Whats the easiest way to take a website from server to localhost?

  • Hi there,

    I’ve been asked to update a website. Basically turning a 2015 festival website into the 2016 festival website.

    All the previous websites I’ve made have been from scratch so I’ve always under a coming soon page to cover the site while I make it, but this time, there’s already a site there and I just need to update it but can’t do it live.

    Whats the easiest way to ‘copy’ the website and edit to locally (using MAMP) then put it back up when it’s fully updated? Just so there’s no need for a ‘Coming Soon’ or ‘Under Construction” page to cover the site?

    Thanks!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • Hello Joe.

    The Codex has a good bit of info on moving WordPress around.

    To help sync the remote/local databases, you may use a plugin, WP Migrate DB, for example.

    Have fun!

    Take a look at the All-in-One WP Migration plug-in.

    You would want to make a fresh install of WordPress on MAMP, and then install the plug-in on both the live server and your fresh local install. Then you can use the plugin to export from the live site and import to the local site.

    You may need to copy files in the uploads directory manually via FTP.

    This is how I would do it.
    – Download ALL the files to your PC using filezilla.
    – Backup the present live database, download a copy to your PC.
    – On your PC create a database database user and password that are EXACTLY the same as the settings in your wp-config.php
    – Load the local database from the live site backup.
    – Configure your apache server using the “Virtual Host” technique and the exact same domain name as the live site, details here:
    https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/
    – Add your domain name to your hosts file, details here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_%28file%29

    Your website will now behave exactly like your live site, do your development.
    If you need to show anyone the new website under development, then use “teamviewer” to invite others to view the screens of your PC, you get to see what they do and how they work the site. I often run a voice chat in parallel.
    Once you are done, comment out the entries in your hosts file, upload the new files using filezilla, put the website into maintenance mode, upload modified files (if any), export the local database and import it on the server, exit maintenance mode.

    There are usually some differences running a website locally as against the hosted server, usually SMTP to send email is not available, website cannot update its own files (plugins and core) using FTP.

    Dion

    (@diondesigns)

    I recently updated my Windows-based localhost WordPress installation from 4.2 to 4.3.1. The ZIP file was downloaded from www.ads-software.com and was installed properly.

    Most of the Windows-based localhost server packages (XAMPP, WAMP, MAMP) do not have full support for the PHP cURL extension, and that is why the WordPress “direct” filesystem method is not available. However, if you instead use the proper PHP package from windows.php.net, you will find that the “direct” method is now supported since the cURL extension is available.

    you try to install every thing fresh for instance wordpress on MAMP, and then install the plug-in on both the live server and your fresh local install. Then you can use the plugin to export from the live site and import to the local site.

    You may need to copy files in the uploads directory manually via FTP.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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