Would one-click installation delete previous website? - wordpress

I am helping a friend build a simple Wordpress website, their current website is with a hosting and domain service called https://www.icuk.net/.
The website is very poorly built on this platform. I told them I'd make a website for free on WordPress as I have some experience with drag and drop WordPress website builders.
My question is, if I use the platform's one-click WordPress installation, does it automatically delete the website that was previously using the domain and hosting? If so, could anyone explain in layman's terms how I would go about backing it up, as it's always better to be safe than sorry.

I would be hesitant to do this, personally. I believe you can use the one click service to uninstall, at which point you can install WP again. A better option, however, if WP is already installed, would be to just change the theme, deactivate and delete any unwanted plugins, and then delete (or change to draft if you may want any of the content for your new development) any unwanted posts or pages. A current version of WP is a current version of WP, thus there is no reason to reinstall. Once you change the theme, remove the posts and pages, and remove the plugins, you are essentially back to a new install. Maybe do that instead?

Related

Is it possible to host my WordPress plugin in GitHub?

I know that the WordPress plugin directory is hosting site and not a listing site.
In order for your plugin to appear in the directory is to host your plugin with them using SVN.
I have used their SVN for a while and just wonder if I can instead use a GitHub repository and whenever I release a new version on GitHub it will automatically release an update on the WordPress sites which the plugin is installed.
I really think that if I used GitHub in hosting my plugin, it will not appear in the WordPress plugin directory? Am I right or wrong about it?
I want to use GitHub to release and at the same time, I want my plugin in the WordPress plugin directory.
I have tried so far following this tutorial: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/08/deploy-wordpress-plugins-with-github-using-transients/
But this is for self-hosted plugins.
Unfortunately there's not a straight way to get what you're looking for. At the root of it, you need to have your Plugin hosted and maintained on their SVN.
That said, there are some Git to SVN Mirroring options available that, while a bit convoluted to set up (and sometimes providing mixed results) should be able to handle what you need if you can bear to walk through the initial set-up.
Check out the following gist: https://gist.github.com/kasparsd/3749872.
If you set it up properly, you'll be able to effectively deal with your plugin like it's hosted on GitHub where it will mirror itself into WordPress's SVN, so it will show up in the Plugin Repository.
Unfortunately I haven't seen it even broached as an issue since what, 2015? So the odds of native GitHub repo integegration at this point don't seem all that high.

What is the "Endurance Cache" feature in my WordPress website?

I noticed this new wordpress version I'm running has a "Endurance Cache" option at the bottom of the "Settings > General" page.
That is caching all of the changes I'm doing on css. So whenever I update something the changes don't reflect on the browser instantaneously.
I'm wondering if that's wordpress native or if I can remove it.
I'm using wordpress 4.8.1.
My other website that has an older wordpress version doesn't have it.
It's not listed as an installed plugin. So that I don't think it is.
I'm using thesis theme.
thanks
It is a plugin installed by hostgator. They install two plugins "Endurance Browser Cache" and "Endurance Page Cache."
You can disable the Endurance Page Cache plugin by going to "Plugins" > "Must-Use" then locating the "Endurance Page Cache" plugin and clicking "disable."
The other plugin called "Endurance Browser Cache" does not have a disable button.
I hope this works for you. I do not know if hostgator will remove these plugins for you.
Here is the easiest solution I found for it:
Log into your Cpanel and click on Files.
Choose your domain/subdomain and click on the WP-Content.
Click on the "mu-plugins".
Rename the File "endurance-page-cache.php" to "endurance-page-cache.php.old"
Create a blank file there and name it "endurance-page-cache.php"
That's it, problem solved. And if you ever in the future want to activate it again, simply delete the blank file that you created and remove the word "old" from the original file name.
I found the issue. It's a plugin installed by hostgator.
Unfortunately it's not listed in the wordpress plugins area.
So I needed to request them to remove it.
To get rid of Endurance Page Cache or whatever other mu-plugin that you don't need, you can now use Mu Manager.
After activation Go to Plugins => Must Use, and deactivate the unneeded mu-plugins that you don't need. It will be like deactivating standard plugins.
Of course, you should know which mu-plugin are not needed. In the case of Endurance Page Cache, I think you never need it if you have a proper caching plugin.
If you prefer to use FTP it will be not enough to rename the mu-plugin, because it will run the same. You need to delete it or replace the extension .php with something else.
This caching plugin was installed most probably by your hosting provider. A brief and quick solution to the problem:
Instal WP File Manager Plugin:
https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-file-manager/
Go to the plugin settings and head over to htdocs/WP Content/mu-plugins
Find the file "endurance-page-cache.php" and either rename it for temporal deactivation or delete it altogether if you want to get
rid of this plugin.
If this was the only file in the folder mu-plugins, you may as well delete the folder mu-plugins. "MU" stands for "Must Use". Sometimes a hosting provider or a developer might install their custom code for a site project as an mu-plugin so it doesn't get uninstalled by their customer.
Uninstall WP File Manager Plugin as it's not needed anymore. Better look on how to access your site files using C-panel if provided by your hosting provider or via FTP (like Filezilla) rather than a plugin.
Get a proper caching plugin. (Give Cachify plugin a go - it is free).

Replacing an old WP site with a new updated site

So i'm looking to replace an old site with a newly built site. Both sites are built in WP. The urls are set up like this: "oldsite.org" and "oldsite.org/new"
I need to replace the old site with the new site so that /new is not required to get to the right place. What's the most efficient way of going about this? My client says has has a couple of back-end developers attempt this already and both failed due to faulty plug-ins. Import/Export attempts have previously broken the site.
You can go for a simple solution. Please find that step wise :
Take a backup of current site.
Install WP CLONE ACADEMY plugin into your new site.
Clone the new site
Install the same plugin into old site.
Import the clone file into old site.
Everything will imported from new site to old, even the database, plugins and etc.
Hope this will help you.

Wordpress 3.5 upgrade to 4.0. Theme compatibility

I got in charge of some small sites that are running on WP 3.5; they are all using the same theme (a customized version of Bones). I have only used Joomla some years ago so I have no idea if, after the upgrade, the theme will still be compatible. I want to upgrade my WP version because the current one is vulnerable: I keep getting spam links into my articles that are placed inside hidden divs.
How can I know if the template is compatible or how can I fix the security issue. Any of these will do great.
Thanks!
WordPress does a very good job of changing very little with regards to theme tags in a core update. That said, we have no idea how your theme(s) have been made, or what functions they use.
The best, and probably only realistic option here, is to create a test site (a duplicate) and update that site first, then test to make sure all is working as it should.
As for the vulnerability, this is likely due to an insecure admin password or an insecure plugin. You should ensure all your plugins are up to date and that your admin panel is suitably secure.
When you update wordpress, it will not affect the wp-content folder which is having themes and plugins. So, don't worry update it. But for the secure updation, please take the backup of whole website first. Take backup of database and all files before doing any update.
WP 4 hasn't been out that long. I'd hold off on the upgrade unless you absolutely have to, until you know that all of the plugins used on the sites are compatible w/ WP 4.
Try to install the site on your PC creating a local copy using XAMP (for Windows).
In this way, you can:
download the MySQL database to have all the information of the
website locally;
install the latest wordpress platform locally (on your PC);
test the website thorugh common browsers.
At the end, you'll be sure about the compatibility and you can update the main site.
I have built my own theme with the Artisteer software; then i modified many PHP file to manage the loop in some special ways; so, to be sure that everything is working after an update of the site Wordpress version, i test everything on my PC.
For the vulnerability, please verify your plugin and all your theme file.
In some experiences, there are some plugin or simply some codes place somewhere in your theme which can create something like this:
> <div id="headerblock"> <center> <div style="left: -2227px; position:
> absolute; top: -3337px">
The only thing to do is check all the theme file and plugin to see where this code is placed.
Please check here for more information.
If you only change your password, probably it will not solve you problem because the malicious code is already inside your system.
Sometimes the malicious code can be placed directly inside the MySQL database.

Can't access Wordpress admin login page (redirect error)

I’m working on a wordpress site, it’s almost finished.
Left it lying on the server for a few weeks after the launch to gather user feedback, and now ready to make some minute adjustments.
Loe and behold, can’t login.
Going to parentsauxassembleesgenerales.org/wp-admin won’t show me the admin page, but will instead redirect.
Sure enough, I had an automatic update to 3.8.2 on April 9 that seems to coincide with the admin access being gone.
Contrary to most redirect errors for login pages after an automatic update on forums, the exact url it redirects to is not actually a valid url.
You see others reporting the url they are redirected to as being:
http://www.domain.org/wp-login.php/?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.domain.org%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1
But mine displays: http://www.parentsauxassembleesgenerales.org-login.php/?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentsauxassembleesgenerales.org%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1
And is therefore missing three characters: “/wp” to be identical to the other bugs I saw reported. Needless to say, I still tried all the fixes recommended elsewhere, namely:
(using FTP, Softaculous, dowload of WP 3.8.1 and 3.8.2 from wordpress.org, and PHPmyAdmin)
1- deactivating, renaming, removing plugins, theme, both plugins and theme
2- adding lines of code to wp-config
3- looking at the database to make sure the site url and home url were the right ones and the same
4- updating key files like wp-login.php with a fresh version straight out of a vanilla install.
5- moving the content and wp-config to a fresh install (only recreated the problem).
I’m sort of confused at Softaculous (wp install script in cPanel) for asking if you want automatic updates, but still enabling the small automatic updates (3.8.1 to 3.8.2 or 3.8.3) even if you don’t check the box for automatic updates. I don’t, and never will, want automatic updates on my wordpress: too many plugins and themes have a lag to the wordpress core deployment schedule. (I now know I can just add a line to wp-config.php, but the Softaculous interface could be clearer about the automatic update deal).
Am now in contact with the hosting service to look at solutions such as emptying webcache, restoring from their own weekly backups, their own diagnosis of the faulty redirect route, etc.
I’m looking for a solution that will do one of the following:
help me know what causes the redirect error so I can target the problem-solving
help me regain access to wp-admin login and the dashboard
I found the issue.
Despite deactivating the plugins, one of the plugins had caused a problem in the DB which remained even when deactivated, removed or renamed. Had to clean up the relevant redirects in the DB with PhpMyAdmin.
The plugin was Velvet Blues Update URLs, which was recommended for a very small move I was doing (moving the dev version of the site up one folder on the server file system).
I hadn't used this plugin before, but it seemed straightforward enough.
Not.
I usually migrate sites using UpDraftPlus with the pro addon for migration, which works fairly well, but felt longer than it needed to be for a one-folder-up move.
Not.
The search and replace feature on UpDraftPlus that covers both for file/folder locations and for urls is without compare, and even for what it was supposed to do, Velvet Blues Update URLs didn't deliver on its promise.

Resources