I got a new job and the current programmer makes changes to files directly on the server the website is being hosted. I suggested that we both do testing/changes on a localhost WAMP server so that we aren't directly modifying the live website. Does anyone have any tips on configuring the localhost WAMP server the same as the live website? Besides downloading all the files from the live website, is there a way to export the Apache configuration files to make it work nicely with WAMP? Does anyone have suggestions on what to do when you have two programmers, do you both run a WAMP localhost test server? I've always gone from WAMP localhost to a live website, but I'm basically trying to figure out the best way to go from a live website to a WAMP localhost testing environment and what to do with more than one developer. Thanks for any input.
1st thing I would do is setup some sort of change control system like open atrium or even track changes using an excel spreadsheet (or notepad) until you can get something more stable. On the LAMP side of the house everything works well with rsync being able to mirror sites and replicate the database with ease. FileZilla or SycBack could work in your environment just as well.