Is there a way to FTP a particular component between joomla sites

Question

I've been working with wordpress for so many years, and I've just been tasked with helping someone fix their joomla site. For some reason they didn't want to copy over the whole site to a dev environement so they only installed the theme and then re-installed core components except for one.

They don't have a zip file for it and it was built by another dev so it's not available many places and I'm wondering if there's a way to just FTP a component between Joomla sites. I have both servers accessed here in filezilla but I don't know what particular folders and files should be included, typically, for a component

any help is appreciated

Answer 1

It would help if you told us what the extension is, so we could be specific. But failing that, try this:

• Presuming that it's a site component you're dealing with (of course there are different types of extensions), you'll find a component folder named com_componentname under [SITE_ROOT]/administrator/components.
• In that folder, you'll find an XML file, probably named something like component_name.xml. The XML file is the component manifest.
• In the manifest, you will find full lists of files and folders inside the <files folder="site"> tags and the <files folder="admin"> tags. These two lists will usually refer to assets located in [SITE_ROOT}/components/com_componentname and [SITE_ROOT}/administrator/components/com_componentname folders respectively.
• The manifest may also identify media files and folders inside the <media destination=" ... " tags, and it might also identify language files stored in the site and/or administrator language folders.
• You should be able to find all these elements from the component manifest file. You can then collect them together in a zip file. Be sure to preserve the folder structure under [SITE_ROOT] in your zip file.
• Now take your zip file over to your new site root and unzip its contents to the same locations they came from.
• Finally, run the Discover tool in Joomla!'s system extension manager. If all has gone according to plan, your new site will discover the original extension and you can then install it in your new system.

And FWIW you do not run a risk of preferring to work with Joomla!. Joomla! is alive and kicking and can more than hold its own against any other CMS on the market.

Answer 2

There a plenty opportunities for things not to work at the other end, however this is the basics that might get you there.

Depending on the component that you want to move you will need to find all the pieces of the component and they should be in /administrator/components/com_some-name/ for the back end and /components/com_some-name/ for the front end elements. You might also find something in /media/com_some-name/.

Copy those directories to the same places on the target site, whether you use FTP or some other technique is up to your environment.

Then log into the back end of the target site and go to Extensions=>Manage=>Discover and if the component does not appear on the list, hit the Discover button in the top left. Once the extension shows up you can hit the Install button and it will attempt to add the component details to the #___extensions table.

If you are lucky the component might work on the new site, however there could be other steps required, maybe data in sql tables that need to be exported/imported that really will need an understanding of the component you are moving.

You also run the risk of preferring to work with Joomla.