How to Migrate Your Virtuemart Joomla Install

There are several reasons one might opt to migrate his or her installation of Joomla! and VirtueMart.  Continuing from our previous post on Why Open Source Rocks My Socks, platforms such as Joomla! are easily moved, transferred, and migrated.

Let’s say you have an installation of Joomla! and VirtueMart on one hosting account, and you want to move it to a new location.  Let’s also say, for simplicity’s sake, that you happen to be using HBLI’s store package or a similar version of the software.  Here are the steps you will need to take, at the time of publication of this post:

1. Download all files in your www root.  Contact your hosting provider to learn where this is; it is typically the highest location in which files can exist and still appear on your website.  Make sure you preserve the original file structure when you download the files!
2. Export your entire Joomla! database.
3. Import the database into your new location.
4. Ensure that the PHP settings for your new location are as similar as possible to your previous location.  Check PHP versions especially, and extensions if applicable.
5. Upload all files, preserving the file structure, to the www root on your new location.
6. Locate the file called “configuration.php” in your www root.  In that file:
   1. Update $host with the new host name, if it has changed.
   2. Update $user with the new database user name, if it has changed.
   3. Update $password with the new database password, if it has changed.
   4. Update $db with the new database name, if it has changed.
   5. Update $live_site with the direct URL for your new location, if it has changed.
   6. Update $log_path with the direct path to the “logs” folder, usually in your www root.
   7. Update $tmp_path with the direct path to the “tmp” folder, usually in your www root.
7. Locate the file called “virtuemart.cfg.php” in Administrator/Components/com_virtuemart.  In that file:
   1. Edit line 34 with the correct URL.
   2. Edit line 35 with the correct secure URL.
   3. Edit line 87 with the correct download root path.

Need help with any of this?  We offer technical support to those on our hosting, and we are happy to walk you through the migration process.  For information on this and other services, please see

cc image credit: gogoloopie