Configuring a Joomla website using wamp on multiple computers

Question

I am working with Joomla for the first time and I am having trouble configuring it. From the articles available from the internet, I followed the following steps to clone a Joomla website to various local machines:

1. Configure the Joomla website using the database created in phpmyadmin

2. Export the database, which was used to configure the joomla website, into a .sql file

3. On the second computer paste the Joomla folder into wamp/www

4. Import the .sql file in phpmyadmin

However, I got an error message- "Cannot connect to mySQL database". I checked the configuration.php file and everything seems to be fine(localhost, databasename, password).

I have a team of 5 people working on the same project and so I need to configure Joomla in all of the computers, so that it can be integrated easily later on. I am using Windows 8 64bit OS and have installed wamp server 2.5(32 bit) on my laptop. On the other hand, my teammates have Windows 7 32bit OS and have installed wamp server 2.2 onto their system.

This is because for some reason, we were unable to install wamp server 2.5 onto their system and the error message shown was 'missing MSVCR110.dll'. When installing this .dll file, the problem still did not resolve. When I installed wamp 2.2 onto my computer, I got an error message- 'dont have access to the / server' when I tried to access localhost. So we decided to stick to wamp 2.2 on their computers and wamp 2.5 on mine. However, the error doesn't seem to go away.

When I tried to configure the database on wamp 2.2 and the joomla website, it seems to work fine in my computer(with wamp 2.5) however, the error appears on the other computers having wamp 2.2. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Akeeba Backup is the easiest way to transfer your Joomla site, if you really need to clone the website to several computers. But as others already mentioned, why not use an online version? You'll have a hard time synchronizing the databases later.

The Cannot connect to mySQL database error in WAMP almost certainly has to do with the configuration.php file. By default, the main DB username in WAMP is root, and the password is empty. But the database name also has to match, and depending on how you imported the database, it might not be the same on all your computers. You can easily check the database name by going to http://localhost/phpmyadmin.

Your configuration.php file should contain these entries:

public $host = 'localhost';
public $user = 'root';
public $password = '';
public $db = 'yourDatabaseName';

Finally, one more issue you should check: Is the MySQL service running? Left-click the small Wamp icon in your taskbar, select MySQL -> Service:

Note: Skype is known to cause conflicts with WAMPserver, because both uses Port 80 by default. Three quick solutions can be found here, I usually choose option 2 (Open Skype -> Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Connection and uncheck "use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections"), it's quick and easy.

Answer 2

The "Cannot connect to mySQL database error" is pretty much self-explanatory. You have no connection to the database, which means that one or more of the database connection credentials are wrong.

This can be either the host, the database name, the user or the password.

Note that different installations of applications like WAMP may have different configurations, like different db admin name /password. In many cases it's possible that there is an empty (blank) password, or a default password - e.g. root.

Consult the documentation of the application's version you are using to see about their settings and make sure you are using the correct ones on each instance.

On another note, I can't think how you will manage better 5 different installations for 1 website. The migration of data will be if not a nightmare, at least too much work. I would suggest 1 single installation online, where everyone can access it and work / enter data.

If you are developing, then you would need a version control like git.

Answer 3

Instead of WAMP consider using Portable XAMPP, practically the same thing but doesn't have to be installed- just copy the XAMPP folder from one PC to another and you are done. In case the destination folder or drive on the 2nd PC is different i.e. E:\ParentFolder\XAMPP instead of C:\XAMPP just run a batch .BAT file in the root XAMPP folder to remap paths.

Answer 4

If 'MSVCR110.dll' is missing that means some Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable packages are missing. In that case check required packages by running the executable file on this link "http://wampserver.aviatechno.net/files/tools/check_vcredist.exe"

If it shows that some packages are missing then install them or you can even download the required packages through this link "http://wampserver.aviatechno.net/?lang=en&prerequis=cacher" I'm sure this may work for the ".dll" files.

If everyone is working on same project. I should refer you to install Joomla online for working efficiently.