The problem is as follows: A new WordPress site will be installed on the same Nginx server as the current one. The current one (based on Joomla) has some complex database functionalities which will be reused. I.e. the new site will retrieve a section of it's content from the old site, with PHPs file_get_contents() or HTTPRequests.
I have no knowledge about the current site, so I'm afraid that when I try to give it a new address, I will break things. This is what this question is based on, so if I'm already wrong here, please say so.
Now my idea is to just install a wordpress site with the wordpress address configurations set to the domainname, but without setting the servers pointers for that domainname to the new site. Now I will add a rewrite rule to the current site, which rewrites all incoming traffic to the new site (directory on the server), except when the request comes from localhost, so the new site itself CAN get to the current site.
I'm relatively new to this kind of things, thinking of my proposed solution raises questions too. My question is whether my solution will work, and / or is there a better way of doing this? Unfortunately I can't just go test it.
Thanks
In theory that approach will work but it sounds rather fragile. Rewrite rules can be very tricky to get right even if you know what you're doing, so the "unless it's coming from localhost" may throw you for a loop.
You say you're not sure the existing site will break if you move it to a new domain or subdomain, but there's really no harm in trying, since you can leave the existing domain intact while you try.
So if the existing site is at example.com, try setting up a second virtual host that serves it from internal.example.com. If it works (or at least delivers the content your'e trying to scrape), go ahead & set up the Wordpress site and get the content using the "internal" URL.
The real problem though is that now you're stuck maintaining both a Joomla site and a Wordpress site. What is the complex database functionality you're trying to reuse? Is it at all possible to migrate that into a standalone PHP block that you can then call from Wordpress?
Related
Let's say I have an old wordpress site hosted at abc.com, where all the posts are written using visual editor. Now, we have decided to re-purpose old content and write everything in markdown.
Currently, abc.com has considerable amount of traffic as well as good ranking. So we can't modify the content while its live.
To make the process easier we have decided to replicate old site at test.abc.com (on the same server) and modify everything there.
Once everything is up to the mark, we change the document root of the Apache to point to the new Wordpress installation and change the Site Address (URL) in Setting via Dashboard.
So my question, How does this plan look?
Is there any potential pitfall that I need to be aware of ?
Wordpress uses absolute URLs. Therefore you should search and replace every URL in the database from test.abc.com to abc.com before pointing Apache to that directory. Other than that you shouldn't face any problems.
I am re-designing a website that already exists on network solutions. I would like to keep the same domain for the new site but I am going to use wordpress through network solutions.
How would I install Wordpress without interrupting the current site?
Then once the new website is done, I would need to replace it with the existing site without interrupting the file structure to keep all images and links I've coded into the "staging" instance?
What people usually do in this case is create a subdomain where the development version of the site will live (eg. https://staging.example.com or https://dev.example.com) so both sites can coexist without affecting one another.
Another approach would be to create a folder in the main domain (eg. https://www.example.com/staging/ or https://www.example.com/dev/) and do all the work there. Personally I don't use this approach, I prefer the one mentioned above the best as it keeps both sites completely separated.
I have recently redesigned a website on wordpress. The redesign is in a subfolder of the domain. When I flipped the new website live by following this tutorial 'Using a pre-existing subdirectory install' - (http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory) everything worked as planned.
However, I am still getting the old site when I navigate to the site using www in the url.
This is a likely problem with your hosting setup. Sounds like you don't have your "A" records setup quite right. Check out this GoDaddy support article for an example. It'll be similar across all hosts.
http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/680/managing-dns-for-your-domain-names
Click on "To Add a Record" and read that. Some hosts will require you to have a "#" and a "www" record to make the site direct to the same place with or without the www.
Also remember that it can take up to any hour for records to get updated.
If all else fails, give your host a call!
I'm using Wordpress for a client's website and this client asked me if he could have two domains with the same content, but a different logo on top of the page. So for example:
www.website1.com with logo1
www.website2.com with logo2
Both with same theme & contents.
I was thinking of a double WP install, but then you have to do every change two times. I read something about multisites in Wordpress, but could not find out how to do this.
I hope someone can help me out, thanks!
On the SEO front this is a bad idea, you will duplicate all content Google won't know what to value more. But if you really want it.
you could do this with two wp install's but there are problems.
First set your site url's in the wp-config
Second let both installs connect to the same database. The change in
header can be detected with $_REQUEST (google it)
Now there are 2 problems left which I don't know how to fix.
The uploads folder need to be synchronized so each site can access the uploads
the solution will be with simlinks stuff. (which I'm not familiar with)
And your hosting provider has to allow it.
If you add an internal link in your post/pages it will prepend the complete site url, and save this hard coded in the database.
The solution of this could be in the editor, of to filter the content before it is printed.
If you want to go this way I'm willing to look further into these problems
Here is a relatively recent article on how to set a multisite wordpress network up.
Please can someone help me to clarify what issues i might have when the hosting company changes the DNS settings to point away for the current old site (basic html) and to the new WordPress version of the web site?
Both sites are with the same hosting company (I cannot change hosts or hosting names now, my client and the hosting company are long term business partners). I think the server that the current live website is unable to host WordPress. So they set up another server for WordPress and called it something completely different.
Old website address http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk
Current Location of new WordPress site on hosting server: http://test.blahsystems.co.uk
I think this bit is important!!
The new website is on a Windows Server and uses pretty perma links and also the .html pages plugin. There are also some redirects going to 7 pages on the old site. Everything is currently working ok.
Nest week the hosting company are going to change the DNS settings to point to the new website http://test.blahsystems.co.uk which will hopefully become the new website with the new address of http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk
The hosting company have also said that I should not have used Permalinks at the moment because once the DNS is pointed to the new site the links will have become permanent (well I had already set up permalinks before they told me). I have not used the full address when making any links within the site.
Will the 'Find & Replace' plug-in on the database still work ok to make any required changes? I am confused as to how the DNS change actually works, will this affect what the links are called in the database or can I still change them from:
http://test.blahsystems.co.uk
to
http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk
I presume I will need to change the Word Press address and site address in the settings panel to http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk, once the DNS propagation has finished.
Very long winded I know but any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Ok - I will do the best I can to answer these 8-)
Please can someone help me to clarify what issues i might have when
the hosting company changes the DNS settings to point away for the
current old site (basic html) and to the new WordPress version of the
web site?
When you change your DNS - it's like moving into a new house.
The whole building can change - so it sounds like you're leaving a Windows environment for a Linux environment. Which is cool.
What happened on the old site - should not really impact the new site OTHER than the fact that search engines will still try to remember the old sites structure. It will take time for the search engine to realize that things have changed and that pages are new or missing.
301 Redirection can help with this.
Both sites are with the same hosting company (I cannot change hosts or
hosting names now, my client and the hosting company are long term
business partners). I think the server that the current live website
is unable to host WordPress. So they set up another server for
WordPress and called it something completely different.
Old website address http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk Current
Location of new WordPress site on hosting server:
http://test.blahsystems.co.uk
I think this bit is important!! The new website is on a Windows Server
and uses pretty perma links and also the .html pages plugin. There are
also some redirects going to 7 pages on the old site. Everything is
currently working ok.
WordPress can use permalinks. If you have moved pages around - like mysite.com/about-us and it's not called mysite.com/about - you will need to create a 301 Redirect to let search engines know.
Nest week the hosting company are going to change the DNS settings to
point to the new website http://test.blahsystems.co.uk which will
hopefully become the new website with the new address of
http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk
The hosting company have also said that I should not have used
Permalinks at the moment because once the DNS is pointed to the new
site the links will have become permanent (well I had already set up
permalinks before they told me). I have not used the full address when
making any links within the site.
I don't think using permalinks will cause a problem. They aren't "permanent". Nothing is - it's all in a transient state.
Will the 'Find & Replace' plug-in on the database still work ok to
make any required changes? I am confused as to how the DNS change
actually works, will this affect what the links are called in the
database or can I still change them from:
http://test.blahsystems.co.uk to http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk
Sounds like this plugin is outside of the WordPress install? If so - it should still work.
If it's a plugin your hosting provider is giving you, then there should be no problems.
I presume I will need to change the Word Press address and site
address in the settings panel to http://www.therealwebsitename.co.uk,
once the DNS propagation has finished.
Yes, make sure to update your General Settings prior to the site going live so you don't have any down time.