I have a DotNetNuke site that has been built and hosted for me. I have admin access but no files or FTP access. Is there a way I can save a copy of my existing site before editing or edit in a non-live environment in case I mess it up? OR if I do need to access the files directly (which I think I may need to for some editing) is it simply a matter of downloading a copy via FTP, editing on localhost using Xampp, the re-uploading new version? Thanks for the help, I am new to working with CMS's.
From my personal experience with DNN, it is very cumbersome to have a local copy, make updates locally and then copy the whole site to a live environment all the time. That involves not only the site files, but the database as well.
My usual suggestion is if you have a dnn site which is mostly HTML content based, make the changes on the live site. You can always go back to earlier versions of the HTML you have modified by resorting to the version control of the HTML module (5 latest versions by default)
If you are creating new pages, you can hide them out while they are under development. This way you will have time to work on them before they go live.
However if you still want to have a local copy, you have to:
I have number them in "4 easy steps" but each one is quite a bit involving.