John Faulds: I didn;t realise how much you could move into the default config file, that should save us a few headaches!

@MarmaladeToday => Thanks for the pointers and the addons – I’ll defo check them out as part of my default EE build – I’ve also change the references to ‘Expression Engine’ – hope that keeps you happy

@Emmanuel => ‘Merci Beacoup’ for the post, French duly changed!

All Comments are great – good to see that I can be of help to some people.

And by the way….”View our Archives” => “Consultez nos Archives”

I was going to point out the Deploy Helper and the config trick Tyssen flagged up as well.

You should also take a look at the addons by Experience Internet and Purple Dogfish for easy settings finding during build.

Also you can use {site_url} or {homepage} in the admin settings for URLs in weblog preferences etc too.

And, on a pedantic note, it’s ExpressionEngine (all one word). Sorry, but it just jars now when I see it spaced.

$conf['site_url'] = “http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/”;
$conf['tmpl_file_basepath'] = “${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/templates/”;
$conf['theme_folder_path'] = “${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/themes/”;
$conf['theme_folder_url'] = “http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/themes”;

$conf['captcha_path'] = “${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/images/captchas”;
$conf['captcha_url'] = “http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/images/captchas”;
$conf['avatar_path'] = “${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/images/members/avatars”;
$conf['avatar_url'] = “http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/images/members/avatars”;
$conf['photo_path'] = “${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/images/members/photos”;
$conf['photo_url'] = “http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/images/members/photos”;
$conf['ft_path'] = “${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/${conf['system_folder']}/extensions/fieldtypes/”;
$conf['ft_url'] = “http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/${conf['system_folder']}/extensions/fieldtypes/”;

You can also get around having to reset file upload directories by using relative paths, e.g.

Server Path to Upload Directory = ../images/
URL of Upload Directory = /images/

Then, using your default install method, assuming you always keep the folder structure the same, whenever you start a new site, those settings are already correct without having to edit anything.

You can also get around having to use a particular naming convention for your custom fields if you use Brandon Kelly’s excellent Gypsy extension – create a custom field once and use it wherever you want.

@Jefj => No problems at all, feel free to hit me up on skype or email if you want to collaborate on a post at all… I’ve already got other hints and tips that I’ve thought about since!

Your points on language just saved me a million headaches, being in Montreal and all.

Thanks for the excellent post.