As a complete beginner, I have adapted the natureweb4 theme a little, and produced webpages to upload to a hosting site. My webpages are all contained within the Natureweb directories, the config php file in Mysite refers to that theme, all other directories in Mysite are untouched. (if that is important?)

I have arranged for Website hosting to be done by Net24, (who support the open source software used by Silverstripe) with my new Website name. Their instructions for sending my Webpages involve Primary DNS Hostname, Slave DNS Hostname and upload instructions for uploading FTP files etc I can see an empty site page ready waiting for my webpages, but have no idea how to move them there with FTP. I cant find any documentation or method in Siverstripe CMS to publishing my new pages on the internet at the new site. At the moment all my pages come under silverstripe.com.

I am sure this must be simple knowledge for most people here, but I would be most grateful for any advice

if you want to copy pages and content you have entered on your localcopy to the live webserver you will have to export the Database of your local to the live site - you will need to use a tool like phpMyadmin to export / import the db.

What have you used for you local website? WAMP?

Thanks willr, Yes I am using WAMP via the PCW disc

right so what you can do is go to localhost/phpmyadmin on your local server, select your database on the left hand side from the list and then hit the Export Tab on the top right then select the Save As File down the bottom and hit enter - this will save a copy of your database to your computer.

Now you have to import it again on the live site - so go to PHPMyadmin on your live webserver (most hosts will have this) and select the database for your live site. Then in that database hit the Import tab on the top right handside and select the file you made from step 1 on your computer.

This will import the information from the exported file to the live database. All going well that should work! All you would need to do is if you had any uploaded files you will need to copy the contents of the assets folder on your local to the assets folder on the live site

Thanks again willr.
I got as far as creating the copy of my data base. I am using the natureweb4theme and have adjusted the theme with new images etc within the natureweb4 directories. I assumed that all the .php files in the natureweb4 theme needed to be copied to the equivalent empty directories in mysite to get this to work because my_site is the only choice given in PHPMyadmin for database export

Next I phoned Net24 and spoke to support. They do support php, and said they know about PHPMyAdmin, (but I cannot see it on their website). They use something called PLESK Server Administrator. I have been told that PHPMyAdmin will only transfer the database but the files would still have to be transferred by FTP. They seemed very determined about that, and suggested I talk to my Website Creator (but that is me technically speaking!) The Plesk administration software they use imports databases of type mySQL (which should be OK)

Does PHPMyadmin avoid using FTP?

At the moment I have a simple working website perfect for my needs as viewed through Silverstripe. SO NEAR YET SO FAR. I guess I could
I have got to thank you for again for your help in this.When you release something like Silverstripe to the masses via a computer magazine, you are going to attract the fiddlers who like to have a go themselves. Sorry about that!

Moving a site is a complicated process the first couple of times! But basically the phpmyadmin export was just for the site data - eg pages you have created etc, It does not copy the themes, code you have written or anyother project stuff. Just the pages and content you see in the CMS.

Ontop of exporting and importing that database file you will need to copy your Files (usually the mysite/code/ folder and the themes/ folder) and any other modules, widget folders via FTP to the relevant folders on your live web server

Willr thanks for your continuing advice, and patience. As you say it seems very complex, I am still trying to move stuff.

The .sql database did finally get transferrred to Net24, once a pop up was disabled to allow their phpmyadmin to appear and perform the import.

Their instructions are to FTP all my folder structures and files , into a folder on their site called httpdocs, overwriting all that was contained within. This unfortunately has not worked so far.

Can I clarify exactly what directory structure has to be transferred.
As I mentioned Mysite on my computer contained only the config.php which I adjusted to refer to the natureweb4 theme (as per PCW tutorial). All my adaptions of this theme were done to the css, images, and templates folders in the Natureweb4 folder in the themes folder, mysite being empty

To export the .sql database, you have to use the ss_mysite option. I copied the css, images, + templates folders from the natureweb4 folder in themes into the equivalent empty folders on mysite, to enable an export. That seemed to be the place they should go!

I didn't copy the theme folder before export, because the themes folder seems to be part of the silverstripe software, and was not part of mysite. Should it have been attached in some way to the mysite folder and be part of the export sql. ? If so how?

Similarly the assets folder you mentioned is part of silverstripe and not mysite.

It is hard for a simple user to know exactly what structures needs to be sent by FTP to allow a successful reproduction of the site which was so easy to see when it was within Silverstripe CMS and on the web via silverstripe.

Once again I am grateful for any help. I wonder is Silverstripe could produce a tutorial about moving things, even though this is not your core business. It would encourage more people to have a go with opensource, if this crucial final part of the process was covered somehow.

The tutorial is something defiantly on our todo list or if someone from the community would like to document their process that too would be good!

The files / folders you FTP are completely seperate from the DB. Think of them as independent parts - the only way you need to link the DB and the files is by setting where the database is in the mysite/_config.php file.

As to what you need to copy to the live site, you need to copy everything from your local to the live webserver. Every single folder and every file. Though what I normally do myself is rather then copy the whole project directory I download a new 'fresh' copy of SilverStripe, upload this to the webserver (the whole thing) then run through the installer - this makes sure that the webserver supports SilverStripe.

Make sure that installs correctly and you should have the default theme/ pages etc. Ok so you have SilverStripe running on the live server. Next task is the new theme - so FTP the themes/yourthemename folder to the same place on the live server and change the mysite/_config.php file to point to the theme (just like you did on your local copy).

Now ?flush=1 the site and make sure that your new theme works!. So you should have a working copy of SS running with your theme on the live server. You mentioned that you didnt touch any of the PHP code - just the theme stuff so now we just need to copy across the database via PHPMyadmin - same process as before - export on your local, open up the live sites phpmyadmin and open up the database you installed SilverStripe on the live site with and import your file.

Now revisit your site and see if that worked!.