tferral

Don’t try move a site manually – there are just too many spots were you can go wrong.

The Duplicator plugin backs up everything – including the database.

It produces two files that you download and the upload to the directory you want to install in. You then run oneof the files, installer.php at the new site and when finished you’ll have an exact copy of your other site.

It’s installation is like most plugins, go to Plugins from the Admin left sidebar, click new, type duplicate in the search box-to search online, not amongst your installed plugins. Duplicator should be the first plugin found.

Install and activate it.

Duplicator will add an entry to the Admin sidebar, towards the bottom.

Click it, then click New Package and follow the instructions. On some of the pages, you have to scroll down to find things like Next buttons.

The last step in making a Duplicator package is to download the two package files it created. There will be buttons on the final page which will download the files – put them in a new directory on your computer.

To install the package requires a tad more experience/knowledge that most people don’t have but once you understand the fields it wants filled, it usually runs just fine.

So, install the Duplicator plugin and Activate it. Then build a package.

If you have any problems, post a reply telling me exactly what any error messages say.

Once you have a package, I will walk you through installing it where ever you want.

Duplicator backups everything on your site as well as the database. You can install it anywhere and have an exact copy of the site where you made the Duplicator package.

There are other ways to move a site but they have many steps where you use various software or commands to do them one at a time.

Duplicator simplifies all of that.

Here’s the short form of making a portable copy of a WP site. Read these instructions, if they make sense to you, go ahead and follow them. If not, reply to me and I’ll walk your through it one or two steps at a time. Once you do it one time, it will be easy to use it in the future.

1) Install the Duplicator plugin and activate it.

2) Create a new Duplicator package.

3) Download th4 two package files to your computer.

4) Upload the package file to the new location (use FTP or your hosting company’s control panel File Manager)

5) Go to the new hosting company’s site and run phpMyADmin. You want to add a user and password. Just create a user and password -don’t select any option to make a new database – want just create a user. Grant the new user Global Permissions, you may have to scroll down to see that option.

6) Use your browser to go to example.com/installer.php (that is the installer created by Duplicator)

6) Follow the instructions. The confusing part is what to enter for database name, host name, database user, database password.

7) you are moving to another server, on a new hosting company – right? I’ll assume your are)

8) When the “Step 2 of 4: Install Database” page comes up, there are five fields you have to fill in or select.

9) The first option is a drop down list – you want to select “Create New Database” It defaults to “Connect and Delete all Data” you want to select “Create New Database”

10) For the database name, enter whatever you want to use for the new database’s name.

11) For Database host nae – get the host name for the database from the new hosting company.

12) For database user name and password, use the name and password you specified when you created the new user via phpMyAdmin on the new hosting site, in step 5

13) Use the Test Database button, towards the bottom of the ” “Step 2 of 4: Install Database” page to test the information you just entered.

14) If the test fails, look at the values you specified and see if they are correct – as described above. If you are stuck, post me a reply with the error messages you see.

15) If the database test passes, click the Next button to continue.

15) The next step will set up your new database

16) The next window will be labeled “Deployment”

17) There are options you can set. One is to create a new administrator user – I suggest you do so to have a sure way to log on as administrator if your administrator user on the test site doesn’t work for some reason.

18) Click Options to expand the section. Then enter the requested information for a new administrator user.

19) Click the next button at the bottom of the page.

20) This should take you to “Step 4 of 4: Test Site”

Click the Admin Login button and a new window/tab will open and show the WP login. Use your original administrator user and password. If you have problems, try the new one you create above in step 18.

You’ll be taken to the Admin page and the Duplicator section.

It will ask you if you want to delete the installer files – click the link to do so.

Your site has not been moved from the original location to the new hosting company’s server and should work as it did on the test site.

If any errors occurs, stop at that step and tell me the step you were trying what happened.

By the way – I also use Duplicator to backup my site as well to move sites. It gives me a backup that I can restore even if the site is completely messed up and I can’t get to the Admin page to use some other sort of plugin’s restore function.

If you have FTP access to the server, you can restore the Duplicator package from there. Many of the other backup methods require you have access to the site.

But, if the site is toast, Duplicator allows you to restore the backup anyway.

I think your question was misunderstood by the other replyer.

Are you asking how to make an object transparent or semi-transparent?

You’re not asking how to overlap them – right?

Look at the object you want to make transparent (use the browser’s inspector) and see what class is assigned to it.

You maybe able to put some custom CSS in the theme to make the class transparent or semi-transparent.

Look at it and tell me what you see as far as classes.

Better yet, copy and paste the objects definition (the HTML) into a reply so I can see how it is defined and then I may be able to tell you exactly what CSS you want to insert.

I’ve never had a problem that prevented me getting the admin pages to do backups and updates and such.

You do have FTP access to the server – right? That is how you were able to following my earlier instructions – right? I’m going to assume you have FTP access.

Before we go any further, I think we should put the site in the root into Maintenance Mode so that no one can do anything that might change the database – right now, it is being shared by the two installations and I want to lock out changes while you do the what I detail below.

You’d think that WP would provide an Admin feature to do this but, guess what – they don’t.

I found a simple plugin that will put a site in maintenance mode. I’ve tested it and find no problems with it. To install it:

1) Login to your new site (on the root) as an administrator.

2) Go to the Admin page and click on Plugins.

3) Click Add New

4) In the search box, on the right hand side about halfway down the screen, enter:

maintenance mode

You should see “WP Maintenance Mode” as the second found plugin. The description is:

Adds a splash page to your site that lets visitors know your site is down for maintenance. It’s perfect for a coming soon page.

Click “Install Now” for that plugin.

5) When the installation is complete, click Plugins again in the left hand sidebar of the admin page.

6) Scroll down as needed to find the Plugin you just installed and click settings.

The top setting “Status” turns maintenance mode on or off – Activated puts the site in maintenance mode, Deactivated returns the site to normal functioning. That’s the only setting you need to use.

However, if you want to change the default screen shown when in maintenance mode, click the Design tab and you can alter the message.

I suggest you simply set Status to Activated to put the site in maintenance mode.

I know – if I had written it, would say: Maintance Mode and Normal Mode, not Activared and Deactivated.

When I first saw those choices, I was confused for a split second – then I realized that the status for the plugin, not the site.

I would have written “Maintance Mode” instead of “Activated” and “Normal Mode” instead of “Deactivated.”

MY “Status” would refer to the site, not the plugin – just another example of someone not taking a moment to consider how someone unfavorably with the plugin would interpret “Activated” and “Deactivated.”

The person who wrote it knew what that meant but I’m guessing the majority of people are confused by it, perhaps just for a second, but they would not be thinking in terms of activating or deactivating the unplugin but instead Activating or Deactivating Maintenance Mode.

I’ll stop before turns into a full blown rant about the state of software production, the people who really don’t know what they are doing, and how WP has all the problems I hate – no comments in code, poor documentation, unruely ways of doing things —– I’ve been in Data Processing for 45+ years and find the current crop of software and programmers lacking far too much knowledge of best methods for producing software.

——— Sorry, I said I’d stop before I starts ranting and then I started ranting.

Once you have the plugin installed and activated, go test it – logout and then go to the site’s URL.

To login to get back to the Admin page, go to http://example.com/wp-login.php

Replace example.com with your site’s root URL.

Okay, let’s get to it as regards seeing if we can recover your other site so you can get at everything you have added to the site.

QUESTION – on the messed up site, did you make any changes to WP Core files – any files that are not in the wp-content directory or directories of it.?

If you did, you will lose those changes if we reinstall WP to try to get at the old site – but we have two backups of the entire installation in the subdirectory – right? 🙂

I looked around and found instructions on how to manually update a WP installation without losing your custom content. Basically, you copy everything from the unzipped WP installation file that you downloaded and unzipped earlier. BUT YOU DON’T COPY THE WP-CONTENT directory – everything but that directory.

Go a head and do this, without replacing the wp-content directory which should contain all your custom “stuff.”

Okay, let’s get started:

1) Use your hosting companies “panel” to go to PHPMyAdmin and export the database so if it is screwed up in this procedure, you can import. I know you already did that earlier but let’s export again, into a different directory on your computer.

Note – As you make new directories on your computer, use names that tell you what is in it, don’t try to remember what’s in it, use good names that say what is in the directory.

Yes, I know you have a Export file for the database from before but, since I like the “belt AND suspenders” method – if the belt breaks the suspenders hold you “pants” up and if the suspenders break, the belt does the job – let’s export it again.

For the database, the export you did before will be the “belt” and the export you do here will be the “suspenders.”

What I mean is I always try to have two ways to restore things to where they where when I started making changes to a system.

2) backup the old site in the directory, using FTP.

Did you perform this backup step of my earlier instructions?

1) Use Filezilla to copy everything in the server root to a new directory on your computer – say c:\wpbackup Download everything in the root to the new directory – all files and directories.

If so, that means you have a copy of the entire server site, including the subdirectory with the messed up copy in a directory on your computer – right?

If so, we can use that directory to put things back to the way they were – in the subdirectory, if my new instructions go wrong.

But, since we want both a “belt AND suspenders” we will make another copy of the messed up subdirectory on your computer. The first backup of the entire root on the server and everything in it, is the “belt.”

This new backup of just the subdirectory will be the “suspenders.”

Start your FTP program and copy everything in the subdirectory, just the subdirectory, with the messed up version to another new directory on your computer. Double check that everything was copied successfully.

3) When the copy is completed , use FTP go to the directory, on your computer, where you unzipped WP earlier, and to the subdirectory on the server.

Your FTP program should now be pointing at the unzipped WP directory and the subdirectory on the server with the messed up copy of WP.

Inside the unzipped package, there is a WordPress directory which contains everything.

You want to be actually in that directory so that you see directories like wp-content, wp-admin, etc.

So, once you have the FTP program pointed at the unzipped WP installation files and to the subdirectory on the server, highlight all files and directories except wp-
content and upload them to the subdirectory with the messed up version.

You should get messages about files already existing on the server. Filezilla lets you overwrite duplication and there is an option to ignore all further warnings.

UPLOAD EVERYTHING BUT the wp-content!

Be sure you are uploading everything from the zipped file to the subdirectory where the messed up copy of WP resides -except for the wp-content directory.

Once that is done, go to the subdirectory, using your browser, and tell me what happens. Don’t do anything, just go to the messed up site and tell me what happens.

I continue will the instruction after you get there.

Here is a condensed version of the steps to perform:

1) Export the database to a new directory on your computer.

2) Upload everything from the unzipped copy WP copy,EXCEPT THE WP-CONTENT subdirectory, to the subdirectory on the server where the messed copy resides.

After all of the above, go to the WP installation in the subdirectory and tell me what happens.

YOU SHOULD NOT DO ANYTHING TO THE COPY OF WP IN THE ROOT AS YOU FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS.

Go ahead and install that plugin and put the site in maintenance mode, but make no changes to any thing in the root itself via FTP or otherwise. We are only working with the copy of WP in the subdirectory – the messed up copy.

I’ve got some yard work to do so I will not be checking for a reply from you before, say, 7:00 PM CST.

P.S. what is the name of the subdirectory containing the messed up copy of WP? I’d like to use the specific name in further comments as a way to make sure we are looking at the same thing.

Yuli Yang,

What does “and do forget password in WordPress” mean?

Is it a type and you meant to add write it as “do not forget password in WordPress”?

hcpadmin,

Do you now how to use phpMyAdmin on your hosting company’s server?

You said

I do not have the WordPress login credentials for my website, how can I reset them? the admin email associated with the website no longer exists.

Do you mean that you can’t login because you don’t have a valid username and password?

Is the email you’re talking about the site’s email address or is it Administrator level user’s email?

I’ve tested the code below and it works fine with Version: 1.1 of the Massage Clean theme.

It will put a space between the dates, adds the times to the dates, add Published: and Updated:, and makes them bold.

Here’s the code I changed in the wp-content\themes\massage-clean\inc\template-tags.php

I replaced this entire function to make it easier to change:

function massage_clean_time_link() {
	$time_string = '<time class="entry-date published updated" datetime="%1$s">%2$s</time>';
	if ( get_the_time( 'U' ) !== get_the_modified_time( 'U' ) ) {		
		$time_string = '<time class="entry-date published" datetime="%1$s"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Published:</span> %2$s</time><time class="updated" datetime="%3$s">&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Udpated:</span>&nbsp;%4$s&nbsp; %5$s</time>';
	}

	$time_string = sprintf( $time_string,
		get_the_date( DATE_W3C ),
		get_the_date()  . '&nbsp; ' . get_the_Time(),
		get_the_modified_date( DATE_W3C ),
		get_the_modified_date(),
		get_the_modified_time()
	);

	// Wrap the time string in a link, and preface it with 'Posted on'.
	return sprintf(
		/* translators: %s: post date */
		__( '<span class="screen-reader-text"></span> %s', 'massage-clean' ),
		'<a href="' . esc_url( get_permalink() ) . '" rel="bookmark">' . $time_string . '</a>'
	);
}

Here are the changes for wp-content\themes\massage-clean\content-single.phpfile. I replaced an entire <div> tag to make it easier to make the changes:

<div class="postmeta">
            <div class="post-date"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Published:&nbsp;</span><?php echo get_the_date(); ?>&nbsp;<?php echo get_the_time(); ?>
            <time class="updated"> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Updated:&nbsp;</span>
            <?php echo get_the_modified_date(); echo ' '; echo get_the_modified_time(). '&nbsp;'; ?></time>

            </div><!-- post-date -->
            <div class="post-comment"> | <a href="<?php comments_link(); ?>"><?php comments_number(); ?></a></div>
            <div class="clear"></div>
        </div><!-- postmeta -->

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by tferral. Reason: corrected the name of the theme

I just looked at the support forum for that theme and it is empty.

If you go to https://wordpress.org/themes/massage-clean/ and click the preview button, you’ll see the formatting problem right there for the world to see:

October 17, 2008September 9, 2011

They don’t have a space between dates and the time isn’t show for either date.

The lack of a space is a bug and should be reported. Since I’m not using the theme, it would be best for you to contact them.

Here is their contact page https://flythemes.net/contact/

Are you using the free theme or the Pro version which you paid for?

Regardless, they should fix the space problem and format the line like I showed you in my previous reply:

Published: March 18, 2019 1:24 AM Updated: March 21, 2019 11:53 PM

Good luck

How’s it going?