Just cannot get my head around going from local host to a server

  • Hi

    I am totally overwhelmed by this. I am still an amateur at best but I’m trying to advertise my services as a designer to clients that want small websites built. I have finally managed to get MAMP installed and running properly so I can create sites. However, I’m really confused what to do now.

    Let’s say I have made a site and now I want to make it appear on the Internet. Let’s also assume I’m ready to choose a new domain and host together to achieve this. How on earth do I copy the files from my local computer to the chosen host so it appears online?
    I have searched for this answer all over the place. I’ve read through some guides and even watched a couple of YouTube videos about it but, my god, it ties me up in knots. There’s a lot of talk about SQL, myPHP, file paths etc. I just don’t understand it at all.

    Would some kind soul please hold my hand and show me how to get the files from A to B with no fuss? I’d be ever so appreciative.

    Thanks.

    – a noob

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

  • There are some plugins that make that pretty easy:

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/duplicator/

    or see:

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

    It IS somewhat technical – the easiest way to avoid it is to do the development on the server rather than on local host.

    How on earth do I copy the files from my local computer to the chosen host so it appears online?

    You’ll need a FTP program to upload the files to your host, I prefer FileZilla.

    Next Steps

    1. Export the database from your local WordPress install, using phpMyAdmin.

    2. Create a new database inside of your hosting account.

    3. Create a new user and password, and assign the user to the database.

    4. Login to phpMyAdmin at your host with the user and password from step 3.

    5. Import your database that you exported from step 1 into the new database.

    6. Find the wp_options table in the imported database, and click ‘Browse’. Look for the ‘site url’ and ‘home url’. You’ll want to update those fields to reflect the “new domain” that you are going to use.

    7. Update your wp-config.php file to reflect the new database details (database name, database username, database password, and hostname) that you created in steps 2 and 3. Your host should be able to provide the correct hostname.

    Which host are you using? If you search for a specific step, most likely your host will have a help page related to that step. For example, on this page, Bluehost shows you how to create a database and a database user.

    Thread Starter bluewomble88

    (@bluewomble88)

    Thank you so much for your replies. Just a couple of follow up questions seeing as I’m so new and a bit scared by all this. I’m using SiteGround as a host.

    You mentioned exporting the site using phpMyAdmin – how do I get to that using MAMP?

    Creating a new database inside host – I assume this is as simple as the one click installer I see before?

    Steps 6 and 7 that you mentioned really baffle me but I’ll try to search like you suggested.

    Many thanks.

    You mentioned exporting the site using phpMyAdmin – how do I get to that using MAMP?

    1. Start MAMP.
    2. Click ‘Open start page’.
    3. In the top menu you should see ‘Tools’, the first drop down is ‘phpMyAdmin’.

    If you didn’t change the port number you should be able to access the link directly by typing in https://localhost:8888/phpMyAdmin/ into your browser. But make sure that MAMP is running.

    Creating a new database inside host – I assume this is as simple as the one click installer I see before?

    It’s not exactly one click. The one click install is for a full install of WordPress (files and database). Since you’ve already developed the site in MAMP, you just need to move it, and it could get more complicated trying to migrate your data into an existing install. Here is a help article directly from SiteGround related to Steps 2 and 3 that I mentioned above.

    Steps 6 and 7 that you mentioned really baffle me but I’ll try to search like you suggested.

    Step 6. Once you upload your database into phpMyAdmin you’ll see all of the tables. Refer to this screenshot to find the wp_options table. After you click ‘Browse’ you’ll see the fields for ‘siteurl’ and ‘home’. You’ll want to update these fields with the url of your “new domain”.

    Step 7. The wp-config.php file is located the the root directory of your WordPress install. When you open the file you’ll see four places to add your database information that you created in Steps 2 and 3.

    Many thanks.

    For sure! Let me know if you have any other questions.

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