WordPress Help

[Dr Bizzaro]

I bought a custom theme, tweaked it out, added content, uploaded images and got the whole site running the way I want. I have done this all on a test-domain. Now I want to get it all onto the actual domain.

Can I just FTP every file on my computer and then FTP them all back to the actual domain and have the site work? Or will it break in the process?
Do I ahve to go back and re-do each and every little tweak and everything?

I have always done it on the actual domain it was going on, but this time I couldn't.

Any one know?

[Cleo]

You are just moving the theme, correct?

It should work just fine. Sounds like there isn't a database for it so you are going to have to set the theme and a few other minor things once you put it on the actually domain.

[Dr Bizzaro]

No I mean moving the entire thing. Theme, content, images, etc.

I will have wordpress script set up on the new server already as well.

[Cleo]

Do a fresh install of Wordpress on the new domain and then replace wp-content with wp-content from the old domain.

You will also need to export the database from the old one and then import it into the new one.

[Dr Bizzaro]

Awesome. I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the help. Hope you are doing well. Long time no see...

[Simon]

You will also need to export the database from the old one and then import it into the new one.

If the test-domain and its database are on the same server as the actual domain, you may be able to do as Cleo suggested and then just replace the wp-config.php file with the one from the test-domain. The wp-config.php file will have the name of the database, the username and the password that the test-domain was using, so now the actual domain will just use that database too.

If the test-domain and its database are not on the same server you'll be better off importing the data to the new database and entering the name of the new database, the username and the password into the newly installed wp-config.php file.



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[Dr Bizzaro]

They are on different servers.
The new domain already has WP installed with it's own database.

So just uploading the theme and content folders wont work, or will it?

[Cleo]

I'm guessing that the old database is mostly empty, no posts or galleries.

If you don't bring in the old database then you will still need to,
Tell Wordpress what theme to use. What name to display. Any menus that need to be listed. Widgets to use and any setup of them.

If you do want to import the old database setup the new install with the same database name and password and then import the old database.

Basically themes, images and plugins are stored in wp-content. Posts, setup, custom menus, widget setup, theme setup and anything like that is stored in the MySQL dayabase.

[Simon]

It should still work.

Make sure the two versions of WordPress are the same to minimize any potential glitches.

Upload the wp-content folder from your test-domain, replacing* the one that's on the actual domain. That wp-content folder should already have the theme, plugins, etc that you were using on the test-domain.

* Note: If you added things to the wp-content directory on your actual domain, you'll want to download those things before replacing the wp-content directory.

If you already have a wp-config.php file in your WordPress install on the actual domain then that should have the login information in it for the new database.

The only thing left is to export the contents of the database on your test server and import that to the database on your actual server. You can do the export and the import from the WordPress dashboard, under the Tools menu item.

Once you've made sure the versions of WordPress are the same, uploaded the wp-content folder, confirmed the information in your wp-config.php file, and imported the contents of the test database you should be good to go.

[housekeeper]

Just make certain you have the exact back-up, .sql file, and then import it, that is the most important thing, so be sure you back up before you move.