Full documentation on the Elgg wiki (Docs) for this.

thanks cash; I'm not being lazy in that regard.. I've dug around in the wiki on various pages that may be relevant, including 'moving a site', 'upgrade', 'install' and so on.. and 'export' pages found via the search.

I don't see a solution that directly meets the needs here... .can you link me to a relevant page?

thanks

What works in any case is to start your site with the Elgg files (core and plugins) by copying all the files from your test site's root directory.You might have to adjust settings.php and .htaccess according to the situation on the server your site will run on (subdirectory or not, different database user and / or database name, different site URL).

Depending on what you want to use from your test site you can either start with a fresh database and data directory or you can continue with what you have on your test site. It should be explained in "moving a site" what has to be adjusted in the database (with for example phpMyAdmin).

I'd started with a clean install back then when I started on a real server as I didn't want the test user accounts and the content I added for testing on the real site. I had created the groups I wanted on the site again manually and also made the adjustments in plugin settings etc. according to the settings on my test site. As you will have your test site available in parallel to check what you might have to adjust it can be done quite fast. You could do the setup also in several steps, for example first copy only the core files and plugins, configure them and test if everything works (as there could be server issues on the real server you hadn't on your test server). The next step would be to add the additional plugins step-by-step.

hey iionly, (I realise I responded to you as lionly before.. hehe).

your solution does not take into account the version change.. 

basically I have a buggy installation with some test data in it.. 

and I need/prefer to create a fresh installation with a higher version number.. and to move the data across from the old, buggy installation to the new one.

if I do as you suggest I will be importing a database from an old installation into an installation with a higher version number.. which may be ok, I don't know.. I'm not really sure of all of the details.. Perhaps there is info in the wiki I missed (I haven't read it all yet).. 

I just wondered if there was a known way to do this... I imagine that its not a totally common request.. but neither totally uncommon either! hehe.

peace

Sorry, I seem to have missed your actual question. If I understand you correctly you have a clean 1.7.3 installation without errors and a buggy 1.7.2 installation that contains your data (for example groups...). I think you haven't missed any information as there are instructions about moving a site but staying on the same Elgg version and upgrading a site without moving respectively.

Basically you want to "move" your Elgg 1.7.2 installation (even if it would stay on your test server) and upgrade at the same time. It "could" work if you do copy the data directory and replace the database, then edit the database table according to the "site move" instructions and then run the upgrade.php script of 1.7.3 in your "new" site. But I would expect that it won't resolve the problems of your buggy 1.7.2 installation as the upgrade.php script won't repair the database.

I would suggest to either trying to get your 1.7.2 installation running without problems first before doing the upgrade + move or just start configuring your 1.7.3 installation without using any content (data dir, database, settings) for other installations - of course I don't know how many groups / content you already have created but the latter option might ne the easiest.

sure ok, that's what I figured..

I'll most likely just re-input the groups and other data.

Is there any plan that anyone here knows of to create a standard data export of some kind?

that can be imported to any version?

not the easiest thing to create since the codebase is constantly evolving.. it would be pretty useful though, none the less. :)

OpenDD ? ;-)

possibly!! the openDD page in the wiki is empty..

and the main domain for openDD on the web is non functional.

I've read the first few relevant pages in the wiki that mention OpenDD and the blogpost that is linked..

it just seems to be a very skeletal overview of it all.. I figured that there would be an actual working app/tool/script by now.. I haven't come across one yet..

have you actually used OpenDD to do an export?

thanks

Is that question - "have you actually used OpenDD to do an export?" rhetoric ? or merely a challenge ? I ask this of you, because in my life I have actually  done lots.. still there are those who question why things are the way things are? You most probably should study OpenDD before looking for a quick and ready-made solution for exprt/ imports - some coding on your part will be needed.

http://community.elgg.org/export/opendd/52477