Production/hosted code conversion into dev environment

This sounds unusual but consider this case :
I have production/hosted code for sitefinity 4.0  website, can i create another dev environment from it? If yes then how? What should i need  to do? Can you point me to some direction?

I don't know if this is what you mean, but, you can copy your site's files and database from your production server to your local machine, then setup a dev environment.

Hi gregory,
You got me. I am using Sitefinity 4.0 , i have code and database backup from my production server (however some files are missing like SitefinityWebApp.csproj and UpdateLog.xml see image MissingFiles.png). So when i open project manager i don't find a way to import any project (See image NoImportOptionInProjectManager.png).  I can create a new project but unable to use my old project.
So can you guide me how to use my old project through project manager?

Hi vb,

I'd go a different route, now that you have backups of files and DB.

Meaning, I'd make sure I can run the site locally first. Later on, if/when needed, I'd bring the site into the project manager (e.g. to upgrade the sitefinity version for example).

I'd set up the DB in sql express (or any edition of mssql you're running). Make sure you can connect to the DB using mssql management studio.

Find the config file in your backed up site files folder that contains the DB connection string. Change the connection string to point to your local DB. (When you eventually bring up your local (dev) site, you want to prevent it from connecting to your production/hosted database.)

Move the folder with your site files to C:\inetpub\wwwroot and make sure that security for the "NETWORK SERVICE" user is set to Modify.

Launch IIS, set up a new site and make the physical path points to the folder with your site files.

I'd recommend reading through the following docs for anything I may have missed (e.g. application pools, etc.)
docs.sitefinity.com/configure-the-iis-to-host-sitefinity-projects
docs.sitefinity.com/run-projects-on-iis-7-0-and-above

Start/Run site from IIS.

If the site runs, you're good.

Bring the site into visual studio for any development.

I hope this helps.

Thanks gregory , that really helped.