How to test a website locally?

  • Hi all,

    I have WP Version 3.5.1 running on Ubuntu 12.04 which is a VM of Oracle VirtualBox. https://localhost can find it working.

    I’m prepared testing a working website on it which is running on Godaddy Server but couldn’t figure out how to do it. The aforesaid website can be browsed on Internet with its URL

    Please advise.
    1) Where shall I copy following folders and files to which will be download on Godaddy server?

    index.php        wp-blog-header.php    wp-cron.php        wp-mail.php
license.txt      wp-comments-post.php  wp-includes        wp-settings.php
readme.html      wp-config.php         wp-links-opml.php  wp-signup.php
wp-activate.php  wp-config-sample.php  wp-load.php        wp-trackback.php
wp-admin         wp-content            wp-login.php       xmlrpc.php

    WordPress is installed on;
    /var/www/wordpress/
    ls /var/www/wordpress/

    index.php        wp-blog-header.php    wp-cron.php        wp-mail.php
license.txt      wp-comments-post.php  wp-includes        wp-settings.php
readme.html      wp-config.php         wp-links-opml.php  wp-signup.php
wp-activate.php  wp-config-sample.php  wp-load.php        wp-trackback.php
wp-admin         wp-content            wp-login.php       xmlrpc.php

    2)
    How to test the website? Evoking https://localhost ?

    3)
    What will be the easy way to upgrade WordPress to the latest version?

    Please advise. TIA

    Rgds
    satimis

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • Hi satimis
    Have you had a look at the moving_wordpress codex entry yet?
    there is also this topic which has a few other suggestions as well

    When you say you have it on “localhost” do you mean that it is on your local machine and inaccessible to the web or are you saying that you are working on a webserver and just need to allocate a new domain name (URL) to the site?

    Thread Starter satimis

    (@satimis)

    Hi Martin,

    I’m not going to move the website from Godaddy server to my server. What I’m going to test are;

    (1)
    Duplicate the website on Godaddy server to my local server

    2)
    After testing the duplicate website working, I’ll edit the domain setting on Godaddy server, which is registered and hosted there, pointing to the IP address of my local server. I’m subscribing static IP. But I can’t run my local server 24×7. I’ll re-set the mapping on Godaddy server so that the URL will point to my local server first. If not working it will automatically switched to Godaddy server.

    I haven’t read those documents recommended by you before. I’ll go through them later.

    I can’t resolve whether create a new folder, say website_name, on my local server under /var/www/wordpress/website_name and copy all folders and files from Godaddy server on it? If copy them on /var/www/wordpress all existing folders and files will be over-written.

    When you say you have it on “localhost” do you mean that it is on your local machine and inaccessible to the web …

    Yes the local server is connected to Internet but without proper setup. Now it can only be accessed on Intranet, local network.

    Edit:
    It is quite easy to copy the complete blog of the website on Godaddy with FileZilla to my local server.

    satimis

    Hi @satimis,

    Here are some suggestions: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Running_a_Development_Copy_of_WordPress

    Also: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Installing_WordPress_Locally_on_Your_Mac_With_MAMP

    Are you using a Mac, Windows, or Unix machine locally? The rest will depend on that.

    MAMP can make it easier to run a local copy, in that you won’t have to know a lot about how your web server works.

    You also don’t have to point the domain to your local machine – if you know how to edit your /etc/hosts/ file, you can trick your computer into thinking it’s running on the ‘whatever.com’ domain and test everything that way. You just have to make sure that you change back when you deploy the site back to GoDaddy.

    Let me know if this doesn’t make sense to you, I can help break it down into simpler pieces.

    Good luck with your development effort!

    Thread Starter satimis

    (@satimis)

    Hi ancawonka,

    Thanks for your advice.

    I’m running LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) server here. Neither I have the domains pointing to my server yet. Also I’m running virtualization here able to clone dozens of LAMP VMs for testing.

    I have old version WordPress 3.5.1 running on LAMP servers with OS – Ubuntu 12.04 and CentOS6 which I installed about half year ago for testing WordPress. But later I changed my mind testing WordPress locally and subscribed Godaddy testing it there. I have about 20 websites running on Godaddy server, all for testing without commercial value.

    Now I start installing WordPress 3.7.1 on Debian 7.2.0, all of them being up-to-date software. After finish I’ll start my testing on the cloned VMs. If failure I just delete the VM and start another test on a new VM. I have a powerful PC here running 8-core AMD CPU with 32G RAM onboard and 3T WD hard drive.

    What I haven’t resolved is whether creating a new folder for the website download on Godaddy or just copy the same on the VM allowing the WP folders and files to be overwritten?

    Anyway after finishing installation of WordPress 3.7.1 and cloning several VMs I’ll start my test, creating a new folder for the download website first.

    Rgds
    satimis

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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