Moving to a development server

  • I am working on a website that is WordPress based, my first experience with a WordPress installed site (as opposed to a Blog I have on WordPress.com). I am a web developer and online marketer, so I understand much of the technical aspects and have been making good progress. But I have one BIG issue that I cannot seem to grasp and correct. I would greatly appreciate some insight on this, please if possible.

    First off, I am hosting a development or “Sandbox” version of the WordPress site on a GoDaddy Hosting Account (the Live website is also on GoDaddy and is currently on WP 3.0, the development or “Sandbox” website is also on GoDaddy Hosting and is currently on WP 3.4.2). I read up on how to move from one server to another and did so it in this manner:

    1) Exported MySQL Database from Live site.
    2) Imported MySQL Database (from Live site) into a MySQL Database on the Sandbox site.
    3) Downloaded (FTP) all files and directories from Live site.
    4) Uploaded (FTP) all files and directories (from Live site) onto the Sandbox site.

    This worked fine, all worked well and the site appeared to be fully duplicated. I need this Sandbox development site so that the changes I enact are not Live and we can tweak as needed before going Live with the changes. HOWEVER, some “static” Pages and the Post page caused me grief.

    What is happening is this (on several pages, but I’ll provide a couple of examples as it seems to be a similar problem in each instance):

    1) For starters the /Blog/ page would load a 404 page when clicked, but the Home page (static), /About/ page, /Contact/ page all worked fine. So I researched this and gained the understanding on how to set your Posts to have a specific Permalink. Thus to I made a Page with no content, then in Settings-Reading section I set the “Posts page” to the one I created.

    Well, I wanted to make it the EXACT same as on the Live site (so that when I transfer everything from the development Sandbox back to the Live site it will be as it was – though with all of the new changes that I have created).

    So I edited the “Blog” page that was originally set up (that was now leading to a 404 on the Sandbox site) and renamed it “Blog Original” and I edited the Permalink to also be /blog-original/ and Published this. After doing this I made a new Page and made it’s name “Blog” (as the original one was to begin with) and set it’s Permalink path to /blog/. THIS DID NOT WORK, I STILL GOT THE 404 PAGE.

    So, I changed the Permalink path on this new Blog Page to /julias-blogs/ – then I set the “Posts” page to this new page – finally I set the Appearance-Menus to load this page as the “Blog” page (not the original one). And voila IT SEEMED to work.

    However, then it dawned on me, this is not the same as the Live site and if someone has this bookmarked the Permalink path has changed (as now there is no /blog/ path as I changed this to /blog-original/ and the path to the new Blog Page is /julias-blog/).

    Ugh! What do I do? Why doesn’t the original Blog Page work (giving a 404)? And why can’t I name a new Page “Blog” and set it’s path to /blog/ and have it function as it should (and as it does on the Live site)?

    2) As another example, there is a /fitness/ page as well. However, when I click the link for this on the Sandbox site (which in this instance was linking directly to the document ID and not a Permalink – it literally was linked to /?page_id=52 rather than /fitness/) and yet it would also bring up a 404 page.

    However, if I changed the Permalink path to /fitness-now/ it works and loads the proper page (with the page_id=52). Yet, if I leave it as it was (and is on the Live site) with the path of /fitness/ it loads a 404 page. Baffling!

    Why doesn’t this work as it is on the Live site? Why is this forcing me to change the Permalink?

    3) WHAT I HAVE READ that seemed somewhat related:

    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/parent-category-page-is-404ing

    But, after checking the folders (directories) I do NOT have any with these names (no folder with the title “blog” and no folder with the title “fitness”).

    I also found this apparently related article:
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/ever-feel-like-youre-in-the-wrong-place-404-error

    However, my .htaccess only includes the bear minimum (per my understanding):

    AddHandler x-httpd-php5 .php

# 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>

# END WordPress

    So this doesn’t appear to be the problem.

    Can someone please help me? I am baffled as this seems to relate to the OS (Linux) or Web Server (Apache), but from what I am seeing this is an issue with WordPress.

    Please help.

    Best regards,

    CGC

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Thread Starter ccny1

    (@ccny1)

    Just realized that I should also explain that I have some Pages just like the /fitness/ page, and yet they work fine.

    For instance there is a Page titled “Early Childhood Development” and its Permalink path is /early-childhood-education/. As with the Fitness page, it is linked to by using the page ID (in this instance it is /?page_id=54). Same situation as with the Fitness Page, yet this one works fine on the Sandbox development server.

    Which makes me even more confused.

    Any ideas?

    Please provide your URL to the site also so I can see what they are running. Here are the steps to properly move the site to the sandbox, whether your using a sub domain or a new domain all together.

    ATTENTION: When you setup the “sandbox” you should ensure it is identical to the live site. This means all versions should be identical otherwise you could create your own issues.

    STEP #1

    login to PHP My Admin on live GoDaddy WordPress site. Once you login click on the name of your database on the left under the 5 icons, do not click on the “Information Schema” only on your actual DB name. After you click on your name then click on the export button above. Check the box on the lower left that says “save as file” and click go in the lower right. Then save the file to your desktop. Open this file with a plain text editor like notepad and then do a search for “YOURLIVESITE.COM” and replace all instances with “DEV.YOURSITE.COM” or whatever the new site url is. Do not include WWW or https:// in this change. Then save the file.

    STEP #2

    Create new database on the new server and login to PHP My Admin and import your newly changed and updated .SQL database file with the new url in it.

    STEP #3

    FTP a copy of the WP files to the new location

    STEP #4

    Visit the new Dev site and smile, the site will be running, if you have perma link issues do the following.

    change perma links to default and save and then change back to they way you had them and they will work again. If you still have issues with any images or menu links post here and I Will show you how to fix.

    Thread Starter ccny1

    (@ccny1)

    alvaw,

    Thank you!

    I had done this, but had not done the copy and replace on the SQL file. That made is a lot simpler.

    HOWEVER, I am still having the issues with these two Permalinks in particular: /blog/ and /fitness/.

    If I change the Permalinks to “Default” it works for both. When I put them to anything else (specifically the Post Name or the custom one that it currently is on the live site – /%category%/%postname%/) they do NOT work.

    VERY ODD to me, because the /fitness/ link is only found in the Footer (not on the Menu) and it specifically links to “page_id=52” (the URL listed in the A HREF is for page_id=52). It works when I have Permalinks set as Default (which uses the page ID), however it does not work when I set the Permalinks to the custom one we had OR just the Post Name. Yet it is the same URL.

    Making it more confusing, as I stated above in my 2nd post to this thread, I have other examples of the same thing (Pages just like this Fitness page) and yet they function in all instances.

    It seems to be just the /fitness/ and the /blog/ permalinks. Odd!

    Can you help?

    SUPER APPRECIATED!

    Colin

    Thread Starter ccny1

    (@ccny1)

    alvaw,

    Can I send you the URL somehow without it being public on here?

    I guess I could do a message through Twitter without Tweeting it, right?

    Colin

    you have to follow me on twitter or alva wat son at the gmail .com ?? and I can check it

    Also please ensure your php version is identical on these two machines and in the post above please remove “the” and that is the actual email the link would be helpful to fix this

    Thread Starter ccny1

    (@ccny1)

    alvaw,

    I just sent you an email and Tweeted.

    Thanks!

    ccny1 did you get that working, I think I wasnt communicating the issue to you properly but you can delete the version that is on your shared server at GoDaddy and then just simply move the existing one over via FTP and change settings as I listed. Let me know friend ??

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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