Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › Do you work on your live site??
- This topic has 13 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by Anita.
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August 17, 2014 at 6:26 am #119338BelindaParticipant
I'm about to start letting people know about my site and I'm wondering if I should be working on my live site when posting or making changes, or if i should be using an offline copy, testing first and then publish to live site?
I always had an offline or "develop" version with my standard HTML sites before and this is my first WP site so I'm not sure how best to handle that. It's obviously not ideal for me to be testing new plugins etc and layout changes on my live site once I have people using it so I'm not sure what I should do with this??
Suggestions please..
August 17, 2014 at 6:32 am #119339SusanModeratorI work on a live sub-domain, and then move it over when I am done.
August 17, 2014 at 6:37 am #119346BelindaParticipantDoes that mean i need to install WordPress to a second location on my domain?
August 17, 2014 at 6:38 am #119347SusanModeratorIf you want to go that route, yes, you would need to create a sub-domain, and install another instance of WordPress and the Genesis framework.
August 17, 2014 at 6:52 am #119352BelindaParticipantI'm not really sure what options I have..
August 17, 2014 at 7:05 pm #119431cneumanParticipantYou can run WordPress locally with programs like WAMP. And there are others. I am using WAMP on a windows 7 PC.
Depending on your host, you may have other options. WP Engine has a "sandbox" which is pretty cool.One caution if you do the dev site on a subdomain, make sure to block the search engines from indexing it so no duplicate content problems for ranking. If it is just a page layout I am working on, I create a temporary page /test/ and noindex it and then delete it when I'm done.
Best of Luck!
August 18, 2014 at 12:33 am #119468KristaMemberI used to use MAMP (for Mac) and recently switched to Desktop Server. They have a sweet little feature to deploy your local site to your live site once it's finished. If you have trouble, and you are a premium member they will do it for you or teach you how. Very much worth it, and the customer service is wonderful!
You could alternatively, use Susan's suggestion for working on a live sub-domain.
Krista
August 18, 2014 at 5:28 am #119506SusanModeratorOne caution if you do the dev site on a subdomain, make sure to block the search engines from indexing it so no duplicate content problems for ranking. If it is just a page layout I am working on, I create a temporary page /test/ and noindex it and then delete it when I’m done.
Agreed - I just use dummy content. The sub-domain is primary for the theme customization, so content is not relevant here.
August 18, 2014 at 12:00 pm #119566MealtogMemberBelinda, moving WordPress from subdomain is easy once you have done it. No matter what tutorials you read, you may still run into snags.
Here is the most important question. Is this a new site? if so and no one needs to access it now, just install WordPress as if you were launching it, then install the Ultimate Coming Soon Page. This plugin makes it so only logged in users would be able to see and edit the site. You develop here on the live domain. Everyone sees a welcome page with your customized message.
August 18, 2014 at 6:45 pm #119644wickedsimpleMemberHere is the most important question. Is this a new site? if so and no one needs to access it now, just install WordPress as if you were launching it, then install the Ultimate Coming Soon Page. This plugin makes it so only logged in users would be able to see and edit the site. You develop here on the live domain. Everyone sees a welcome page with your customized message.
I literally just installed that on a site I'm currently working on. I use it on all my sites that are okay with not being "live" for a bit.
For all others, I do what the others suggested and I create it in a subdomain and then use BackupBuddy to save the site and upload it to the "real" domain.
August 19, 2014 at 7:33 am #119754BelindaParticipantThank you for all the responses.
Yes this is a new site. I've been working on it for about a month now and I'm about 98% ready to start letting people know it exists but it's definitely still a work in progress. I just have a little more tweaking to do initially but I know I'll continue evolving the site as I go.
I have setup a sub-domain which is password protected and I am in the process of copying all my current WP files from the main WP site to the new subdomain. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.
Still not sure of the best way to apply any layout or plugin changes from the sub-domain to the live site so I'll just have to play with some options till I find one that provides the easiest method.
August 19, 2014 at 8:34 am #119767BelindaParticipantI've just finished copying all the files and unfortunately nothing has moved over. The plugins are all there but not active. No content is there. I'm assuming i need to copy the database over as well for that to happen.
August 20, 2014 at 12:54 am #119952MealtogMemberBelinda, unfortunately, you are finding out what the real world scenarios are even though most designers and developers tell you it's easy, just develop on a subdomain. For the average person, it's never as easy as the advice makes it sound.
As for your database, if you are just moving from sub-domain to domain, then you may not need to adjust any database connections (wp-config) or move the database.
You may now need to go into the Wordrpess table (wp_options) inside the database and update the "siteurl" and "home" values to not include your subdomain.
And most importantly, most tutorials will also miss this part, you may need to adjust 2 lines in your htaccess file.
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>You will see how yours differ from these.
One last thing, depending on how you added images, crated links, installed and customized plugins, these may still have remnants of the subdomain URL in the database. You will have to manually update these inside the database.
These are general guidelines. Post back if you need more help.
So for future reference, I suggest installing on the actual domain if it's a new site, install the plug in I suggested then develop away.
August 25, 2014 at 6:53 am #120885AnitaKeymasterHi Belinda, I happened to see this. Your question was:
I’m wondering if I should be working on my live site when posting or making changes, or if i should be using an offline copy, testing first and then publish to live site?"
I am interpreting that as asking when you write a "post" for your own website. If so, then No, you don't need two websites - one to publish and test and then your LIVE website. If you were going to make changes to your site's appearance, testing out code, etc. - then Yes, keep a demo of your current site for design changes and customizing your site in an offline way until you like the changes. Then you can move them to your LIVE site.
But for everyday activities, such as adding/creating your blog posts, editing the content of a page, or using your widgets - you can do that right in the LIVE website.
Going forward - for Client work - you would create the demo and work in the demo and then move the changes to your clients' site.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
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