How to structure a new website while preserving the current one ?

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Hello.

L'Abeille-cyclotourisme de Rueil Malmaison. Balades conviviales à vélo has been online since about year 2000. It is a 2.5 GB website used by my bicycle club, with HTML4 pages and CSS2, entirely hosted at the root of a single directory (containing many sub-directories) at Dreamhost.

Under the same domain name, I plan to create with my successor webmaster a new website for the exact same purpose, this time using Joomla or WordPress (my succesor's choice) to be more modern, with a Start-up Date within the year 2020. I don't know the first step I need to do.

Before Start-up Date, I currently assume, based on my searches on the web, that the new website, under construction and not advertised (closed to robots), should be visible on the subdomain (outdated link removed). Meanwhile, I want the old website, still updated, to continue to be accessible from the current domain www.abeille-cyclotourisme.fr.

After Start-up Date, I want the new website, then solely updated, to be visible on the domain www.abeille-cyclotourisme.fr. Meanwhile, the old website, no longer updated, would continue to be accessible from the subdomain, advertised and open to robots, (outdated link removed).

There would need to be a minimal number of links (about 10) from the new site to the old site and vice-versa.

The above may be a silly (unrealistic) way of addressing the question. If the question is realistic, which steps should I implement to achieve what I want ?

Create, in the form of two entirely separate directories, the two subdomains (outdated link removed) and (outdated link removed).

Copy all site contents to (outdated link removed)?

Redirect its content to www.abeille-cyclotourisme.fr ?

Empty the directory www.abeille-cyclotourisme.fr of its content ?

Create, over two years, the future new site in 2020.abeille-cyclotourisme.fr ?

On Start-up Date, undo the redirection from 2000.abeille-cyclotourisme.fr; and

Redirect (outdated link removed) to www.abeille-cyclotourisme.fr ?

Is the above feasible, is there a better way to achieve the same objective ?

Any help will be appreciated and useful. TIA
 
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It's been a long time since I built websites, but I would just make a new directory in the root of the current one and put all the new files in that directory for the new site. The links between them could easily be put on what ever pages you want them on. That's just the easy way. All that copying and changing shouldn't be necessary. Just continue to make the new site in the new directory (and test it there) and when it is ready to go live put the index file for it in the root and rename the old index file.
 
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michelangelo
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Thanks DianeVan, for responding to the core of my question (when I suggested that "The above may be a silly (unrealistic) way of addressing the question") rather than the details of my hypothetical course of action. I was focused on subdomains, shutting my eyes to structure. Your reply centers on structure, in a most elegant way I would not even have thought possible.

The current website is sitting in a folder located at toot, structured with files and folders, files and sub-folders, and sub-sub..., probably five levels deep, made with BBEdit, SeaMonkey, WebsiteMaestro and Transmit. Some may say (have said) about it: "Dinosaur website". If I were to build the new website the same [dinosaur-like] way, I trust your suggestion would beat all other alternatives I have been thinking in my mind.

My question to you, to the community therefore becomes: can I, indeed, just make a new directory in the root of the current one and create inside this new directory a Joomla (or WordPress) new website and instruct the Joomla-robot to put all its new files in that directory for such Joomla new site ? Or do these robot site builders like Joomla or Wordpress need their own piece of server real-estate close to root to live and prosper and feel offended (prevented from working efficiently) at being surrounded by alien hand-made files and folders ?

Again, thanks.
 
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As to your new question, as I mentioned it's a long time since I built websites. At that time I used Dreamweaver and even just .html. This was long before WordPress or Joomla or all the new automatic website builders. I am not familiar at all with these new website builders. So your new question about those might be better asked at WordPress or Joomla help forums or sites where the members are aware of the particularities of each of them. But really the basic principles should apply.

Of course, some other members of this site may be up on these (WordPress or Joomla) and you may get a good response here too.
 
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michelangelo
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Thank you Dianevan. I will post the question on the Dreamhost forum (Dreamhost is Abeille-cyclotourisme ISP). I did not originally post there because I presumed the Dreamhost community, whose language is Debian Linux, would behave to geekily for me, would not even consider so simple a question, or alternatively provide a response I would fail to understand from its first word. Not a matter of trust, I simply understand far better mac forums community members.

I will summarise here what I get there. Thanks, again.
 
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michelangelo
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Their advice is to use subdomains (like 1998.abeille-Cyclotourisme.fr and 2020.abeille-Cyclotourisme.fr), possibly under different users and play with DNS pointing.
 

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