Need to change primary domain name for Drupal site hosted with GoDaddy

By jtmiles on 25 Sep 2013 at 20:45 UTC

I just commented on a older post that to a vague degree dealt with this. I thought I had make it a post on its own.

I need to change my primary domain name, but GoDaddy isn't much help. I set my domain as dev.mysite.org while developing and now need to change to mysite.org. The name of the site has always been mysite.org, so changing that doesn't change much. GoDaddy thinks it will break my site if we change the domain in the hosting without changing in the Drupal instance, but I am not finding where to do that in Drupal. I have looked at more forum posts than I can remember pertaining to GoDaddy and not.

Any light that can be shed will be appreciated.
Thanks!

Comments

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VM commented 26 September 2013 at 03:12

drupal doesn't care unless you set a $base_url in settings.php or used absolute urls in any of your content.

dev.yourdomain.com indicates that you set up a subdomain. If that is the case is the drupal install in a subfolder in the main domain root?

Not in root

jtmiles commented 26 September 2013 at 13:36

VM,
Thanks for your reply. It is in the /sites/default folder. I have two other domains and they are in the root. When I started setting this up with GoDaddy the tech suggested that I (since I had a live site of mysite.com elsewhere at the time) set it up with the dev.mysite.com then change when ready.

So from the start my hosting and thereby my Drupal site has been at dev.mysite.com.

jtmiles

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VM commented 26 September 2013 at 13:45

Thanks for the followup but you've offered no new information nor have you answered the question posed to you.

clarification

jtmiles commented 26 September 2013 at 14:58

VM,

It is not in the root. It is in the /sites/default.

jtmiles

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VM commented 26 September 2013 at 15:01

what's not in the root? settings.php? it's not supposed to be nor is that what I mentioned in the comment that seems to have caused confusion. Perhaps re-reading the comment will aid.

re:

jtmiles commented 26 September 2013 at 15:14

VM,
you asked:
"dev.yourdomain.com indicates that you set up a subdomain. If that is the case is the drupal install in a subfolder in the main domain root?".

That is what I am trying to answer.

As I now look at the other domains for a point of reference, it does look like dev.mysite.com is setup in the root folder, not a subfolder. (now that I have some idea of what I am looking for).

jtmiles

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VM commented 26 September 2013 at 15:17

let's try this: I venture that you have a folder titled dev somewhere. yes? if so where?

Nope

jtmiles commented 26 September 2013 at 15:49

VM,

Nope. I went through all the folders checking for a dev folder. None to be found. As I say, I set this up from the start as dev.mysite.com per a recommendation from a GoDaddy tech. So a mysite.com never existed in this hosting/installation.

jtmiles

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VM commented 26 September 2013 at 16:32

Therefore, you need godaddy to remove the dev domain and point the main domain back at the public root. After doing so clear the cache tables in the database and your browser.

The above assumes you've used relative urls in content and not absolute. If you've used absolute urls you will need to perform a search and replace on the database.

Thanks

jtmiles commented 26 September 2013 at 17:30

VM,

Thanks for your patience and help on this. I have done no absolute urls, so that should be fine. I am not sure, however, on how to clear the cache tables in the database. I am a n00b at drupal.

I will search for that, but, again, any help you can lend will be appreciated.

jtmiles

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VM commented 26 September 2013 at 17:36

one method:
use phpmyadmin on the server
back up the db (just in case)
checkmark exach table marked cache, cache_ or _cache
empty the tables

The above is only required if the site doesn't work after being moved and you can't get to administer -> site performance to use the clear cache button