I want to copy a site to a new server. I've developped a site on a test server, now I want to copy it to a public server (both run DNN 07.00.05).

I thought I could export the site as a template using the "export site template" button in the site management screen. ftp the template file from one server to the other and create a new site based on that template.

When I export the site without content, it is really without contents. Only the pages and which module is placed where on the page seems to be included. Not even the module settings are included.

When I export the site with content, The site creation fails with a file not found error on a file in the newly created portal. The site is now in some half broken state. There is a page with teh default dnn template, but the login button results in a half login screen. I can create a next protal with the same alias (which normally is not possible) and it fails with the same error message, except the portal id is incremented.

I don't see any files included in the template, it's an xml file, so there probably can't be any files included at all. I would have expected the template to be a zip file.

I think I'm mistunderstanding the concept of the site template?? What would be the correct way to copy a site to an other server?

Are you sure we're talking about the same thing? I'm not talking about a skin, but a site template which does have the option to include content. And texts *are* included, but images aren't and the references to the cause fatal file not found error while creating a site based on that template.

Copying the whole database would copy data from all portals, not just one and it would be impossible to add a portal to an DNN install which already contains portals.

And why would there be an option to 'include content' in a site template when that only results in file not found errors? Or am I supposed to create the new portal directory and copy the files into there before creating the site? (like /portals/6/, hoping that will be the new directory.) That seems to be very fumbly.

Are you saying there is no way to move a portal from one server to the other? For the site template (which is beginning to seems pretty useless) you need host access, how does that work for paid DNN hosting where you don't have host access? You could ask the provider to click a few buttons, but no one will give you a whole database dump. The only option is to recreate the whole site page by page, setting by setting because on the old hosting site there is no way to export your site and on the new site there is no way to import it? Not even with the help of the host? That sounds very unlikely for a CMS that's been evolving for over 10 years.

So all the work I did creating the site on a test server, has been a waste of time and I have to redo it all on the public server?

Aha!
When you export a template with content, it also creates a .template.resources file, which is not shown in the DNN file manager. You're not allowed to upload a file with that extension (not even via a zip file) or rename a file to that extension, etc. So you'll have to resort to ftp.
it appears only some known extensions are allowed, a file called hello.world isn't displayed/allowerd either.

It's a lot more than I had, but still not perfect. Images (except the favicon), html-module content and module settings are included, but site settings aren't. And unfortunately the import/export function of modules isn't used, so modules which store their configuration someplace else (other than module settings) and nicely provide the import/export interface, still come without their data. (writing this, I guess that's because the is only a general import/export, not seperate import/exports for configuration and data and in a template you do want the configuration of a module, not the data)