Wordpress WP Clone plugin is resetting my site - wordpress

I have a Wordpress site I need to clone for testing purposes. I used Open-Shift to host the scratch site that I will be working on. As for cloning, I am using the WP Clone plugin. When I create a backup file on the real site, it works, and then I paste the URL on the restore for the scratch site. When I go to my scratch site however, none of the content is their, and I have to re-setup Wordpress. Is there another, better, more reliable way to clone a Wordpress site, or am I doing something wrong?

I have used WP-Clone quite a bit, and unfortunately in this scenario, it is the most solid plugin I have found. If you want to go the same route you have been (ie: use a plugin)...you have multiple options. You could check out:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/
And if you don't mind a little bit of complexity - the most comprehensive solution is probably more like:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
I hope that helps. Sometimes those types of plugins can be a little buggy - and it is still a good idea to scan your database to make sure the information was transferred correctly.
Also, have you checked your wp-config file to make sure it is pointing at the correct database on the new site? Sometimes that requires a manual change, as they differ.
Cheers.

Related

Local instance of wordpress edit plugin

I've having an annoying issue with Wordpress.
First I have to say that I'm not very familiar with Wordpress, I’m using it because I agree to take the management of the website of my sport club.
Now let’s me explain the issue. The previous manager of the website found a plugin that he think will be nice for the website.
But now that I’m managing, I want to make some change to this plugin (which is under GNU GPLv3 License so I have the right to do it).
So I install wamp on my computer, then wordpress and then I add the plugin to it in the purpose to test my changes.
I was thinking that when editing the files under “…\wp-content\plugins...” it will take effect instantly but it’s not.
I try to restart wamp after making some changes but it does not solve my issue.
A bit later I found that in wordpress there is a plugin modification interface and when going in it I found that the changes that I made on the files where not taken. Is there a cache of the files or something?
So my question is the following: Is there a way to edit the files in the folders (I’m using Visual Studio Code) and that the changes are applied instantly to the “running” plugin in my local instance?
I hope I was able to be clear enough so you guys can understand me
Thanks in advance

a way to make a backup of a wordpress website

I have a wordpress website that I maintained entirely through the wordpress admin dashboard. We don't use a staging server or FTP client etc.
I need to make some big upgrades to the the theme version and some plugin versions to fix some bugs.
Is there a way to back up the website or anyway that I can revert to the current setup before I proceed with this? Is there any tools or plugins that I can use for this?
Thanks
You can use this plugin to have backup of your website. Good thing is, it takes backup of db as well. https://wordpress.org/plugins/backupwordpress/
It would be risky on your end to make big upgrades without at least an FTP access, even if you have a backup plugin, when your website breaks up, you can't restore it anyways.
If you really need to do it, just do the updates in small increments, from small plugins to the biggest ones.

How to manually back up wordpress website

I have never used wordpress before, My boss has given me access to a site which was created using wordpress. then He asked me how I am going to make sure I don't break the site accidentally, I told him I would create a backup on my local computer so that all my changes can be restored if I mess up.
I have the wordpress dashboard up. How do I back up EVERYTHING, I hear there are two separate things I need to back up? someone please help me.
PS: I don't think he would like me to do this with out the use of additional plugins.
There are two separate things:
Your website database. Simply export all the MySQL tables from the database, which is dedicated to your site.
The site files, everything you've got under WordPress folder, /wp-includes, /wp-content, /wp-admin directories and all files.
This should do it all. You can test on your localhost to make sure it's everything that's necessary.
You can backup your WordPress either from your hosting account (preferable) or from your WP dashboard.
You need to backup two things - all the files (the root of your Wordpress installation) and the database for your WP installation.
Since you only have access to the dashboard, you have to use plugin for this.
Two of my favorite free backup plugins are:
BackupWordpress - https://wordpress.org/plugins/backupwordpress/
BackWPup - https://wordpress.org/plugins/backwpup/
They are intuitive and easy to work with, so you shouldn't have issues.
If you go to the dashboard go to "tools" in the left toolbar. Select "export". On the export page you can report that you want to export "all content". This will get you the items that you need from the server.
Then you need to install wordpress to your machine. You can download that from: https://wordpress.org/download/
Once you have that on your machine you also need a local server to run it and test it. I like WAMP, but it partially depends on your operating system. I suggest the following video to get you up to speed on how to get the localhost set up and running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFzbPm_RUE
Hope this helps!

Restarting a wordpress project

I am a freelance developer, and I normally build sites from scratch without using any code generating sites like WordPress or Square Space. But my current client insists on using WordPress. However, I am rescuing this project from a previous developer who made a big mess because from the looks of it does not seem like they knew what they were doing.
Is there a way for me to restart everything, on a clean slate and template on WordPress? I would like to have none of what the previous developer has done. Also is there a way for me do do direct coding using HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc on a WordPress site?
Yes, you just need to look into how to create a theme, since themes are the basis of the Wordpress structure. Ultimately, if you have the code for a website, it can be broken into separate files that Wordpress can use.
See: http://www.wpexplorer.com/create-wordpress-theme-html-1/
If the previous developer has done all the work in the theme files, then simply switching the theme to a default theme (Like Twenty Sixteen) will give you a nice clean slate to dig in and jump off with. You will want to create a child theme of any existing theme if you want to make any changes. If, however, the developer has messed with other files besides the theme folder, then you will most likely want to export the content only (as a logged-in administrator, go to Tools > Export (here's a screenshot))
Then on a new environment (I prefer testing these things first on a local virtual environment like VVV, and then transition to a development subdomain on the same server that the site will eventually go live on and securing it with an htaccess user/password to block curious eyes), import the content on a fresh installation of wordpress via the same menu (Tools > Import). This will give you a fresh installation with the content that's been created, but without any of the mess.
For more information about importing content - here's the codex article.
I hope that's a good start - but if I've glossed over anything you don't understand, let me know - I'm happy to help.

Two Wordpress Installations on the Exact Same Database?

I'm in the progress of setting up a development and live development environment for some basic projects I'm working on. Ideally I want git to push changes from the development server to the live site. However I want each version to use the exact same database so the posts and content are identical at all times.
Obviously the Site URL is set to only the live site so the development site's links don't work. If I overrode the site url in the wp-config.php file of each and used .gitignore to ignore both wp-config.php files would this be enough for this to work or is there something else I'm missing?
I'm posting in the hope somebody has tried it before me and that might have any answers to problems I encounter now or in the future.
Thanks in advance, Ollie
Make sure you add the .gitignore entry before changing and committing the wp-config.php.
Once you update wp-config.php, it's going to go through and update URLs in the database. Since WordPress is stateless - to say there is no session management, there is no way of tracking if a database has been swapped.
Lastly, WordPress uses a MySQL database, which wouldn't be versioned unless you went through a lot of work to do so. Aside from wp-config.php, there aren't any other stored references of what the site's URLs should be.

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