WordPress.org

1. paulorton
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   I currently have a WordPress site that is live and working fine. I need to make some changes, but I don't want to risk changing the live files...

   I have backed the site up onto my hard drive, but I would like to know the steps I need to take to set up a duplicate offline site, from which I can preview my changes before I upload them to the current live site.

   This is my first time in WordPress! Please help!

2. jonradio
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Not to dissuade you from running WordPress on your own workstation -- I'll let others with some experience doing that tell you how -- but I never feel comfortable until I've done a final test in exactly the same "environment". So, I run a second cloned copy of WordPress on my web host.

   I use a Reseller account solely so that I can have an isolated environment: a reseller subaccount provides a separate filespace for each subaccount, (almost) eliminating the possibility of a rogue test environment clobbering your live environment by disallowing file writes on to your production WordPress environment from your test one. And, any I've tried, also prevent database access between subaccounts, preventing you from accessing the wrong database.

   The only risk I have seen is when the WordPress and Blog URI's on the Test system are still set to the Production system values. As that will automatically redirect you!

3. Robert S
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   @paulorton,

   I support @adiant's advice however in the end if you do want to go down the "offline" path just Google: "setup offline copy of wordpress" and you will find a whole collection of useful articles/tips for doing what you want to do.

   R

4. paulorton
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Adiant,

   This sounds perfect, how do I set up a reseller acount? This is the first I have heard this term?

   Are there any good tutorials I can look at to assist me in this process?

   Cheers

5. jonradio
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   You didn't mention who your web hosting company is, so I can't give you specific details. But most have multiple types of web hosting accounts, including at least one Reseller account type. That is usually cheaper than having a second hosting account of the type you have already, i.e. - one Reseller Account is usually cheaper than two "personal" accounts.

   I use these instructions to make a clone of my Production system and get it running as a Test system: Moving WordPress to a New Server on http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress

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