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help needed with WP

by yuccarichard
4 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hi all web gurus

I could use some help/guidance with wordpress, as I'm still quite a newbie with it, but not newbie in web design.

issue is: I'm about to do some heavy updating to existing WP site of mine, meaning changing the template completely, some structural changes etc.

I'm planning on keeping the current posts n pages about as they are though, but not sure which is the best way to "update" the whole site? I can run the theme locally of course, but that's about it. The thing is, I get some visitors already and they are growing day by day so don't want to "rape" the site now...

how hard it would be for WP-newbie like me to get the whole site on local PC (with DB etc.) and then do all the needed updates for layout/content etc. and then upload it to live server and and still have it fully functional with DB etc.?

I'm quite useless what comes to backend stuff so I'm afraid that I might mess the whole site up, also due moving houses, I'm hanging on with ****ty 3G connection at least till next week.

guidance more than welcome

- Yucca
#needed
  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    You are mixing two different issues.

    1. Changing just the design; i.e. installing another theme should NOT affect anything in your blog.

    2. Having a local version on your own computer - using WAMP or XAMPP - has been described here and in zillion places of the WWW, just search for it.

    FYI: if you are not good with technical stuff... don't mess with it. There is no other way: you either learn it or you don't touch it. Do you know of a third way?

    P.S. Before coming here for advice regarding a specific software (like WP) you should always go to the "horse's mouth" ---> Main Page « WordPress Codex (the online WP manual)
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    • Profile picture of the author BlueLayerHost
      I'll actually answer your question for you....:rolleyes:

      I would download and install WAMP and get that setup and running. Once installed if you run in to problems with getting the server to run, check the port on the Apache configuration.

      Once PHP/Apache, etc are up and running on your machine if you're using WAMP you can browse to http://localhostwhatever port you're using) and you'll get a splash screen with your projects. From there you would install WordPress just like normal.

      You can then download your theme (I would just download the entire wp-content folder) from your current host along with plugins and upload them to your localhost. From there you'll need to export your MySQL database and then import that export on your local environment.

      The last step is you'll need to run some SQL queries in order to update several tables in the wp_options table to get the content to work on your localhost.

      If you do all that you'll have an exact copy locally of what you have on the internet.
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      • Profile picture of the author yuccarichard
        thanks BlueLayerHost, that's what I was after of course then I just need to find a way to transfer the beast back online and keep it together...anyway will take a full backup before I do so...
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  • Profile picture of the author xtrapunch
    You don't need to download the entire site if you just need to redesign the site. Create a local site or even a demo subdomain and start working with the design. By using a subdomain on your existing Web server, you can also connect it to the database of your actual site. Once you have your theme ready, download the entire theme folder (or ZIP and download). Upload this folder on your main site.

    As you have already been told, the best place to find answers to your WP-related questions is WordPress Codex site.
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