grafting joomla onto an existing web site

Hi. I have a small site that I would like to use joomla with. Right now it is running a small php-based front end that joomla will replace, but some of the subdirectories house applications that I need to keep around. I was wondering, if I go through the 1-click install and tell it to install joomla to ~/webroot/ -- will it blow away the scripts that I have in ~/webroot/app1/ and ~/webroot/app2 ?

I will need app2 and app2 to on the new site, I just want the content all around it to change. Has anyone ever tried this?

I know that I could tar them up and then untar when joomla is in, but looking ahead to future upgrades and the like, I just wonder if it will all play nicely together.

Thanks in advance, --chris

ps: I have run them separately and there are no php.ini issues involved, so it is really all about what happens to the non-joomla directories.

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if I go through the 1-click install and tell it to install joomla to ~/webroot/ -- will it blow away the scripts that I have in ~/webroot/app1/ and ~/webroot/app2 ?

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My experience has been that the "one-click" install will fail, reporting the the destination directory must be entirely empty for the install to take place.

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I will need app2 and app2 to on the new site, I just want the content all around it to change. Has anyone ever tried this?

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Sure! I've done it many times. The trick is to install Joomla! yourself instead of doing the "one-click" install. .

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I just wonder if it will all play nicely together.

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Generally it should, though there are a few potential "gotcha"s. For example, you will have issues if any of the subdirectories below webroot have the same name as those in the Joomla! install, and you may need to "tweak" your Joomla! .htaccess file to make sure re-write rules don't prevent you from accessing those other subdirectories.

From your .ps. remark, you are likely to be "ok" as long as you avvount for the issues I mentioned above. Good Luck!

--rlparker

For what it is worth, I had nothing better to do tonight and fooled around with the situation on some of my more dead sites.

1. Initial installation of Joomla with one-click install wants the target directory to be empty or else the script dies.

2. I had an existing sandbox install of an older version. I moved one of my php apps under the root directory, and then issued an upgrade request through the CP. Success!

I don't know if this might break later if there is a major version upgrade that wants to clean everything up, but it looks like I can set the scripts aside on my production site, install to an empty directory, and then move it all back for the foreseeable future (whatever that is).

Cheers,

--chris

Hey, whatever works! I suspect the next "major" upgrade for Joomla! is not going to be a "one-clicker" - as version 1.5 (coming soon!) is *significantly* different in several rather major ways.

There is a lot of talk on the Joomla! forums about that upcoming migration - and it will involve database changes as well as code changes.

The consensus last time I looked was that the "upgrade" process would require considerable "manual" tweaking. All that makes the concern about any "one-click" upgrade possibly moot.

BTW, it is *really easy* to manually upgrade Joomla! without the help of the CP - almost as easy as it it to originally install it without the CP.

That's what I have always done, as I can leave the rest of a site functioning (no "empty directory" requirement), which works like a charm as long as you don't have any files with the same name, or subdirectories with the same name, as the Joomla! install.

It looks like you are probably "good to go"!

--rlparker