My searches haven't turned up anything so the answer to my question must be so simple that everyone else knows how to do it.

I have a live site that I want to replace with a JB template.... but I need to keep the existing site live while tweaking the new one. How can I have a parallel site running on shared (live) data?

Hi there,

This is prob more of a general Joomla question and would relate to any template. I guess the only real difference between templates will be module positions (give or take a few extra features like analytics, hidden panels etc). But this is the way I would go about it:

- Grab a snapshot of the site using Akeeba.
- Install the backup locally or on the development domain
- Install the JB template and configure it with the data.
- Save the params.ini file for the template once setup. You would use this on the live site version of the JB template.
- Install the JB template on the live site and copy across the params.ini

The next stages will really depend on how adept you are at phpmyadmin.

- You could grab the tables that relate to the module positions from your development install and then import it into the live site.
- Enable the new template

or a safer way ...

- enable the new template.
- Reassign the module positions on the live site according to the way you have them on the development site.
- This will of course mean the site will look messy for a little while but doesnt require any indepth phpmyadmin skills.

Hope that helps.

Anthony