Best practice

  • Hi,

    I’ve built 2 previous WordPress sites and they’re working fine. I love WordPress! But those 2 projects were done with a gap of months between. So although I have some experience it still doesn’t come second nature – it’s like having to start learning again each time. But this year, I’m committing a lot more time to it. But I have 2 important questions I need answering first:

    1. How difficult is it to add features such as image roll overs for navigation buttons (using the sliding doors technique rather than image swap), and to include a JQuery image gallery on specific pages?
    I’m about to start a new WP job. I want it to be something special and take WP to the limit.

    2. What is the best way to develop a WP site. The previous 2 I’ve done involved developing the site on my own hosting account and transferring it to my clients hosting account. Seems like a step that could be avoided.
    I looked at hosting the site with WordPress.com but you’re limited in many ways regarding customisation of themes.

    Thanks for your advice!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • My advice, FWIW, would be as follows:

    1. Use plugins wherever you can. There’s no point in reinventing the wheel
    2. I develop on the ‘live’ site, often with a ‘Maintenance Mode’ plugin activated. Why not? There’s no shame in the development process, and as well as ‘Maintenance Mode’ you can also configure WP from the Settings to ask bots not to index the site until you’re ready. If you’re replacing an existing site, I’ve found it easiest to install WP into a sub-directory of the site and then move the site afterwards: it being easier to move a site within the same server environment that between servers.

    HTH

    PAE

    Thread Starter jerseydudek

    (@jerseydudek)

    Thanks for your reply but can I just make sure I’m clear.

    So, I would go through the normal WP install procedure but just put everything in a directory called, say for example, development. And once the site is complete just move everything in to the root directory?

    The reason I ask is that I don’t want to risk writing over the current site until everything has been approved?

    Thanks again.

    That’s what I do. As long as your WP install is in a sub-directory you should have no problem. I never have.

    However you should, of course, take all sensible precautions like fully backing up your existing site before you do anything. Just in case you make a mistake.

    But WP installs are all completely self-contained in their installation directory.

    Cheers

    PAE

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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