Posted 5 years ago #
Our website, http://whs59.net is a high school alumni class site. This weekend, I visited an invalid classmate and wanted to show him the website on my laptop, but there was no available internet access in his nursing home. I am the website administrator, and I had a complete backup copy of all the website files on my laptop, but did not know how or if I could show him the website offline. Can someone tell me if there is a way to do this, and if so, how?
Thanks in advance
Jerry Isaacs
You'd have to have a local installation of a server. In other words, have MySQL, Apache, PHP running on your machine, then install WordPress, upload your backups to the localhost and run it form there.
XAMPP works very well.
No, you can't, if you have ONLY the WP files.
There is nothing in the files - I mean no data because everything is stored in the database.
What you can do (and many of us does this, e.g. for local testing for theme development): install XAMPP and have a version of your blog on your computer.
Tutorial:
http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/xampp/
Posted 5 years ago #
The other thing you can do, which is somewhat simpler but may take lots more time, depending on how many posts you have on the website:
In your browser, goto every page on your website and click "File > Save page as" and make sure you specify "Web page, complete", or the equivalent if you're not using Firefox.
There are tools that can rip dynamic websites and save the result as HTML or PDF.
I don't remember any names but maybe Google does ;)
There is nothing in the files - I mean no data because everything is stored in the database.
Sorry - I saw the word "backup" and thought he was talking about the database files as well!
But yeah, all those options above could work.
Posted 5 years ago #
For demonstrations and the like, I have to say I prefer the Webserver on a Stick approach. Put the whole thing on a USB memory stick and run it anywhere, with no installation required:
Posted 5 years ago #
Thank you all for your very considerate input. I will look into these ideas and see if I can close the topic in the near future.
JerryIsaacs
Posted 5 years ago #
My attempt to construct the web on a stick bombed terribly. Something about a zip7 error. Then apache wouldn't run. Then xampp wouldn't quit running.
I finally managed to load xampp, mysql, apache, etc to my computer and I have the basics of my website running locally with the right theme, more or less. Except that my fastlinks have reverted to stuff that I don't understand.
But most importantly, I don't know how to get the database downloaded (synchronized?) from the website yet so I can run it 'self-contained'. Surely, I don't have to reconstruct the 50-100 pages that are already on our website. Please provide me with a little guidance. Sorry I'm not very savvy. I'm a 66 year old mechanical engineer. A month ago I couldn't even spell HTML.
Those ten years shouldn't be an excuse ;)
Here you can reda how to backup (practically "export") your database and there is also a tutorial for restoring it ("import") into a new location - in your case the local install:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database
Posted 5 years ago #
OK: Stand by. I read something that said to backup my database to an sql file and put it in the htdocs directory and change all my http://whs59.net/wordpress refs to http://localhost/wordpress and that would work, but it didn't. So now I'll try your suggestion and report back.
Thanks for your help.
Hmmm. This part is correct:
I read something that said to backup my database to an sql file
the next step is NOT ok :(
You should NOT put it in the htdocs dir but go the the phpmyadmin and import the .sql file into the database.
Posted 5 years ago #
I thought the sql file WAS my database. I can't find an exe file called phpmyadmin, so I'll have to web troll a while and download it before I can continue.
Posted 5 years ago #
How about a hint how to "go the the phpmyadmin and import the .sql file into the database". I have no idea what you are talking about.
I've read this above:
I finally managed to load xampp, mysql, apache, etc
so, I was assuming you know how to deal with that.
Basically, if you type http://localhost in your browser it should display the XAMPP splash page.
Then clicking on English - you should be taken to a kind of (orange coloured) xampp admin.
In the menu on the left under Tools > there should be a link "phpMyAdmin. Click.
If you can get till there, let me know.
If you have skype or Yahoo messanger - click on my name here and go to the contact page... and let me know.
Posted 5 years ago #
I can get to the phpmyadmin page. It's very confusing. Am I supposed to import something from the web host?
I don't know what yahoo messenger is. Should I go to yahoo and download it? If I click your name I end up at transycan.net. I dont have skype.
Posted 5 years ago #
I installed yahoo messenger. I clicked on your name. It still takes me to transycan.net. Now what?
Posted 5 years ago #
I added moshu to my friends list on yahoo messenger, whatever that does. I presume the ball is in your court, but the yahoo window seems to close whenever I type here. Now I have both windows open. Meanwhile, I am going to unzip the database I downloaded from my host and mess with it in phpmyadmin and see what happens.
Ending up at transycan is OK - that's my domain. And it has a Contact page, I was expecting you'd send an email from there, so I can give you my Yahoo name, it is not really that public to post it here :)
Posted 5 years ago #
I selected WordPress (12) for the database and selected all the tables and hit 'go' and the program indicated 'missing value in the form' which is about as meaningful to me as a bill gates error message. I have now spent another day on this problem and do not seem any closer to a conclusion.
Posted 5 years ago #
dear fellas
i got XAMPP and its OK but Turkish WP website support something called WAMP whats the lowdown by the merits?
One idea that might be a little easier than the phpMyAdmin interface is to go to the live site and activate the "WP Backup" plugin. Then back up the system through that (there's a tab that appears at the top, in the menu, when you activate it) - have it save the file to your hard drive.
Then log into your localhost installation of WordPress (I'm assuming you *did* install it on your local system?) and do an import through the Import link of your admin area. Find the file you downloaded, and it'll bring in all the files to your database tables. Then activate the local files through your theme editor - and there you go.
("Woebserver on a stick" - I LOVE that!)
Posted 5 years ago #
I now have the site running through localhost, but there are a few loose ends that I don't quite understand. If I get a couple responses, maybe I can close this whole thing and declare the issue resolved. Thanks for all your help.
1) If I edit or add a page or a post locally, how do I get that part of my localhost database synchronized with the onlinehost database?
2) If someone comments online, how do I synch that with my localhost database?
3) What do all these links that say RSS feed for this topic do?
4) I am reasonably comfortable with FTP Lite. Do I also need to learn the intracacies of phpmyadmin. What are the features of each? Do they overlap? Do I need both? What do mysql and apache do?
5) When I first started, there was an xampp control panel that showed what was running. Now it always says ERROR XAMPP is already running. So it runs all the time (since I've found no means to turn it off). Is that OK? How about apache and mysql, whatever they are? Do they run all the time? I can't turn them off since the control panel is blocked by XAMPP.
6) When I finally get this all sorted out, is there an easy way to put all this stuff on a USB stick, i.e., could I just copy everything over to it and maybe change a couple directory references or something, or would I have to spend another week redoing everything?
1) If I edit or add a page or a post locally, how do I get that part of my localhost database synchronized with the onlinehost database?
You'd have to import the files through your database, and put them on the regular server. I don't know if I'd recommend doing that, though - it's possible you could mess up the whole site (I only say that because I've only done it a couple of times - with success, but barely - I'd be wary of doing it)
2) If someone comments online, how do I synch that with my localhost database?
There's no "synching". It's the same as above - you'd have to copy the database files to a file, then update the database on the regular site.
3) What do all these links that say RSS feed for this topic do?
RSS Feed is the feed to the topic. (Man that wasn't clear, was it?) RSS is syndication. You can be updated when the site is updated (for a sitewide RSS feed) or if you're watching a particular topic, you can link to the feed and be notified immediately when a new post had been added. Google RSS to find more info on it.
4) I am reasonably comfortable with FTP Lite. Do I also need to learn the intracacies of phpmyadmin. What are the features of each? Do they overlap? Do I need both? What do mysql and apache do?
FTP is how you upload and download files from a server. phpMyAdmin is how you access your databases and edit the information. MySQL is your database. Apache is how PHP and MySQL run. FTP has aboslutely nothing to do with phpMyAdmin, PHP (a programming language), MySQL and Apache. It's something you use to manage your filesystem on your server.
5) When I first started, there was an xampp control panel that showed what was running. Now it always says ERROR XAMPP is already running. So it runs all the time (since I've found no means to turn it off). Is that OK? How about apache and mysql, whatever they are? Do they run all the time? I can't turn them off since the control panel is blocked by XAMPP.
Yes, it runs in the background all the time, if you've made it so it starts when you boot up your computer. You most certinaly *can* turn it off. You just open the control panel for it and hit the "Stop" buttons for each module. Localhost will not run without Apache. MySQL will not run without Apache.
And your control panel for XAMPP is in your status bar on your computer - you don't do it through the compiter's control panel. Look for it. You'll see the icon.
6) When I finally get this all sorted out, is there an easy way to put all this stuff on a USB stick, i.e., could I just copy everything over to it and maybe change a couple directory references or something, or would I have to spend another week redoing everything?
I don't know about that - someone better may be able to answer that.
But your original question was that you just wanted to show this old classmate the website. I would assume you had done all of this on your laptop so you could just take it to him and show him the site.
If you want him to actually have *interactivity* with the site (something you didn't mention before) - without an internet connection, your looking at a TON of work to allow him to post to the site. Is it really worth that to you?
Showing him the site, and giving him free access to it are two very different things. There's good suggestions up there to show him the site, but none of them will give him full access to the actual thing. If that's what you're actually looking to do, then you need to petition the home he's at to get internet access. Alternatively, see if there's something close by that already has wireless access that he could hook into (it would have to be close) and get him a laptop with wireless capabilities.
Posted 4 years ago #
I have installed wordpress on a usb stick using xampp. it works well. but i cannot access it from another pc through the LAN. How can I get my students to access it through my local LAN. please help.
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