Ran into issue of client having a live site (in HTML) and we are building our first Drupal site using the same name. So how does one pull that off without having to use a strange site name for the Dev site, then having to rewrite all the page titles when it's time to set the Dev site to 'Go Live' ?
Long story short: Found out we could name the site the same but the Dev site name is off by a few letters plus it is indicated by dev(DOT) parentsitename.com/puppydogs/
Okay we started with the live site name: puppydogs(DOT)com
Then named the dev site: http://dev.oursite(DOT)com/poopydogs/
Then we installed Drupal normally and started building the site. No conflicts, well until we got to one or two modules but that's another story, another post.
Seems simple enough and coders will groan reading this but to someone up against it for the first time, it's a nightmare.
Comments
Internal and External DNS
You might try adding a subdomain to host the dev site on, or a different cname in DNS, like ww1.clientsname.com or dev.clientsname.com, with the IP pointing to the dev server. I have seen also DNS admins make an internally resolvable name the same as an external one, but only for a single subnet, that way dev machines work with the test site, everyone else sees the production site.
Great advice!
Thanks Ross, great advice. I guess that there is more than one way to handle this.