Sorry guys,
Got myself in a tangle. I decided to rebuild my dev environment as DesktopServer was not working well for me so I:

1. Exported the database using phpmyadmin
2. Installed the WAMP stack
3. Relocated the site files under the WAMP/WWW folder
4. Imported the database to the WAMP MySQL
5. Removed the DesktopServer package
6. Edited the config.php to point to the new database

The site runs fine under the new localhost so the server is running and the database is hooked up OK but I just cannot access the admin panel at all.

The site URL is 'http://localhost/Web%20Development/Sites/rhodesCMS/' but when I put in 'http://localhost/Web%20Development/Sites/rhodesCMS/couch/' it just drops back to the site URL and launches the site.

Ideas appreciated.

Thanks

[KK]

Graham, it is always difficult to help with localhost issues as the setup cannot be accessed to study the problem firsthand.
I can only provide some very general tips -

1. Try specifying 'index.php' with the URL i.e. http://localhost/Web%20Development/Site ... /index.php

2. If a .htaccess file exists in the main site's root, try removing it.

3. If prettyURLs are on, turn then off.

Hope it helps.

Understood KK,
Responses in quote below. So I decided to delete the couch folder, download again and re-install. This helped - to a point. The site does not reload and I am directed to a login page.

http://localhost/Web_Development/Sites/rhodesCMS/couch/login.php?redirect=%2FWeb_Development%2FSites%2FrhodesCMS%2Fcouch%2F

The problem now is that I am directed to a regular 'login' page rather than the 'installation required' page I was hoping for but my old login credentials don't work. Not sure how it 'knows' I have logged in before as I completely reinstalled the directory.

Any way I can do a clean reinstall?

Graham, it is always difficult to help with localhost issues as the setup cannot be accessed to study the problem firsthand.
I can only provide some very general tips -

1. Try specifying 'index.php' with the URL i.e. http://localhost/Web%20Development/Site ... /index.php

did not work

2. If a .htaccess file exists in the main site's root, try removing it.

did not exist

3. If prettyURLs are on, turn then off.

off
Hope it helps.

[KK]

To do a fresh install over the same database, please find the following in 'couch/config.php' file..

// 7b.
// Needed only if multiple instances of this CMS are to be installed in the same database
// (please use only alphanumeric characters or underscore (NO hyphen))
define( 'K_DB_TABLES_PREFIX', '' );

.. and enter some prefix e.g. 'new_' in it -

define( 'K_DB_TABLES_PREFIX', 'new_'

Now access http://localhost/Web_Development/Sites/rhodesCMS/couch and you'll be prompted for a fresh installation.

Hope this helps.
Please let me know.

Phew.
That was an ordeal..... I had to get much more familiar with phpmyadmin than I wanted, transferring all the data from the old database to the new_ one but it is all working and I am not moving my files again. I will try and keep my head down for a bit while I get up to speed.

Thanks for all the great support.

I would happily buy a license at this point but I don't know the target domain yet - soon...

[KK]

Graham, I wonder if you chanced upon the following?
http://docs.couchcms.com/miscellaneous/ ... erver.html

You could have used the same method while moving the site from one local stack to another. No phpMyAdmin involved.

Good timing thanks!
I am going to need to push the site to a staging server soon and I was wondering..... I may try this approach. Mind you, a better understanding of phpMyAdmin is no bad thing for me at the moment.

The database tools in PHPStorm seem to have some data replication/synchronization capability as well which may be more helpful keeping it all aligned during the ongoing iteration process on the remote server.

Interesting question there. It is unlikely that the database naming will be the same on my staging server so I am assuming that I will post the config.php file along with the rest of the site, edit the remote copy on the server then have an FTP ignore to make sure it is not over-written by the local copy. Does that make sense?

- so much to learn.

[KK]

You are right - the remote config file will require modification to reflect the changed database settings of that server.