The Loopia loopiadns.com service gives you a temporary preview address (test URL) for a website hosted with Loopia, so you can build and test your new site even while your domain still points to another provider. It is useful when migrating to Loopia from an external host and you want to work on the new site before changing the DNS or name servers.
To reach the temporary address for a domain such as example.com, simply visit example.com.loopiadns.com in your browser.
If you installed an application through our One Click Installer, a few small configuration changes are required for the application to work correctly on the temporary address. To make these changes you will need an FTP client (file transfer program), for example FileZilla, to access our servers.
WordPress (CMS)
For a WordPress site, you need to edit wp-config.php so that WordPress recognises that it is being served from the temporary address.
Once connected to our FTP server, open the file at the following path:
\example.com\public_html\wp-config.php
Look for these two lines (if they do not exist, add them near the top of the file so they are easy to find later):
define('WP_HOME','http://example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com');
Change them to:
define('WP_HOME','http://example.com.loopiadns.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com.loopiadns.com');
$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = 'example.com.loopiadns.com';
Save the file and upload it back to the same folder on our FTP server.
Now visit your WordPress site on the new address. To make sure images load correctly, go to Settings > Media and edit Full URL path to files, appending .loopiadns.com to the address. For example:
http://media.example.com.loopiadns.com
When you are finished testing and ready to switch to Loopia as your live host, remove (or revert) those lines in wp-config.php and upload the file again.
Joomla (CMS)
For a Joomla site, no configuration changes are needed. Just visit your Joomla site on the temporary address:
http://example.com.loopiadns.com
Replace example.com with the domain on which you installed Joomla.
OpenCart (e-commerce)
For an OpenCart shop, you need to update both the admin and the public configuration files.
Once connected to our FTP server, open the admin configuration file:
\example.com\public_html\admin\config.php
Find these four lines:
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://example.com/admin/');
define('HTTP_CATALOG', 'http://example.com/');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://example.com/admin/');
define('HTTPS_IMAGE', 'https://example.com/image/');
Change them to:
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://example.com.loopiadns.com/admin/');
define('HTTP_CATALOG', 'http://example.com.loopiadns.com/');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'http://example.com.loopiadns.com/admin/');
define('HTTPS_IMAGE', 'http://example.com.loopiadns.com/image/');
Then open the public configuration file:
\example.com\public_html\config.php
Find these lines:
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://example.com/');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'http://example.com/');
Change them to:
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://example.com.loopiadns.com/');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'http://example.com.loopiadns.com/');
Save both files and upload them back to the same folders on our FTP server.
When you are ready to switch to Loopia as your live host, restore the original lines in the two config.php files and upload them again.
MediaWiki
For a MediaWiki site, no configuration changes are needed. Just visit your MediaWiki site on the temporary address:
http://example.com.loopiadns.com
Replace example.com with the domain on which you installed MediaWiki.