HTTPS / SSL Conversion

Hello,

I am soon going to change my site from HTTP to HTTPS and have read a couple of blog posts about adding PERCH_SSL in the config file and then PerchSystem::force_ssl(); after the runtime line on every page however I'm still a little bit confused as to where this sits in the overall process of my switch over so I have a couple of hopefully easy questions to ensure I don't panic pester you if I get it wrong!

Here goes...

1) If I'm using the 301 redirects in my .htaccess file do I need to follow the instructions you give as above?

2) Other than my actual web pages do I need to do anything else to ensure that the CMS admin continues to function correctly?

3) Is there anything else I must do to ensure I don't run into issues? I attempted to make this change last year without the above changes (just did the 301 redirects) and I was greeted with a blank page when trying to load the site which was quite stressful as I depend on this site for my personal living! Should I make any Perch changes before doing the redirects etc?

A always your help and advice is greatly appreciated.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Rob

Perch: 2.8.18, PHP: 5.6.35, MySQL: mysqlnd 5.0.11-dev - 20120503 - $Id: 76b08b24596e12d4553bd41fc93cccd5bac2fe7a $, with PDO
Server OS: Linux, cgi-fcgi
Installed apps: content (2.8.18), assets (2.8.18), categories (2.8.18), perch_blog (5.0), perch_mailchimp (2.0.1)
App runtimes: <?php $apps_list = array( 'content', 'categories', 'perch_blog', 'perch_mailchimp', ); ?>
PERCH_LOGINPATH: /perch
PERCH_PATH: /homepages/30/d205476839/htdocs/colconquerors/colconquerors2011/perch
PERCH_CORE: /homepages/30/d205476839/htdocs/colconquerors/colconquerors2011/perch/core
PERCH_RESFILEPATH: /homepages/30/d205476839/htdocs/colconquerors/colconquerors2011/perch/resources
Image manipulation: GD
PHP limits: Max upload 64M, Max POST 64M, Memory: 256M, Total max file upload: 64M
Resource folder writeable: Yes
HTTP_HOST: www.colconquerors.com
DOCUMENT_ROOT: /kunden/homepages/30/d205476839/htdocs/colconquerors/colconquerors2011
REQUEST_URI: /perch/core/settings/diagnostics/
SCRIPT_NAME: /perch/core/settings/diagnostics/index.php