Testing your site before publishing it

The preview

The Preview screen shows your site as your visitors will see it, with your real data. Choose the device to check how it looks on a computer, tablet or phone, and open it in your browser if needed with Open in browser.

The preview is enough to check the look. But features that run on a server (forms, orders, bookings, protected pages, dashboard) cannot be tried out for real there.

If the preview does not start

TOWeb tells you why, and what to do:

• Windows or your antivirus blocked a preview file: allow TOWeb in your antivirus, then click Retry;
• TOWeb files cannot be found, often quarantined by an antivirus: restore them or reinstall TOWeb, then allow it in your antivirus;
• the preview took more than 5 minutes to start, often because an antivirus is scanning its files: click Retry, the next start is faster;
• page generation does not finish: after 10 minutes, the preview says so instead of waiting forever, and explains what to do;
• no local port is free: restart TOWeb, and if it happens again, the computer;
• the disk is full: free up some space, then click Retry.

The local test

Test the site locally, on the Publish screen, runs your site as if it were online, but on your computer, without publishing anything.

1. Open Publish and find the Test the site locally section.
2. The first time, TOWeb needs PHP. If it is not on your computer, click Install PHP: it is downloaded from lauyan.com, verified and stored in TOWeb’s folder, without installing anything on your system.
3. Click Test the site locally. TOWeb builds the site, copies it into a test folder and opens it in your browser.
4. Send a form, place an order, book a slot.
5. Click Stop when you have finished.

Emails stay with you

No email is sent during the test. The messages your site would send (order confirmation, form message, booking) are displayed in TOWeb, under Emails sent by the site.

The test dashboard

Open the test dashboard opens the dashboard of this copy. Its first-login code is shown in TOWeb; it only works for the test, not for your live site.