Site Preview paths & pretty URL's for site preview

[Bluesplat]

I have 2 problems that I'm experiencing with my VPS running Plesk 10.2 on Ubuntu 8.04.

Problem 1:
Today I setup a new customer with a domain and hosting. They are currently using their domain elsewhere until there new site is ready, so the DNS for the domain is pointing to their current host.

I installed Joomla on their hosting but when I click on the site preview under their domains, it isn't loading any style sheets or images. It seems to be that none of the paths are correct.

How can I fix this?

Problem 2
Related to the above client as well.. if I get the above problem sorted, is their away that I can provide them with a nicer URL e.g. clientname.myip.com / clientname.mywebsitename.com rather than https://myip:8443/sitepreview/http/clientssite.com

I know this is going to require me to do some work on the backend, but I don't mind as it's not a anybody can register hosting service.

Thanks in advance for anyone that helps
Tyler

 

[VitaliyTs]

There is a new preview mode in Plesk 10.4, which will allow to solve both problems.

You can read about it here: http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/PP10/10.4/Doc/en-US/online/plesk-administrator-guide/70219.htm and http://download1.parallels.com/Ples...uide/plesk-control-panel-user-guide/69679.htm

 

[Bluesplat]

Hi VitaliyTs,

I've upgraded my panel from 10.2 to 10.4 and have read both of the links you have posted and also applied the settings relating to each.

However, in the release notes for 10.4 it says:

Quick preview of a website. Customers are able to preview their websites even if the associated domain names are not yet configured in DNS. The websites are available as subdomains under a hosting provider's domain name (say, <site-name>.hosting-provider-domain.com).

Learn how to set up domain preview and use it.

I've read the Configuring DNS Services page and it doesn't mention anything about applying settings for the preview URL to actually work.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Tyler

 

[Bluesplat]

I updated my above post with more information to what I have done this morning.

Thanks
Tyler

 

[Bluesplat]

Can anyone help me resolve this issue?

Thanks
Tyler

 

[VitaliyT]

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[VitaliyTs]

Hello Bluesplat,

It depends on which domain name you decided to use as a preview domain on "Tools & Settings" > "Website Preview Settings" page: internal domain name (i.e. served by Plesk) or external domain name (i.e. served by external DNS server).

If you choose an internal domain name - no special actions for DNS configuration are required, wildcard A records *.<ip>.<preview-domain.tld> will be added to DNS zone of your preview domain and webserver will be configured to properly serve the preview subdomains for your sites.

If you choose an external domain name - you'll need to add wildcard A records *.<ip>.<preview-domain.tld> to DNS zone of your preview domain <preview-domain.tld>. Here <ip> is the Plesk server IP where dots (.) for IPv4 or colons ) for IPv6 are replaced with dashes (-), <preview-domain.tld> - is a domain name used for preview. So if you have several IPs in Plesk, you'll need to add several A records to external DNS zone.

 

[Bluesplat]

Hey Vitality,

I obviously don't have this setup correctly then.

I have the preview url setup as the main domain for the vps which is an internal domain.

However, when I go into the control panel of the domain I'm working with then go to "websites & domains" and then click on site preview, the site preview just redirects me to my main domain, it won't show me any preview at all.

Infact, if i type say paralles.mymainvpsdomain.com it will redirect me to mymainvpsdomain.com instead of showing a 404 page.

 

[VitaliyTs]

Hello Bluesplat,
Sorry for the late response.
Let's check it step-by-step.
1. As I understand you have internal domain, say mymainvpsdomain.com.
2. You have selected it as a preview domain on 'Tools & Settings' > 'Website Preview Settings' > 'Quick Preview on a domain name in Panel'.
3. Then you go to control panel of one of your subscriptions > 'Websites & Domains tab' and click on the preview icon for one of the domains, say site.tld, in the domains list. After the click new browser window should open which will redirect you to http://site.tld.<your-ip>.mymainvpsdomain.com, which is the preview URL for website site.tld.
But you are redirected to http://mymainvpsdomain.com, is it correct?

 

[RKM Tech]

Why include the domain?

In Plesk 9 we were using httpd.includes to provide site previews using a structure like customerdomain.ltd.ourdomain.ltd and it worked beautifully. Then we upgraded to plesk 10.2 and lost that functionality so I just upgraded us to plesk 10.4.4 (2 upgrades in 3 days..lots of fun) and now we get a partial solution instead of what we really need.

If you think about it from the clients perspective, they need something easy to remember that they can pull up without having to look at an email to go see their site before propagation. In our case, we're designing working sites for the clients to replace their current sites so they can't switch their DNS over until the site we are creating is finished and everything is ready. That being the case, we have to give them the ability to look at their sites and use the content management system before they can even think of moving their domain over to the new server. Now the solution Parallels has provided is a step towards what we were already doing, but since I don't see a way to just rework it in the DNS zone and I don't see any httpd.include file under the domain I have specified to use for the preview, I don't know where to look so I can potentially remove the need for the IP address.

I guess what I'm asking is, has anyone here removed the need for the IP address in the preview url yet or does anyone know where I can edit the needed files that are used in the new site preview?

Thanks in advance