2 websites in the Dashboard

  • I have an existing / live website in the Dashboard, and have recently imported a new theme to customize that will eventually replace it. I’ve downloaded Theme Test Drive, but instead of having 2 separate websites to work on, I now have a messy nest of files to sort through.

    What is the best & cleanest way to customize a theme “behind the scenes” and then replace the existing website, without interruption?

    Thank you in advance.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

  • Most people (including me) will have a development/staging site as well as the live site. It may seem like it’s a bit more “messy” as you’re managing two installations, but being able to get the theme up and running and ready without needing to worry about breaking your live site does make a big difference.

    Thread Starter JLuszcz

    (@jluszcz)

    Is there any way to do this via Dashboard?

    No. You’d have two sites, so that means two dashboards.

    Have a look at this:

    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Moving_WordPress

    That will give you a few good pointers on how to “move” a production site to a local site, and back.

    Thread Starter JLuszcz

    (@jluszcz)

    Thank you for the response. I’m not a programmer but I’m experienced with staging sites / FTP / Dreamweaver – just not for WordPress templates. I prefer the WordPress Dashboard for customizing templates for its straight-forwardness.

    I’ve had 1 WordPress template before where I was able to easily customize it and then publish it to go live. Now that I have a new template that I want to customize, my Dashboard is a nest of confusion.

    If I can customize my latest template in the Dashboard without conflicting with my existing/live site, I’ll be the happiest girl on the internet.

    My question really is, is there a way to set up a new & separate Dashboard using my same login with my same WordPress account so I can customize the new theme?

    Or do I need to create a whole new account with new email & login info? Thank you in advance.

    Um… I’m not sure what you mean by “my wordpress account”. Do you mean WordPress.COM – because that’s a hosted site that’s very different to a www.ads-software.com site that’s self-hosted and managed.

    If you are talking about a .com site, you should ask on their forums. The two are separate entities.

    Thread Starter JLuszcz

    (@jluszcz)

    So sorry for the confusion. I’m referring to the WordPress account I use to access the dashboard. MyURL/wordpress/wp-admin

    OK, then you’d have two separate dashboards. One for each site. You’d need to make sure that you keep the databases in sync as much as possibke, so if you add anything to the live site, you should add it to the staging site. That way you’ll keep everything the same in both for when you need to transfer it all back to the live sute.

    Thread Starter JLuszcz

    (@jluszcz)

    Thank you. How do you set up 2 separate dashboards? I’ve been searching for info on how to do that for over a week now.

    2 dashboards = 2 separate websites/installations. One would be your live site and the other would be your development area.

    Thread Starter JLuszcz

    (@jluszcz)

    Hi there – We’re talking about 2 different things. I understand that one is live and one is in development.

    How do you work on one site in the development phase in the Dashboard, while there is an existing and live website that already exists in the Dashboard? Or do you need to set up an entirely new WordPress account to work on the new website so your templates do not conflict?

    If this helps – I’m not a programmer, I’m using the Dashboard to customize.

    Thanks!

    Yes, you need to set up a completely separate site with it’s own dashboard. The two will be 100% separate.

    You can set this up a sa new domain (not really needed), a sub-domain like test.mysite.com, or a sub-folder like mysite.com/test/

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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