysite.com

Remote:

Access: FTP (i'm assuming you're using FTP)
FTP Host: www.mysite.com
Host directory: /usr/public_html/
login: my_name
password: ********

Testing:

I let MX setup testing automatically - it will default to the exact same settings as your remote server.

Once this is done, MX will allow you to connect to a MySQL DB through its database window

HOWEVER - let me make this clear - the database window does not confer much in the way of functionality to the MX environment. You'll still end up hand-coding almost all of your queries.

Really, all this affords you is the ability to have a quick, visual representation of what your table structure is, and the ability to dragndrop table names into your code view.

You'll be much better off using either a desktop-based GUI app for managing your mysql, or installing phpmyadmin on your webserver. MX does not come anywhere near these 2 solutions for managing your mysql db.

let me know if this helps or not...

Thanks for the reply - I've now got my set-up approximately the same way. And yeah, the testing/remote server set up leaves alot to be desired, as far as I can tell. I've gotten it to work by setting up my testing server with the DNS settings to my local (testing) username and password. Before I upload any files to the remote server, I have to go through and hand alter the code in the connections.php file to reflect the remote setup, and then adjust the DNS configuration to reflect the remote settings as well. (I was forgetting to adjust the DNS before - that's why I kept getting a "No Database Selected" error.)

This seems like a few odd hoops to have to jump through - is it?

And I have phpMyAdmin installed on the server, though I just figured out how to actually set it up to work right. I'm gonna figure this stuff out if it kills me. And it might.

Again, thanks for taking the time - and yes, your reply did help.