Unfortunately this is rather quirky and convoluted. See Background to understand the history which may explain some of the convolutedness (if that word is not too convoluted!!)
I do all development on a PC simulation of a web site, using NetBeans, free from Oracle, to manage the code and XAMPP to simulate the website. Only once the code is fully tested do I copy it to HostGator.
Changing between web and PC simulation
There is a module in the home grown code,
public_html/home2/ non_wp_routines,
called constants.php. This MUST be changed in going from local simulation to web. In particular
- LOCAL_HOST must be set FALSE for the web and TRUE for PC simulation
- DEBUG_MODE must be set FALSE for the web. It can be set either TRUE or FALSE for PC simulation mode, TRUE will generate a lot of extra output which can be useful for debugging purposes but a pain in the actual site.
All the WordPress code is in folder “public_html/home2/gentsinnyon”. This contains a file called “wp_constant/plugins/mgw-gin-enable-db-updates” which contains a method called “mgw_gin_define_constants()”.
LOCAL_HOST must also be set here. Again set FALSE for web and TRUE for PC simulation.
I’m sure there must be a better way than having to define LOCAL_HOST twice in separate modules of code. But I don’t know a simple way. Probably possible to have the code detect where it’s running. Help anyone!!
Old bits of code
Some of the variables in constants.php are no longer used, also some of the code such as transition_files.php. This is a remnant from some of the changes I needed to make to the database as the code moved through several stages of development. I’ve left them in here for fear that omitting them may break some link.