Working with your sites¶

Acquia Dev Desktop displays all of your websites in the left panel. The following icons distinguish the location of your websites:

Icon	Description
	Exists both locally and on Acquia Cloud
	Exists only locally in Acquia Dev Desktop

Viewing local websites¶

When you select a local website in the left panel, the right panel displays:

Local site – Click the link to view the website in your browser. Select the Use https check box to test your website using SSL. For more information, see Using HTTPS (SSL) with sites.
Local code – Click the link to view your local website’s codebase in your local file system, or use this URL in a Git client. Click the terminal icon to open a command line, set your Drush path, and go to your website’s docroot folder. You can also open the command line by clicking More > Open Console.
Local database – Click the link to inspect and manage your website’s database in your browser, using phpMyAdmin. See Working with your local database.
PHP version – A drop-down list to select the PHP version used for your local website. You can select the PHP version for a website only if your PHP mode is set to the default, Fast CGI (mod_fcgid), and not to Apache module (mod_php). For more information, see Configuring Acquia Dev Desktop.
Host this site on Acquia Cloud – Click the button to import the website into Acquia Cloud. For more information, see Hosting a site on Acquia Cloud.

Working with your local database¶

You can work with the database in your local website, using phpMyAdmin (which is included in Acquia Dev Desktop), the command line, or other database administration tools.

Using phpMyAdmin¶

To access the database with phpMyAdmin, click the Local database link to inspect and manage your website’s database in your browser, using phpMyAdmin. phpMyAdmin is a full-featured database management tool with which you can examine your database structure, run SQL queries, perform import and export operations, and more. See the phpMyAdmin documentation for more information.

Using the command line¶

You can access the database from the command line and use the mysql command line tool. Click the console icon at the end of the Local code line (or click More > Open Console). In the console, enter mysql. This gives you access to the mysql tool, which enables you to execute SQL commands against your database. See the mysql documentation for more information.

Viewing Acquia Cloud websites¶

When you select an Acquia Cloud website in the left panel, the right panel displays information about the website. Click the arrow in the left panel to view information about the website’s other environments (Dev, Stage, or Prod).

Acquia Cloud workflow – Opens the Cloud > Workflow page in the Acquia Cloud user interface, so you can drag and drop your website’s code between Dev, Stage, and Prod environments, switch deployed code branches or tags, and manage other aspects of your Acquia Cloud website.
Cloud site – Click the link to view the website in your browser, served by the Acquia Cloud server.
Git – The location of your website’s code base in your Acquia Cloud version control system. Click the clipboard icon to copy this URL. You can then use it at the command line or in a client to make changes to your code repository. For more information, see Managing your code and Sending updates to your code repository.
Code – The name of the branch or tag that is currently deployed on Acquia Cloud. To change the version of code deployed in an environment, click the Acquia Cloud workflow button. On the Cloud > Workflow page, select the code version you want, using the code selector in the environment’s Code block. Learn more.
SSH – The URL of your website’s Acquia Cloud server.
- Click the clipboard icon to copy this URL. You can then use it at the command line to connect to the server.
- Click the terminal icon to connect to the server.
For more information, see Managing your code and Sending updates to your code repository.
Clone the site locally and use it in Dev Desktop - Click this button to create a local clone of the Acquia Cloud website in your Acquia Dev Desktop local sites folder. For more information, see Working with sites on Acquia Cloud.

For more information, see Working with sites on Acquia Cloud.

Using a Git client to work with your code repository¶

You can use a local Git client with a GUI to work with your code repository. Some examples are:

You can configure your Git client by pointing it to the location of your local code repository (listed on the Local code line in Acquia Dev Desktop) or Acquia Cloud code repository (listed on the Git line in Acquia Dev Desktop).

Using HTTPS (SSL) with local sites¶

The Local site URL link for local websites provides a Use https check box. When you select the Use https check box, Acquia Dev Desktop serves your site using the HTTPS protocol and uses a self-signed SSL certificate to simulate secure traffic. This enables you to develop and test secure websites locally without requiring you to duplicate the SSL certificates you use on your production site.

Note

By default, Acquia Dev Desktop uses port 8443 for HTTPS traffic rather than the standard port 443, so redirects from HTTP to HTTPS that assume port 443 won’t work. You can set Acquia Dev Desktop to use port 443 in Acquia Dev Desktop > Preferences > Ports.

Apache and MySQL status indicators¶

The Apache and MySQL status indicators at the bottom of the dialog indicate when the Apache server and MySQL server are running (green) or stopped (gray). Click the Start/Stop button to start or stop them.