Building New WordPress Site on Same Domain with WordPress Currently Running

  • toumeral

    (@toumeral)


    9 years, 6 months ago

    I have been doing research on this topic through the WordPress forums and have found some useful suggestions so far. However, I am piecing together a few answers to make them apply to my case and just want to make sure I have the proper approach set.

    I currently have a site running WordPress at http://www.thefirsteleven.com. I want to move away from the theme in use currently and onto a new one, which I have already uploaded into my themes folder in my current WordPress set up.

    My question is: what is the best way to approach development on this new theme while keeping the current theme/site up and running concurrently. I have read that it can be done both through a subdomain or through a subdirectory. Which is the better of these two (or is there a third I am not considering)?

    Some important caveats to my development on the new WordPress theme:
    -The majority of posts on the current WordPress site will migrate to the new one.
    -The menus/navigation of the new site will not mirror that of the old.
    -The permalink structure will not change from the old site to the new site, though pages may change URIs when migrating to the new site.
    -I do not want this site indexed during development.

    I appreciate all input and suggestions. Please feel free to ask me any questions that may provide more context.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • blogseolady

    (@blogseolady)

    9 years, 6 months ago

    I believe the way to do this is install one of those programs that turn your computer into a private server. You install WordPress and copy your site there (on your computer) and work on the theme that way. Meantime you can keep the live site running online. When you’re happy with the theme, you upload the theme and activate it. You’ll probably need to upload the content too if there were any changes to them.

    Can’t speak from first-hand experience though… because I tried to install Desktop Server or something and it didn’t work. Had issues with my system.

    When you work on the theme offline, do keep the hyperlinks “relative” instead of “absolute.” Otherwise when you upload everything, your links might point to “file blah blah” on your hard drive instead of your domain.

    Sorry I can’t be of more help. I’m sure someone else here will have more answers.

    Thread Starter toumeral

    (@toumeral)

    9 years, 6 months ago

    I appreciate the quick response! This is another avenue I read about and actually attempted. However I am stuck right now so that is why I was exploring other options.

    I am stuck at the point where I am uploading the database from my current site to my local server. The database is too large to do directly through phpmyadmin so I am using Bigdump to make the upload. However, I cannot get everything to line up properly to make the upload. I have been trying to align it with this video to no success.

    I already have WordPress installed on my local server. I just can’t get the database for my site in there.

    If anyone else has input on this approach I would be willing to follow that path as well. It seems the best way to handle what I am trying to accomplish.

    blogseolady

    (@blogseolady)

    9 years, 6 months ago

    I am not familiar with Bigdump so I can’t help you there. How about this: Do you have another domain? How about you install WordPress and your new theme on that new domain. Just restrict access to that domain to your IP address only. As I recall, you edit the htaccess file to do that. So while you’re editing the theme, no human and no robot can access the test domain. Make sure all internal links are relative. I am not sure if you can do that with image links or inserted images though.

    So basically, you perfect the theme on a test domain, save it and then copy the theme to your main site. Could you copy your database to that other domain if you have one?

    Make sure your site doesn’t have an IP access restriction when you’re done. Also check all links and images to make sure nothing points to the test domain.

    I am not sure if this method will work. Hopefully someone has a better idea. If you have a problem with your local server software, check its developer for a forum or support system. Good luck!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • The topic ‘Building New WordPress Site on Same Domain with WordPress Currently Running’ is closed to new replies.